The shoe brand we know and love as Vans actually started as the Van Doren Rubber Company, in Anaheim California. Van Doren Rubber specialized in making canvas deck shoes with grippy rubber soles. The name Vans was coined when people would say “Let’s head over to Van’s and grab shoes”, Vans took the nickname and ran with it. The first Vans shoes to come out had numbers, not names. The first Vans shoe was the #44, which is called the Authentic today. Next came the #95 (what we currently know as the Era) and the #36 (currently called The Slip On). Although Vans weren’t originally designed with skateboarding in mind, skateboarders quickly adopted them. Being in Southern California while skateboarding was growing in popularity, they were in the right place at the right time.