Dqm Drive-By: A Look At Vans In Nyc
We've been nibbling on the red skin of the Big Apple over the last week after enjoying Vans' Southern Cali hospitality for the . We went on an all-day sneaker shopping quest a few days back and took plenty of snaps, so look out for our definitive guide to copping kicks in NYC next week! In the mean time we're pulling a special excerpt out to show off what the ol' Van Doren Rubber Company is getting up to on the East Coast. We dropped by both DQM, the seminal New York sneaker store that helped put the side-stripe back on the Gotham City streets in recent times, and its Vans-specialised off-shoot, the Vans DQM General (which now has a too).
The OG is a tidy little boutique with a stack of brands on show, but the show-piece is definitely the Vans gear. We were digging the choice selection of Vault by Vans heat in particular, with some super dope prints on the Classic and Era silhouettes on display, along with the usual gamut of go-to shred sneaks like the Sk8-Hi in just about any colour you're after. There's also plenty of HUF gear and DQM house brand wear, plus a stack of decks behind the counter to put your personal touch on.
But if that selection ain't enough, Vans' true home ground is a couple of kick pushes away at the . The place is part-museum, part-shop, part-hangout and is downright debonair – kinda surprising for a skate shop. The soft lighting makes everything look beautiful, including our drooping eyelids, and the shoe selection pulls from all Granny Vans' nooks and crannies, with a special place for Taka Hayashi's latest inventions and a stack of Vans apparel that we must admit we didn't know existed. There were some colourful and quirky cartoon print button-ups we copped and paired up with some chinos and palm leaf print Vault Eras. We done good!
If you want to follow in our sneak steps, then kick off at DQM on East 3rd Street, just off Bowery, then slide onto Broadway and take the easy cruise downhill to Grand Street off Mercer and pull into the General. Enjoy!