Vans Era Retro Sport 'Gilbraltar Sea'
Colorway: Gilbraltar Sea/Cameo Blue · Style code: VN0A4BV4VY1 · Release date: September 4, 2020 · Price: $2832 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: MoMA x Vans Era 'Abstract Art' (VN0A4BV400H) · Vans Era 'Corduroy' (VN0A4BV400Y) · Vans Era 'Patchwork - Leopard Snake' (VN0A4BV401R) · Vans Era 'Buffalo Mix' (VN0A4BV403J) · Zhao x Vans Era 'Year of the Rat' (VN0A4BV406G)
The Era exists because two skaters asked for it. Tony Alva and Stacy Peralta approached Vans in the mid-1970s wanting a shoe built for skateboarding rather than adapted to it, and the result arrived in 1976 as Style 95: a low canvas upper with a padded collar, a reinforced heel and the waffle outsole the company was already making. It was also the first Vans to carry the Off The Wall heel tab. Nearly everything the skate footwear industry did afterwards started from that template. Retro Sport is a materials exercise rather than a redesign; pattern, sole and construction stay exactly where they are while the upper is executed in a different fabric palette. Gibraltar Sea is a deep, slightly greyed blue, and on a shoe this plain the change in material is the entire proposition.