“My dad was a systems guy,” Steve Van Doren told the Los Angeles Times in 2009. “He did things like color-coding the boxes, blue for men, green for women and orange for boys, so you could see what inventory you had right away. He would only open stores that had a free right-hand exterior wall because he thought that was the best place to catch someone’s eye if they were driving by.”
Van Doren also allowed people to order customized shoes. He expanded the customer base by allowing various designs to be sold everywhere from surf shops to department stores.
At first, they struggled to produce enough of the product to fill the shoeboxes on store shelves. Van Doren had two decades of experience in shoe manufacturing, but none in retail, he recalled. “The first person gave me a $5 bill; a pair of shoes was $2.49, he told
Los Angeles Magazine last month after releasing his memoir, “But I didn’t have any money in the cash register, so I gave her the shoes,” Van Doren said. “We ended up selling 16 or 18 pair(s) of shoes that day. You know what? I said, ‘Come back later to pay. Every one of those people came back and paid.
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Vans co-founder Paul Van Doren dies at 90
Paul Van Doren, co-founder of the Vans company whose iconic Southern California sneakers were beloved by skateboarders and became an international success, has died
By ROBERT JABLON Associated Press
May 8, 2021, 12:57 AM
• 4 min read
The Associated Press
This undated photo provided by Vans shows one of the co-founding brothers Paul Van Doren shown with one of his quotations that was posted online announcing his passing away on Friday, May 7, 2021. Doren, who co-founded the Vans company that created sneaker brand that shod the feet of skateboarders around the world and grew into a global powerhouse offering sports apparel and sponsoring sports teams and rock festivals, has died. (Vans via AP)
Vans co-founder Paul Van Doren dies at 90
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LOS ANGELES – Paul Van Doren, co-founder of the Vans company whose iconic Southern California sneakers were beloved by skateboarders and became an international success, has died. He was 90.
The company, based southeast of Los Angeles in Costa Mesa, announced Van Doren’s death on social media Friday but didn’t provide any details.
“Paul was not just an entrepreneur; he was an innovator,” the company said. “Paul’s bold experiments in product design, distribution and marketing, along with his knack for numbers and efficiency turned a family shoe business into a globally recognized brand.”