Vans turned Oxford Street store into a giant skate ramp

With Vans West End, the Californian brand returns to celebrate the world of skateboarding, music, and art, revolutionizing the concept of retail. Thanks to the collaboration with the Milanese architecture studio Andrea Caputo, Vans has transformed the Oxford Street store into an experience that goes beyond commerciality: it is a tribute to the brand's community. At the center of the store now stands a skate ramp made of Roman travertine, covering an impressive 200 square meters, stretching across the entire store and created in collaboration with renowned skaters like Martini Cattaneo and Helena Long. Built from a single block of locally polished stone, the ramp embodies the DNA of House of Vans: being modular, it allows the store to offer the brand's community skate lessons, live demos, and artistic events in collaboration with some of London's renowned artists and beyond. The store's updated interior design places wood at the center of the scene, a direct reference to the texture of classic skate ramps, blending aesthetics and functionality.

In addition to collaborating with the Andrea Caputo studio and skaters Cattaneo and Long, the project will involve other partners, including The Great Frog, a British punk jewelry brand, Gomi, a company that creates electronic devices using recycled materials, and Lovenskate, a brand that produces decks and posters signed by artists such as Chloe Bernard, French Sayer, Jon Horner, and Isabel White. To celebrate the launch of the new store concept, Vans and London-based creative Jack Charlie Mitchell have created an exclusive zine titled Feel, featuring works from the city's art scene. Inside the store, Mitchell's curated selection of books and music will also be available. The California skate brand’s plans for the Oxford Street location don't stop here: for the first time in Europe, Vans is offering the OTW collection in one of its stores, along with exclusive capsules and limited-edition restocks of the brand’s most popular collaborations, including those with BAPE and Undercover. For the Holidays, Vans continues to celebrate its community of skaters, artists, and creatives, this time in the heart of the city that has made youth subcultures a winning characteristic.