How WP Store brought California to Italy with a pair of Vans Authentic

The history of fashion is marked by ideas that are only apparently impromptu but that are actually deeply innovative, out of the ordinary, helping to change and disrupt what is commonly defined as normal. From the opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean, in California and in Italy, two unique realities were born less than twenty years apart, and reunite today, once again brought together by the desire to imagine the future, starting from an inimitable heritage, strengthened by a vision able of anticipating trends and aesthetics. The new Vans sneaker, in fact, the legendary Authentic silhouette, part of the Anaheim Factory Collection capsule, will be available in Italy at WP Stores, the first retailer to bring Vans to Italy in the Eighties.

The Van Doren brothers opened the first store of the Van Doren Rubber Company, soon renamed Vans, in 1966 in Anaheim, California. One of the original sneakers sold in that location in Anaheim was the Vans #44 Authentic, the brand's first iconic kick, which already at the time featured the equally legendary Waffle Sole. From 1966 to today the silhouette has remained basically unchanged, reinterpreted in hundreds of colours and materials, but never distorted, proving how timeless its design was, which returns today in a new edition.

When, in 1982, Giuseppe and Cristina Calori decided to found a one-of-a-kind store, with a selection of brands that no one else could boast, especially in Italy, inspiration was immediately sought overseas, and Vans became one of the first brands sold at WP Lavori in Corso, exclusively for the Italian market. The criteria with which WP buyers selected the perfect brands for the group's first store, finely furnished to resemble a typical post-war American general store and opened in 1985 in Bologna, were simple, yet game-changing: garments and items from every part of the world, brands with a story to tell, labels founded on shared values, and driven by innovative design. Vans, at the time still the best symbol of that Californian skate aesthetic, an aspirational dream for entire generations, became one of the first brands available at WP, that decreed its immediate success. WP thus began to build a composite yet coherent imaginary, rich in different inspirations and ideas, capable of shaping aesthetics and creating culture, something that didn't exist in Italy before. Over time, WP has remained that bulwark of style, ready to capture international trends and obsessions, bringing together trends and research in a selection that is unparalleled and distributed today among the 8 stores of the group.

With the latest Vans collection, once again available at WP, there's a kind of full-circle moment. The Anaheim Factory Collection pays homage to the silhouettes that have written the history of the brand and that make up the huge Vans archive, reinterpreting them in new materials and introducing new details, with special attention to the comfort and fit of each sneaker. This season the capsule, therefore, sees the iconic Vans Authentic as the protagonist, revived in a series of colours ranging from green to blue through orange and beige. Historical yet revisited silhouettes, in the midsole, always white but higher, and decorated with drawings and details that seem hand painted, hearts, rainbows, ski slopes, surfing waves, which with irony and affectation add to the sneaker a carefree touch, and vaguely sixties mood.