Vans Syndicate x W)Taps 008

Syndicate is proving to be Vans’ finest invention since the core classics, in my opinion. Hooking up with skate icons and upcoming designers and applying top spec materials and finishes to the classic Vans silhouettes has seen the range go from strength to strength in recent years. I wasn’t hooked until the Japanese label W)Taps‘ first collab in 2006 (the authentics from the 003 Syndicate range in particular). Since then, the association with Tet and crew has built Syndicate’s reputation among hypebeasts and heads alike.

This year however, the W)Taps x Syndicate collaboration blew my mind, and even though it’s been out for ages I wanted to write about it here, now I’ve started a blog for such things.

Where previously collaborators have picked a Vans shoe and added their own artistic interpretations, by way of graphics or new material applications, this year Vans invited W)Taps to create three brand new models – the Rudeez, the Greaserz and the Bash.

What I love about the collection is the unique and ambitious concept behind it. It’s clear to me that W)Taps’ inspiration for this collection is the United States of America. W)Taps have picked three of the most culturally influential moments in 20th century American history and created shoes for Vans that epitomise those moments. The Vans brand is as unquestionably American as the SoCal location which gave birth to the company, and both are inseperable in the public consciousness as the founders, the origins, of skate culture. Vans = USA. W)Taps have registered this association as their inspiration, and taken it to the max.

In chronological order, then. The Rudeez are based on the two-tone brogues or wing-tip shoes associated with mobsters in the prohibition era – calling to mind films like Some Like It Hot and Bugsy Malone.

The Greaserz are inspired by Chuck Taylor-style baseball / basketball shoes popular in the 1950s, and are indelibly associated with the birth of the American teenager and rock’n'roll. Again, these were made culturally significant in American visual culture, in this case by James Dean and of course Grease.

Finally, the Bash, (an abbreviation for BAsketball SHoe), take their shape from the Air Jordan III and the late 1980s/early 1990s heyday of African-American crossover influence on mainstream American sport and culture, epitomised perhaps by Spike Lee and Michael Jordan.

I’m from Britain and I can see how these shoes could only have been dreamed up by someone who was not American. Prohibition and mobsterism in the 1920s, the birth of the American teen in the 1950s and the mass appeal of African-American culture which came to dominate the mainstream MTV generation in the 1990s are three key moments in the history of America and its material culture. We in the other countries of the world love to hate America’s cultural imperialism most of the time, but we remain fond of many of its legacies.

What’s amazing about the collection though is not just that the concept behind the collection is so ambitious and so well-conceived, but how W)Taps have managed to fuse Vans’ own history to each shoe in different ways.

Firstly, let’s look at the Greaserz and the Bash. Both feature the slogan RISE ABOVE embossed or embroidered on the shoe. RISE ABOVE is a W)Taps slogan, but it’s worth remembering where it comes from – the Black Flag song of the same name. East or west coast, the shoe of choice in the ’80s punk/hardcore scene in the US was Vans, normally the sk8-hi or old skool. You can glimpse Henry Rollins in sk8-his in this video of Black Flag performing Rise Above, though the best picture of him in Vans is here.The photography of Edward Colver also documents Vans’ omnipresence in the Californian punk scene.

The Greaserz also feature an extra touch which brings them full circle back to Japan. This is my moment of wankery so please bear with me. The rubber toe cap features an unusual curlicue design which I think is reminiscent of the waves on Hokusai’s Great Wave of Kanagawa.

Hokusai’s work is as stereotypically Japanese as the baseball shoe, the two-tone brogue and the Jordan III are stereotypically American. I love how by adding this detail, W)Taps has united the country of inspiration with the place where these cultural monoliths were reinvented. The RISE ABOVE emboss acknowledges Vans’ skate punk legacy which brought both together.

Also taking inspiration from Vans’ dominance in the punk music scene, embossed on the toe of the Rudeez is the motto “Ruder Than You”.

Ruder Than You is the name of an amazing song from the early 1980s by all-girl ska band The Bodysnatchers, and has been a staple of my DJ set for over 5 years. Listen to it here.

It was released on 2 Tone records of Coventry, England as the b-side to the Bodysnatchers’ biggest hit People Do Rocksteady. While I don’t believe Vans ever adorned the feet of 2 Tone artists during their heydey, 2 Tone/ska and Vans share a common motif by which both can be immediately recognised – black and white checkerboard. The Rudeez’ heel tab is a tiny checkerboard patch, another playful allusion to the variety of inspirations behind this design. The association between two-tone brogues and 2 Tone ska is a charming and obtuse reference to yet another subculture to which Vans has allied itself.

W)Taps has set the bar high, both in concept and in execution, for future Vans Syndicate collaborations and I look forward to seeing who is going to step up to the mark.