Vans Old Skool 'Mix & Match'
Colorway: Cadmium Yellow/Tidepool · Style code: VN0A4BV5TGN · Price: $36 · 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)
Two colours that would rarely be put together carry this pair. Cadmium Yellow is a hot, slightly orange yellow; Tidepool is a deep blue-green with a lot of grey in it, and the shoe divides its panels between them rather than blending or fading from one to the other. The leather sidestripe lands where the two meet across the midfoot, which turns a piece of trim into the dividing line of the design.
It sold at $60, the general-release price for the model in that range. Construction is untouched: a padded ankle collar, a reinforced toe, metal eyelets and a vulcanised rubber sole with the waffle tread underneath. Mixed-panel versions of this silhouette work because the seams are already there; the shoe was cut into a toe, a quarter, an eyestay and a heel decades ago, so recolouring those pieces separately needs no change to the pattern, only to the material sheet.