Yes, it’s that time of year again to celebrate our unofficial Vans holiday, created by us, for us! Show off your love for all things Vans. There’s no formula to this shit, just share your pairs, and use the campaign hashtag #31daysofvans. Let’s see how much the Vans Family has grown from last year. Thanks to Kyle for producing some sick banner graphics for the cause!
When we first caught a sneak peek at the next set of Blends Vans to come our way, we were all stoked to see them use a new shoe for their iconic Bones catalog, with the Epoch or Style 73 as it was originally called. This silo has a very unique flying V logo that is exclusive to this shoe, and we’re sure Blends didn’t want to take away from that. Adding their unmistakable signature Bones styling to that flying V was the right move. Some might say “more bones???”, but we say “MORE BONES!!!”. We absolutely love these, and will be looking to double up if possible.
The shoe features hairy suede throughout, except for the marshmallow premium leather accents by way of the bones and the heel mustache. These feature marshmallow colored vulc soles, in the new Vault Originals shape, complete with glossy foxing tape, shrunken waffle grip, and that sexy, curvy sidewall! There’s minimal Blends branding on the heelpad, and the shoe comes with two pairs of laces, one being waxed marshmallow, and the other black standard. The Blends all-black drawer box and dustbag are also back for this release. We’ve taken a grip of photos, including a few in the alternate lace option. I could seriously go with either and be completely satisfied.
We’ve all been waiting for Blends to give us a release date, and I can confidently say these will be releasing in two weeks, on Saturday Feb. 29th, at all chapter stores as well as online. You’ve heard it here first!
more pics after the jump Read More
Inspired by an iconic movie that plays a big part of our Vans culture, we wanted to pay homage to this movie, and upcoming sneaker release, by bringing you this awesome graphic tee, designed by our bro, UTP OG Kyle “rocketgoof” Sliney, aka @iamrocketkyle, aka Pop Rocket Creations. I’ve had this idea for awhile, and I couldn’t go to anyone else but Kyle, for this retro design. He absolutely nailed it.
We will be printing up a limited run of these in either Black or White, but you know you can’t pick just one, so order both! Printed on the same Shaka Retro 6.5 oz soft tee that we used for our last design, which we got nothing but great feedback on, so we’ll continue to use it. Glad y’all liked our decision to go with those! (Also, the t-shirt mockup pics are simulated, but the graphic will be 13″ wide on back, and 4″ wide on front)
Pre-order pricing in effect for 2 weeks only, and will end on Friday 2/28 so don’t sleep. Oh, and of course we will have a special themed sticker-pak for all of you who pre-order.
CLICK ON PIC ABOVE OR BELOW TO ORDER!
USE DISCOUNT CODE “PICKUP” FOR FREE LOCAL PICK-UP OR DELIVERY IF I KNOW YOU!
more pics after the jump Read More
Thank you so much to my very talented brother @LazyWORK for this totally awesome artwork, to help promote our GoFundMe campaign, in partnership with @ofthesamevein, and @thelab_bp, to raise funds with the @heroforkidsfoundation to get some Vans for the homeless youth of Orange County. Sometimes, all it takes is a new pair of shoes to boost someone’s self esteem, and that’s one of our goals with this campaign. Charity doesn’t always have to be so serious and practical, (although shoes are very practical to these kids, especially the ones I saw skating during their recess, today!), but it can be unique, and done in our own way, which is just what we’re good at. Today it’s shoes, but in the future, we’ll work on some fun new ways to help the Hero For Kids foundation. School functions; Funding field trips; Pizza parties; Clothing drives; etc. Our GoFundMe campaign has reached the $1k mark, and we still need more, so please make any donation that you can. We’ll be sending out a THANK YOU card of this artwork as well, and don’t worry, the same goes for everyone who’s already donated. We’ll just need you to email us your info!
Attention!! Calling on everyone in our Vans community and beyond! I’ve got an important mission that I’m hoping you all can get behind me on. I wanted to do something special for a special group of kids down in the OC, with a few of my friends from Waves of Grace, @ofthesamevein and @thelab_bp. These kids’ situation sucks, to put it lightly. If you have HBO, please search for the documentary “Homeless: The Motel Kids of Orange County”. The doc is about 10 yrs old, but the school still exists and supports new kids each year through their charity Hero For Kids. Let’s get together and show these kids that we fully support them and just show how amazing our Vans community is!
This past Thursday we co-hosted our first of hopefully many meet and greets, to celebrate Vans culture in a way unlike any other culture out there. Some sneaker brands organize their communities around an outdoor activity, a basketball tournament, a sneaker convention of sorts, etc. Something that represents their demographic and their style. Well, it’s kind of hard to put a finger on what exactly our Vans sneaker community is, and perhaps that’s the best part about it. Like the campaign slogan a few years back, “Not Just One Thing”, so as are we. When Julz, Nobu, and I first started talking about an idea of doing an event, we had no direction, and nothing to build off of, and it sorta’ got put on the back burner a few times. Well, as Vans started rolling out the WAFFLEHEADS campaign, and my name started popping up, that started to provide us with some inspiration. The Blends CM crew decided we should host an event for me, showcasing some of my collection, similar to how some of my pairs are currently on display in Chicago and in NYC at two of Vans’ flagship stores, but we’d try to add another layer to it, by also hosting a social gathering, to bring out our local WAFFLEHEADS family. Perfect! Now the work starts.
