QUOTE (woodybmx86 @ Jun 23 2012, 11:27 PM)
Ive met Steve a few tiimes. yeah, with you on taht CW. I couldnt help but think that as he was talking about how hard they worked to open the first factory. and there were more shots of motocross, snowboarding and for petes sake surfing!! than any bmx... only one shot of a guy doing a 360, and you didnt even see a quarter of the rotation. No racing at all.
Yep! And I used to hit my LBS all the time when I was a kid for my custom Vans. We started a trend around here when our non-BMX friends started asking where we were getting these funky shoes and then started buying them too. So, BMX was definitely a part of their success.
But the thing that gets to me is seeing Steve getting nostalgic as he walks through this old shell where they used to make their shoes and then hearing about how Vans has always been about being individualistic, keeping it real, and not selling out. And then seeing those old home movie clips of the people making the shoes we wore and realizing that Vans is owned by an investment group now and those shoes are all made in China. How exactly are they not selling out?
Man, if New Balance made BMX shoes I'd buy the first pair. They have a history way longer than Vans and are still able to manufacture 25% of them in the US (
for as long as that lasts). To me that's what keeping it real is.
