Paul Van Doren

Paul Van Doren dropped out of high school at age sixteen to race horses before going to work sweeping floors at the Randy's shoe factory in Boston, rising through the ranks to executive vice president. Recognizing that traditional manufacturers lost margins to middlemen, he moved to Southern California to build a factory that would manufacture vulcanized canvas shoes and sell them directly to the public on the premises.

On March 16, 1966, the Van Doren Rubber Company opened in Anaheim. In the 1970s, Southern California skateboarders like Tony Alva and Stacy Peralta adopted Vans shoes because the waffle-patterned gum rubber soles gripped skateboards perfectly. Van Doren embraced the youth culture, creating custom shoes, the iconic slip-on checkerboard pattern featured in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and sponsoring action sports across five continents.