So now that we had a “waffleheads” theme to run with, we started thinking of all the possibilities for an event. I’ve been working on a new Antidot sneaker refresher fragrance with the SolScience guys, and it was based around a maple syrup scent, geared for fresh waffles, aka Vans, so I wanted to make sure we could somehow work them into the mix, which turned out great. We then thought how cool it would be to get the Vans waffle maker machine for our event, which we’ve only seen at a handful of them. We knew it was a shot in the dark, and we’d most likely get shot down, but we just had to ask. Our PR homie Michelle C. handed us off to the Vans marketing team, and boy did we get hooked up. We not only got Vans to come make us about 100 or so waffles, they also hooked us up with chain-stitch artist Ben Goetting, to personalize the chore coats that were being sold during the event, which then turned into people getting to customize their free Vans tote bags that were being given out. I apologize for having Ben stay til closing, due to the long line and high demand for his art services! We also had free beer from Bootleggers, who recently opened a tap room about 50 yards away from Blends CM, and what’s better than free beer?!
The most important thing about the event wasn’t the rare sneakers on display. Nope. It was our people. It was a reunion of sorts. Some guys I haven’t seen for a few years now, since the last time the #blendsboiz camped out for sneakers! Some were new friends that just started to discover our community, and some just happened to be sneaker enthusiasts who happened to stop by while on vacation from Canada, who were stoked to see something like this going on! That’s just so cool to me. Our plan of having the event on a Thursday night, to attract friends and fam from Vans HQ worked out quite nicely too, as I met a few folks who I never met before. My family came out in droves as well, and I thank each and every one of you. Seriously, most of the pics you’re going to see are of the people. That’s what makes this shit cool for me. If I can get people to come out, by way of this Vans vehicle, then I’ll ride it til’ the wheels fall off! Stay tuned for more fun and innovative ways to incorporate more and more people to join in on our fun and youthful culture.
Please enjoy all of the pics after the jump, who mostly came from my homie Eason, Nate, and my bro Ron.
What are you doing thisThursday? You’re hanging out with me at @blendscm for our first of hopefully many #WAFFLEHEADS meet and greets! We need to get back to what we’re all about, and that’s community and making friends. Everyone’s invited, even dogs if they can read this! (No seriously, bring out your awesome and friendly dogs). If you’re a fellow Wafflehead, then represent and introduce yourself! We’ll have some cool stuff going on, like free chainstitch customization for anyone who purchases a Vans Chore Coat; Free giveaways; event-exclusives; AND THE VANS TEAM WILL BE ON SITE SERVING UP THEM WAFFLES ON A STICK FOR US! Don’t miss out!
I know, I know. It’s been years since we’ve had a proper t-shirt of our own, right? The last tees with any official Under The Palms branding or logos were the ones we had done with Hot Rod, and damn that was like 2 years and some change, I think? Well, enough about that, and hopefully this will be a great start. So without further a do, check it out…
Billy Bulldog’s debut is finally available on a tee! Featuring a headshot of Billy with our beloved crossbones on the back, with a vintage UTP chest hit on the front. The “black on black” colorway is low-key, yet full of attitude. All pre-orders will come with a collectible UTP sticker-pak, while supplies last.
Pre-order will run for ONE WEEK and end on 8/28/19 midnight PST, then it will be closed for-ev-errr. Only new colors will be printed in the future, so if you love black/black graphics like we do, then don’t sleep! This may be a collector’s item one day. Once the pre-order is closed, we will submit our order, which typically involves a 2-3 week turnaround time, so please be patient! Actual streetwear brands do this shit without telling you, and then just end up pissing off a bunch of folks, so thanks for understanding and for crowd-funding this project! Hopefully it leads to more cool tees! -Guamstyles
(printed on premium 6.5 oz Shaka Retro Heavyweight 100% combed ring-spun USA cotton blanks, some of the “softest without being thin” tees out there on the market! Trust me, I ordered a blank for myself to test out, and they’re all I’ll be going with now, when I do black or white tees, even if they cost twice the price of your typical Gildan/ALStyle blank!)
CLICK HERE OR ON THE PIC TO GO TO THE UTP WEBSHOP FOR PRE-ORDER
more pics after the jump
This past Friday, I had the pleasure of being invited to the opening of BLACK RAINBOWS, a 10-day immersive experience in Venice Beach, put on by Vans, that transports visitors back to 1976 to celebrate the energetic time period and place that Vans’ first skateboarding shoe, the Era, was born.
If you want to share my experience and over 50 pics from this amazing event, read on after the jump (sort of a long read!) Read More
It’s July, and what does that mean? It’s time for everyone’s favorite unofficial Vans month, where we annoy the shit out of everybody, by posting (at least) 1 pair of Vans pics on your favorite social media platform of choice, and hashtagging #31daysofvans. Why? Because you’re down with us! Our community grows every year, and this is a great way to take pride in that. It’s all about the people, and not about us. We just foster it and help it grow. Just for the record, this is something the Vans community started back in 2015. Any similar campaigns just have no style or creativity, so step off! It was created by @hansoloman, one of our guys, and we’ll always try to make sure he gets that credit, no matter how large and world-wide it becomes. We also have to give credit to the homie Kyle (@iamrocketkyle / @poprocketcreations), for creating the dope graphic we see here before us. Looking forward to next year’s already! This is something he started last year, but I see it continuing FOR-EV-ERRR. Thanks!
…also, we’ll be linking up with @hr_la on another #v31 contest this year, so be sure to tag #v31 and #getyourvansathotrod if you want to participate in it. There’s giftcards to be won from Hot Rod, for a few lucky winners!
Currently on a little hiatus, but normally you can drop in for the live Twitch stream, or you can get caught up later on, by viewing us on our Youtube channel. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.
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