A name not as common among resellers is having a moment.
That name would be Vans’ Old Skool Souvenir shoe in the warm brown colorway for the unfamiliar. It retailed for $125 but is now being resold for hundreds of dollars more.
The style first launched July 31 on the company’s website and a handful of Vans stores, selling out quickly. It trickled into select third-party retailers on Aug. 8 but sold out just as fast as the first batch. A burgundy version of the colorway is expected in September.
The reason for the excitement over the pricey kicks is its design cues.
Vans drew inspiration from Chanel’s On the Pavements messenger bag, which was released in 2014.
The canvas bag has leather accents and frayed tweed. It bears references to activism with camellia flowers, peace signs, “Vote Coco” and “Make Fashion Not War” scrawled in what looks like marker throughout the bag’s exterior.
Chanel’s bag retailed for $3,400 on its release date. What Goes Around Comes Around is currently reselling it for $14,500.
While Vans’ souvenir shoe isn’t fetching that sort of pricing, its markup is just as eyebrow raising for the Costa Mesa footwear maker.
The shoe was last resold through StockX on Saturday for $323, which is about 158 percent over retail. It’s also averaging $463, according to StockX data, and sold for as high as $869, also on Saturday.
Sneaker sites are already hyping up the September release of the burgundy color, so there’s no telling what the price could bring for the shoe once resellers undoubtedly get their hands on it.
The Business of Vans
While Bracken Darrell, president and CEO of Vans parent VF Corp., didn’t say Vans is going luxury, it is carving out a business that’s focused on “premium” pricing.
Darrell said as much late last month in VF’s most recent earnings update, where some of his remarks focused on the significance of trends starting on the runway before trickling into the rest of the marketplace.
It’s unclear just how much the premium segment, called Pinnacle, is generating in revenue for Vans. However, it’s clearly being leaned on as one mode of pushing the company out of its multi-year slump.
Darrell told analysts Vans has re-worked its supply chain in an effort to produce new styles at a faster clip.
“There are already positive signals in the Pinnacle side of the business,” Darrell said. “We had a 50 percent increase in appointment bookings at Paris Fashion Week in June, including new accounts and accounts who have de-listed Vans in recent years coming back.”
Booking shouldn’t be conflated with order taking, but it is an indication of interest level in the shoe company.
Vans revenue in VF’s fiscal first quarter ended June 28 slipped 15 percent, excluding the impact of exchange rates, to $498 million.
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