Founded by Paul Van Doren in 1966, the oldest skateboard shoe company in existence began life as The Van Doren Rubber Company. Growing up in Boston, Van Doren left school early and joined his mother working in a shoe manufacturing company, quickly working his way up from the factory floor to Executive Vice President. With the help of his brother Jim Van Doren and good friend Gordon Lee, Paul turned around the failing branch of Randy's shoe manufactures based in California and inspired by this success took on the task of creating an entirely new shoe brand. After partnering with his brother Jim, Gordon, investor Serge D'Elia and after a year of hard work - on March 16th 1966 the Van Doren Rubber Company was born. The company consisted of a manufacturing plant and a four hundred square foot retail shop. For one of the most renowned shoe companies in the world, to call the beginning humble is an understatement as on the shop opening day only three pairs of shoe models where available for display purposes and the shelves were stocked with empty boxes. Despite this, customers were not deterred and would place orders to collect later on. A key part of Vans early success was Van Doren favouring of selling products directly to the public rather carried in other retailers. This allowed their customers to have more say in the colours and style of their desired shoe and was a key part of the companyâ€TMs early success; by 1967, The Van Doren Rubber Company company were opening a new shop nearly every week. In the early 1970's the surf scene of Southern California gave rise to a new culture - skateboarding. Serendipity struck when Vans changed their diamond patterned sole to their now iconic, patented Waffle Sole which proved to be perfect for skateboarding and still does to this day! The almost instant adoption of Vans by skateboarders coupled with requests of new colours and patterns led the development of the Era with input from Tony Alva and Stacey Peralta. Building
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