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Vans Old Skool: the stripe began as a doodle

The most famous side stripe in sneaker history isn’t a design but a doodle. Vans founder Paul Van Doren drew it as a casual scribble, called it the jazz line, and gave it to pattern maker George Greenwood, who shaped it into the form you now see on every pair. The shoe appeared in 1977, and not under the name you know: it was called **Style 36**. That immediately explains why you see the number 36 so often in the titles on this page, especially for the reissues from the Anaheim Factory and Vault lines.

It was also the first Vans model with leather reinforcement. Look at the toe and the sides: where the Authentic and the Era are entirely canvas, the Old Skool uses suede exactly where a skater wears the shoe through. The stripe itself is a separately set-in panel with a double stitch line around it, and the waffle outsole continues into the raised rubber rim at the bottom.

The selection here is large and the titles explain it. ComfyCush has a softer footbed, Skate is reinforced for the board, Anaheim Factory and Vault OG follow the old construction with thicker materials, LX and Premium use richer leathers, and V versions have Velcro instead of laces. The shape remains the same in all cases.

Within the Vans family the Old Skool is the link where everything comes together. The SK8-Hi is the same shoe with a high collar, the Slip-On leaves out the laces, and the Era added the padded collar that the Old Skool also carries. Five models, one development line, and this is the part where the stripe was added.

On this page you can see which versions of the Vans Old Skool are hottest now according to the Hypescore, from which price they can be found and in how many shops they are in stock.