THE HISTORY OF VANS

THE VAN DOREN RUBBER COMPANY :: Pt2

Paul had been making shoes for most of his life and the most he ever saw the company make was a dime a pair and they were making hundreds of thousands of shoes.
The retailer was the one who was making all the cash. His dream was to have his own factory and his own retail stores. He was a great business person, his brother Jim was an amazing engineer and their friend Gordon was an excellent manufacturing man. They formed the Van Doren Rubber Company with Serge D’Elia, an Belgian friend Paul made in Japan, who had been supplying shoe uppers from Japan to the USA.

The company was formed with Paul and Serge owning 40% each and Jim and Gordon owning 10% each. It took a year to set up the factory at 704 East Broadway in Anaheim. It was built from scratch using old machinery the bought from all over the USA. It took a lot of machinery and was a lot harder to do then, compared was with todays modern processes. Since 1900 there had only been 3 companies that had manufactured vulcanized footwear in the US, Randy’s, Keds and Converse.

And now there was Vans...