Field Trip to Vans HQ

To kick off our educational field trips for 2018, we visited the new headquarters for skateboarding shoe manufacturer Vans, located  in Costa Mesa, CA. The 182,000 sq ft building features 5 fully merchandised showrooms with upcoming collections, a retail mock store, a working library, gym, games & music room, meeting rooms, outdoor spaces, café, bbq area, and a private skatepark,.  The complex embraces the four pillars of the brand — Art, Music, Action Sports, and Street Culture and Fashion. There could have been nobody better than Steve Van Doren to give us a full tour of the facility. He started the tour by explaining how his father, Paul Van Doren, started the company, and then he took us to all the different departments in the building. He walked our students from first to third floor, from apparel to shoe design. Next Up participants had a sneak peak at the new shoes, which are supposed to be launched within 18 months! After the tour our students had the chance to skate Vans’ private skatepark! We would like to extend a huge thank you to Steve Van Doren for opening up Vans’ doors to Next Up and to Geoff Rowley, Johnny Layton, Omar Hassan, Christian Hosoi, and the global category skate manager – Juss Apivala – for meeting with us and explaining the process of designing a skate shoe. Our students loved this tour and hope to visit Vans again sometime in the future.