Vans Old Skool 'All Over Checkerboard'
Colorway: Black/True White · Style code: VN0A4BV5V8U · Price: $2682 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Vans Old Skool 'Corduroy - Primary' (VN0A4BV500Y) · Vans Old Skool J.Crew Corduroy Sneakers (VN0A4BV501J) · Vans Old Skool 'What The Buffalo - Multi-Color' (VN0A4BV503I) · Zhao x Vans Old Skool 'Year of the Rat' (VN0A4BV506G) · Vans Old Skool 'Mix & Match - Grape Juice Bright Marigold' (VN0A4BV516V)
Most checkerboard make-ups in this family confine the pattern to the quarter panel and leave the overlays plain. This one does the opposite: the check runs over the toe, the eyestay, the quarter and the heel, so the shoe is pattern first and silhouette second. The leather sidestripe stays solid and becomes the only uninterrupted line on the upper, which is what keeps the whole thing from reading as a single vibrating square.
At $70 it carried a small premium over the plainer versions of the same period, which is typical for an all-over print. Underneath sits the same skate-shoe hardware the model has used for decades: a padded ankle collar, a reinforced toe area, metal eyelets, and a vulcanised rubber sole with the waffle tread. Black and white check is the one graphic in the brand's catalogue that never leaves the range, so an all-over version reads as a maximal take on something already familiar rather than as a seasonal experiment.