I can’t remember how old I was when I heard The Pack’s “Vans” for the first time, but I’m sure I’ve been rapping the hook back to myself ever since. “I got my Vans on but they look like sneakers.” To a Bay Area native, Vans carries the ethos that brought everyone together from all over California, from Anaheim, the founding city of Vans, to Berkeley, the birthplace of Vans' unofficial anthem.
Taking place in Los Angeles this past weekend, the Vans Global Summit was a two day celebration of the iconic footwear brand’s commitment to creativity, self-expression, stylistic evolution, and cultural trailblazers. The first evening began at the Great White Cafe in West Hollywood. People shuffled in from all over, most commonly London and New York, and everyone’s feet carried the same wave stitched onto their Old Skool Vans. As I watched from afar, listening to an electric guitar’s smooth twang, I knew that even if everyone didn’t know each other’s names, the fifty or so friendly faces all had an unspoken connection.
It wasn’t until later that night that I learned that the guitarist at Great White was the heavily influential Vans skater, Ray Barbee. He casually played throughout the evening without saying a single word. The San Jose skater has his own signature shoe with Vans, he's been featured in both Skate 2 and Skate 3, and just like how he brought freestyle tricks to the street, Barbee's étude defined everyone’s first encounter.
As Barbee packed up his amps and pedals, attendees shuffled into shuttles to the Kohn Gallery in Hollywood. On the brief ride east, we mingled about music and culture – with almost all conversation pointing towards the trailblazers of today. Unconsciously, we were already discussing Vans. We talked about Little Simz, who recently remixed Vans’ signature slip-on, and various music festival lineups, like this year's Coachella where Vans admirers HiTech and Circle Jerks are set to perform.
At Kohn Gallery we were greeted with a two-door BMW marked by a white Vans sticker on the back passenger seat window. The trunk was opened and two people leaned against it while the subwoofers pushed huffs of basslines. The promenade reminded me of hometown tailgates where at least two of us were always sporting the classic black Old Skools, playing the same music: “Slime Belief” by YoungBoy Never Broke Again and “Mo Reala” by Zaytoven and Future.
Vans Archivist Catherine Acosta invited us to tour the exhibition, debuting the Premium Old Skool Music Collection. The wall adjacent to the entrance was draped with prints and colors representing different eras of the Old Skool sneaker. We took in the display of the new ‘70s-’80s Punk Capsule (dropping Feb. 6), the ‘90s-2000s Warped Tour-Inspired Capsule (Mar. 6), and the 2010s Hip Hop Capsule (Apr. 10).
The gallery featured a halfpipe with a boombox and classic punk cassettes, right next to a graffitied wall tacked with vintage show posters for local punk shows. Thrashed pieces of paper advertised gigs from the Germs, Circle Jerk, Malicious Intent, Big Boys, and Suicidal Tendencies.
On the other side of the main room was a circa-2010s replica bedroom. A bulky white monitor displayed the Windows 98 animation, but from the desk to the walls, the room was plastered with ‘00s-‘10s hip-hop ephemera. A poster of Ray Barbee sat above the foot of the bed, a copy of Madvillainy was on the desk, and Donuts poked out of the record collection. Two CD decks and an impressive CD collection sat on the side. You could barely see the white walls through the collage of pop culture: Pharrell Williams with Gwen Stefani, Kobe Bryant’s gold-lined jersey, Ice Cube in Boyz N The Hood, the Game, Forest Whittaker in Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai, and skaters flying in the heavens, meters removed from the safety of solid ground.
A miniature Warped Tour display was nearby, showcasing the cement of the DIY festivals that embodied Y2K spirit. Past the corridor, these figurines were transformed into their human counterparts on a wall lined with vintage camera roll scans from the early 2000s. On the postcard-sized prints you could see the chaos of skate-punk — from emo to pop-punk to full-on punk rock — with a biker flying through the air, legs to the sky, and hordes of bodies dancing and thrashing and singing with unmistakable exhilaration.
The title “Noise From The Archive” defined the room as we walked past a glass case featuring decades of Vans relics. You could see the design work of the Style 36 (aka the Old Skool), early advertisements, and collaborations that speak to the Old Skool Vans’ impact. The Germs, Descendents, Denzel Curry, Golf Wang, A Tribe Called Quest, Travis Barker, and Little Simz have all had their own Old Skool; the array of colors shined through the glass.
The next room introduced the future of Vans, honoring the iconic Checkerboard, two tones, and flame prints that defined the Y2K era, the vibrant colors on gum soles that outlined 2010s underground hip-hop, and the bold leopard print that became integral to hardcore and early punk in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
The Vans Global Summit was guided by this Off The Wall mindset. HiTech, the Detroit ghettotech rap trio whose music is featured Vans' latest campaign, tells me to think of it as a “paradigm shift.”“[Off The Wall] means a little more out of the box and less comfort,” a way of thinking that combats tradition. HiTech sees a “future for the people of dance,” and quite literally, they realized a collaboration with Vans “would tailor us for what we’re about to do in the future.” The last display in the exhibition highlighted just that, with Vans’ Premium Old Skool. Just as HiTech transforms a decades-old Detroit tradition into a fusion with hip-hop, Vans is elevating the Old Skool for a new generation of musicians including the Paranoyds, Voice Of Baceprot, and Little Simz.
The Summit’s festivities continued with a panel discussion featuring Bela Salazar of the Linda Lindas, Jahil Nzinga of the Pack, Travis Barker of Blink-182, and Henry Rollins. Salazar reflected on how Vans allowed her to feel less self-conscious in male-dominated spaces. Barker credited the Old Skools for giving him an identity while growing up in Fontana. Rollins recalled how the sneaker became a symbol of anti-establishment in the formative punk scene.
Music is laced within the Vans Old Skool sneaker, and after dancing in them to a DJ Set from SKY JETTA, the next day we participated in a customization workshop with Nicole McLaughlin that emphasized the brand's role as a source of artistic expression. Some tattered their shoes with an X-ACTO knife, others bejeweled theirs with charms, and the most daring forwent laces for multicolored spirals.
To reiterate how, with a human touch, no two Vans are alike, Los Angeles artist Chito showed us how to make a pair of shoes our own. With a metallic grey marker, he graffitied the table with the words “BAD IDEA,” highlighting the spirit of individualism that gives each pair of Vans life. We watched the artist create, lightly whiffing the paint’s aroma, listening as industrial music reverberated through the nearby speaker.
The live art installation illustrated the dynamics in Vans’s creative relationships: here was a space for you to channel your craft, now run wild. Beatrice Domond, a Vans Skate Runner since May 2018 and the first Black woman to receive her own Vans custom shoe (the Mary Jane DS), explained, “I think they just saw my personal style.” A self-described “skate rat,” Domond said that Vans watched her grow as a skater and an artist until they eventually approached her and asked, “What do you think about doing something here with OTW?” Vans were some of her first shoes, and it was fulfilling for her to be creative with them.
The 2025 Vans Global Summit capped off with performances by Paris Texas and Horsegirl, and DJ sets from Black Noi$e and Henry Rollins. After spending two days exploring the history and legacy of the Old Skool Vans, we all came together to celebrate the new Premium Old Skool Music Collection by witnessing the next generation of trendsetters, paying tribute to the Off The Wall ethos. Black Noi$e warmed the crowd up with drum n bass edits and hip hop remixes, Henry Rollins played a mix of the punk artists that he listened to when he moved to LA, Horsegirl previewed their new album Phonetics On And On, and Paris Texas ended the Summit as any Vans event should end, with full-on moshpit.
