Noah x Vans
For our Fall / Winter ’21 Vans collaboration we took a trip to visit the backyard ramp scene. While certainly diminished with the rise of street skating and skate parks around the country over the last two decades, it has never left and still endures as an important part of skateboarding culture and history.
Keeping that in mind we wanted to look a bit closer at the Caballero, one of the first pro-model shoes to exist back when ramps were still predominant in the scene throughout the late 1980’s. With a higher cut for support - mimicking basketball shoes of the time - alongside heavy padding built to withstand hours of abuse, the Caballero was just as much form as it was function.
That function would evolve more with the rise of street skating in the early 90’s, as skateboarders were beginning to cut down the bulky heel collar and cover it with duct tape. This adaptation, allowing for more ease of movement, would ultimately give rise to the popular mid-cut Half Cab - still worn to this day by skateboarders all over the world.
The original Caballero we’ve reissued this season was left behind in some ways, and when taking another look at it we saw a lasting potential that could easily exist within both spheres of the skateboarding world. With minor updates to the materials and some simplification to the padding amount around the heel collar, our version keeps changes subtle, ensuring the original design and functionality remain intact.
The Van Doren Rubber Company introduced their first deck shoe, originally called Style 44, in the late 1960's. Now known as the Vans Authentic, the shoe attracted skateboarders all over Southern California for its tough construction and sticky gum sole. We've taken a very simplistic approach with our version of Style 44 by removing all seams from the front toe cap and using one piece of suede for the entire makeup of the exterior. This season we brought these back in three updated color ways: Black, Cashew, and Spruce.
