Vans: The Sidestripe

Iconography is a real life thing that people study and write thesis(es?) on and y’know what? I’ll be real surprised if one day, the Vans sidestripe isn’t being projected onto the wall of a University lecture hall along with the golden arches, the apple and the swoosh. It’s so deeply entrenched in surf and skate culture that when some online style editor is compiling a ‘top 20 styles of the 20-tweens’ listicle in 2024 (depressingly, and realistically, it could 37-year-old me), a pair of Vans will be right at number one. Same goes for the key styles of every generation before this one since the 70s, too.

Anyhow, here’s a not-very-chill-but-in-a-good-way expanded offering of the Sk8-Hi line to celebrate a style that was introduced in 1978. The heritage-heavy silhouette comes in a flurry of not only new aesthetics, but also new feels, like waxed canvas, abrasion-resistant XTuff and suede editions. There’s a little something for everyone in this range, and we highly, highly recommend you take a little history lesson over in this particular section of the Internet.