Vans Launching New Premium Label at Paris Men’s Fashion Week – WWD

Vault by Vans no more, say hello to OTW by Vans.

The VF Corp.-owned global surf, skate and streetwear player is launching the new premium label during Paris Men’s Fashion Week with a skateable installation on the Seine and a star-studded party to generate buzz for its first collaboration under the new label, with Los Angeles multimedia artist Sterling Ruby.

Vans OTW is the brainchild of Ian Ginoza, who joined the Costa Mesa, California-based company last year to direct the creative strategy for its elevated product. He arrived with 15 years experience in the collaboration space at Adidas, Nike and Converse, and as the cofounder of Kicks/HI in Honolulu and Saint Alfred in Chicago.

“We’re launching a new platform where we’re going to house our most pinnacle product expressions and brand experiences. This is also where the brand will intersect with innovators in the culture of skate, style, design and entertainment,” he told WWD exclusively.

Helping Vans venture beyond the surf/skate market, Vault launched in 2003, and over the years has had numerous collaborators, from luxury brands to streetwear designers and artists, including Gucci, Brain Dead, Fear of God, Fergadelic and Frida Kahlo.

“With Vault, the original mission was really a celebration of classic art, classic heritage and craft and this is more about a shift in thinking rooted in the mindset and attitude of skateboarding, exploration, taking risks and in innate curiosity,” said Ginoza. “We want to really push the boundaries of product expression and brand experiences.”

That will include producing new silhouettes of sneakers, he said, and fewer but better collaborations. The first will be dropping in early 2024 with Ruby.

“Being a former pro-skater, he has a deep connection with Vans, and he wore a lot of Vans when he was in his skating years,” Ginoza said. “Over the last six to eight months of having a dialogue with him, he truly loves the brand.”

“I bought my first pair of Vans at age 11, about 40 years ago now. In many ways, this pair of shoes became my indoctrination into skate and punk music culture, which wound up being a lifeline for me,” Ruby said. “Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, Vans represented how I envisioned West Coast freedom, something I later chased. I have been in Los Angeles for the past 20 years and so many things drove me to the West — Vans was that first pull.”

Ruby has been creating clothing alongside his artwork for more than a decade. He worked in the fashion space with Raf Simons at Calvin Klein in 2014, and presented his own art-to-wear collections at Pitti Uomo and in Paris from 2019 to 2021.

But he has a different kind of affinity for Vans. “The company started in 1966 and has run in tandem to so many skaters, bands and movements that have been influential to me, my art and how my studio runs as a whole,” the artist said.

Vault by Vans will conclude by the end of 2023, making way for OTW by Vans in early 2024 with its own e-commerce and select fashion wholesale partners globally.

Men’s, women’s and unisex apparel and footwear will be presented in two distinct lines under OTW by Vans: OTW, a designated space for collaborators, and Premium Standard, an elevated collection of classics.

The price point will be higher than the main line but not luxury. OTW is not chasing after Nike Dior.

Ginoza hired Dylan Petrenka, formerly Nike’s senior footwear designer for men’s sport style innovation, as OTW’s footwear design director, and women’s streetwear trailblazer Lanie Alabanza-Barcena, founder of HlzBlz, as OTW’s apparel and accessories director.

“I’m fans, they’re experts in what they do and they come with a pedigree and an acumen that’s much needed for what we’re trying to achieve,” he said. “We look to influence the brand as a whole.”

On the collaboration side, he’s not interested in five new drops every week.

“This space has become quite homogenous and quite convoluted. We just want to be more considered….As far as what other brands do, I don’t really pay too much attention to it. I just want to do what’s right for Vans and OTW and it’s really about working with the right people, which leads us to working with fewer. We want to make sure we’re building a collective that is kindred to one another.”

Going forward, most Vans collaborations will happen through the OTW platform, aside from a few licensing deals and other partnerships in the main line.

Touching down at Paris Fashion Week was a natural for visibility. “Paris has a rich history and community in skateboarding, and skateboarding has a natural connection and influence in the style and fashion conversation,” he said.

The skateable installation at Pont Alexandre III, open Thursday through Saturday, has been designed by Playlab, the L.A. creative firm that has worked with Virgil Abloh, Bruno Mars and more.

Shoes hand-customized by Ruby’s S.I.R. Studios will be shared with friends of the brand to wear at PFW events, including public skating sessions.

The pressure is on for Vans to deliver a turnaround for its parent company, which on Tuesday named former Logitech and Procter & Gamble executive Bracken Darrell chief executive officer.

VF Corp. limped out of the fourth quarter with a net loss of $214.9 million with Vans seeing revenues slide 14 percent to $857 million.

“Vans like a lot of brands has gone through peaks and valleys but the one thing that Vans has that our competitors don’t is we were born from skateboarding,” Ginoza said. “In many ways, OTW is a reorientation back to who we truly are, Off the Wall, and I think that will be our uniqueness and point of difference amongst the competitive landscape.”

Starting in Paris, where the team shot the OTW campaign images, including one featuring a glimpse of a classic Old Skool 36 sneaker with a new OTW build and expression.

“There’s a deep and rich skateboard history in Paris and a massive community. Whenever I am there for business, I take my team or even go by myself to Republique and watch the youth get down,” Ginoza said. “It’s such an iconic historical city and seeing how skateboarders interact with that environment, it’s quite beautiful.”