Here's a few Vans and versions for anyone interested.

1966-70's had a rear white rubber label that read Van Doren. http://www.vans.com/history/hs_main.html

Scot Breithaupt SE Factory Vans..Early 1980's, made in USA...In the late 90's Vans went to overseas (China) production. Note the toe area is more bullet shape/tapered on the USA verions with a glued in vinyl heel insert stamped"Vans" and white rear rubber label and red lettering that reads Vans "Off The Wall" (not shown in pics).







Early 90's -1996 last year of USA made Vans, no vinyl heel insert, has a Vans USA printed logo inside, has a rear white rubber label on the outside with black Vans lettering.





Late 1990's-currently made overseas Vans (China)...has a Vans printed logo inside and made in China on the inside..has a red rubber logo on the rear with white Vans lettering "Off The Wall".



Darrin.
http://www.darrinstout.com
http://www.darlabelle.com

Late 90's-Currently made overseas Vans (China Versions)

Vans History Info.
Ron House and Myself were the fist full Factory Sponsored BMX riders for vans. We did both racing and freestyle. Note: I was asked to ride for them on my 16th B-Day. I was teaching Ron how to do some tricks so he would be able to ride in thier trick shows and they asked me to be on the team as well.

Nice! Vans rock!

I have a set of navy blue identical to those last pics and they are only about three years old. Completely trashed with very little abuse and not even that much wear. The soles are still like new but the rest of the shoes are whipped. The ones I wore when I was a kid lasted for a long time with "much" abuse. Maybe it's the difference between weighing 100 lbs and 200 lbs though.......

The Vans "old skools" (with the stripe on the side) are getting hard to find. Everyone lists them but then you try to check out and the only have a few sizes like 6.5 and 13.5!

Gary
What happend to Ron House? We used to race against each other.
Justin

[ June 23, 2006, 05:30 PM: Message edited by: dunphy1 ]

Here's a few pics of some Vans I've had over the years..always liked the red,white and blue ones, they always matched the Robinson gear well.





2005 Vintage Race Orange Show Bmx..SoCal..new Vans stickin' like glue.

1st Vans Store opened in Anaheim, Ca.

Although I am proudly employed by Etnies , I will always have a place in my heart for Vans Style 95s. The first pair of Vans I had were ordered for me by my Grandmother Towne in 1978 and they took almost two months to arrive. They were the style 37 mid tops. They wore out faster than it took to receive them from Vans, but they were awesome.

Gary, Scott, Justin.. Any pic's of those Vans in action...I remember that Vans Team pic with everyone wearing Vera's Leathers..I thought that was a cool uniform with matching shoes, real SoCal Mariachi vibe the way the stripes wrapped around the back and sides of the pants...

Nitrotwang, I noticed all the Starlit pictures. Who are you and when did you race there?

Good eye on that one...raced on the East Coast ABA-NBL alot '79-'83.. VA#11...Starlit Bmx track was operated by Robby Miles dad, around 1980-83 in Fairfax VA... .. raced some on the Mid and West Coast in '81-'82... raced in Texas area 1984-85. ..In 1985 I got a car, got a girlfriend, sold the bike......now i'm almost thinking of doing it the other way, sell car, sell girlfriend.. get bike.
Darrin.

Justin

I would like to know how Ron is doing to. I got an email from Eddie Fiola saying he saw him a few months ago but he didn't say anything about him.

Note about Vans.
They claimed if you sent them material, what ever it was, they would make shoes out of it for you. My friend in Junior High (1978/79) sent Vans some empty Coors Beer cans to see what they would do. About 2 months later he received Shoes made from the cans.

I think these pics were the first day Starlit Bmx opened..the pic reads March 1980..first straightaway table top jump was a classic... I was 13, the Redline Proline I had was nearly too big for me, pro size top tube and bars.....note Rich Hutchins in the top pick with his mail order/ bike shop trailer opened up for biz, that guy was moving some equipment that day...all his riders rode Robinsons with Hutch MX Jerseys at the time. Darrin.


[ June 23, 2006, 07:20 PM: Message edited by: nitrotwang ]

[ June 23, 2006, 07:19 PM: Message edited by: nitrotwang ]

Darrin, I'm still not sure who you are yet. That 1st pic you posted with the guy on the Robinson & the guy on the Redline, I thought the Redline guy was me at 1st. Same helmet, but I had a Haro plate & Redline jersey. I lived in Vienna, knew Robbie & Kristine Mylls. Rode & hung out with them, the Gunnesevers, Ritchie McCulloch, Mike Meckenberg, etc. Local spots were the Walker's trails & the Bowl off the bike path.

