Manufacturing mold used by Vans, Inc. to make their famous "Waffle" pattern sole for the original skate shoe
date: label: date made
content: 1968
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Manufacturing mold used by Vans, Inc. to make their famous "Waffle" pattern sole for the original skate shoe. The pattern of flattened metal spikes throughout creates the "waffle" pattern the Van Doren family created as the first skate shoe. Paul and Jim Van Doren, along with partners Gordon Lee and Serge Delia opened the Van Doren Rubber Company in 1966, manufacturing shoes and selling them directly to the public. Vans uses a vulcanized shoe making process where the rubber outsoles are heated and stretched onto the “lasted upper” of the shoe before the rubber is completely cured. The entire shoe is then heated to over 300 degrees. This process creates a ‘sticky’ sole popular with skaters for ensuring a good contact surface with their board. Using pro skaters to design their shoes, producing pro skater models and creating the trademark “sidestripe” recognizable around the world, Vans became the shoe of choice for a generation of skaters and grew into an international enterprise in just 50 years.
topic: label: name of sport
content: skateboarding
label: web subject
content: Manufacturing
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Sport and Leisure
label: See more items in
content: Sports & Leisure
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2016.0351.01
label: accession number
content: 2016.0351
label: catalog number
content: 2016.0351.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: manufacturing mold
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal, iron (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: silicone (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 19 1/2 in x 13 1/4 in x 2 1/4 in; 49.53 cm x 33.655 cm x 5.715 cm