A photo I took in the mid to late 1980's ,when I started to get more into using a 35mm camera. I was trying to casually see how much cool stuff I could fit into one picture




JB

Yeah that was a 1978 Redline I had before the #21 ..#374 and #11 plates on a Robinson......there's a few pic's of me, Dennis Gunnesever (with a #57 JMC and later a GT jersey #46) and Robby Miles #1 on his Schwinn Sting...another guy in there is #69 Sean Manning (MCS)..any others you can remember in that 14X class...

Justin Shepard (CW) is in the black and white indoor pic with us racing in Jersey City, N.J..Robby Miles didn't transfer but was cookin that weekend, Chris Williams (Torker) got first..I finished second and the third went to Mark Lopez (MCS)..If I remember right.
Darrin Stout.

I think I can remember you now. The one on the #11 bike looks like it was taken at the Bowl. Where was the pic with the school taken? That looks familiar too.

I am wondering if I bought my Proline off you. My first Redline was a 78/79 I believe. Bought it used with grass cutting money from a classified ad in the Washington Post. I started racing soon after I got it. So much for a Vans thread... lol!

Awesome pics!

Darrin (or any of the other Starlit crew) hit me up on messenger & we will relive old times. Yahoo is vabmxdad, AOL is vabmxdad22556.

You can order your old school vans here.

http://shop.vans.com/webapp/wcs/stores/ser...ns&mainNavCat=1 &mainNavSubCat=1&mainNavDept=1111

I heard Robby Miles lives in Santa Cruz now and races Mtn Bikes.....In the early 80's I stayed over at his house a few times in Fairfax..I lived in Alexandria about 30 minutes away..His dad would drive us if the races were out of state. I don't know if you remember but Schwinn gave his sister "Kristine" a '79 chrome Sting bike that she usually raced on....One time we were at the house and she wasn't around so Robby pulled it out and set up a plywood jump in the front yard....after 30 minutes of taking turns on it the Sting wheels were flattened out like pancakes...She got real ****ed at Robby when she got home, looked like Wild World of Wrestling.
Darrin

I remember Kristine's chrome Sting. I bought a black Sting frame off Robbie when I cracked my Proline. $35 is what I think I paid for it. It got stolen 2 weeks later at Starlit. I think I bought my Proline from a guy in Alexandria...lol. Robbie is out in CA somewhere. Kristine is somewhere in Nashville. Scott Loveless saw their parents recently. Speaking of Kristine....

http://kristinemylls.com/main.html

WOW!!!

[ June 24, 2006, 07:47 PM: Message edited by: VAbmxdad ]

Kristine's not wearing any Van's.......?????

Van's bitd (early 1980's) were the most prized piece of BMX footware to own here in Australia.
When people grew out of them they would be given to a younger brothers or sold to someone for really good money at the race track. They were a really rugged long wearing shoe back then , it's a shame that they are now made in China & have such a very low life expectancy.

My brother Matt still has a pair of my old ones , red black & white checkered slip ons I think. That were bought back from a trip to the US in 1984 , we literally cleaned out the Van's store of all their shelf stock & they stayed open for another 1hr or so past closing time taking more orders for shoes to send back to Australia to us , we spent well over $400 on shoes that afternoon , so they weren't complaining about working late.
The store owner & employee's there were fascinated by our accents & couldn't get enough of it. Like so many other Americans we met over there on our holiday/shopping spree adventure in 1984 , they too complimented us on how well we spoke English & asked what language we spoke in Australia.........<heh>
America was a _really_ fun place back in 1984.

JB

the first pair i got were only 14 dollars ,,,in red and blue,,,,,,,1977 ,,,,got 3 pair for my b/day this year,,,,,,they were a bit more,,,,,,,,the best pair i ever had were my dg yellow and blue with logo. great company and the have been doing biss. for 40 plus years,

Killa shots..
Damn!! Wish I had kept my Pac-man Vans!!

i want a pair with the checkers on the sole,i have been looking for a pair of those for years now.....

My favorites were the blue with white palm trees.

One of my favorites were the red & blue style #95 lace ups. I just went ahead and tried to custom build something similar, here is what I came up with:



My wife thinks I am retard but man oh man I LOVE EM...

[ June 26, 2006, 03:20 PM: Message edited by: PaulyMN ]