Slide 1

Vans: Skating on air

IntroductionVans is best known for selling footwear and apparel to skateboarders, surfers, and other alternative sports athletes. In April 2002, Gary Schoenfeld, the CEO, is facing a number of challenges. With respect to footwear, he must decide what to do about two product lines that are struggling--the outdoor line of hiking shoes and the women's collection. More broadly, Vans is currently embarking on a number of new ventures, some of with which the company has little experience. For example, Vans is in the process of promoting a full-length movie, creating its own record label, and working with video-game developers to develop games based on its sporting events. Traces the up-and-down history of a niche fashion brand in a market in which consumers are notoriously fickle. In recent years, the CEO appears to have revived the brand; however, it is unclear whether the company is in danger of losing its hardcore customer base as it ventures into the consumer mainstream.

Early days: rise-fall-rise1966-Paul Van doren launched Vans with his brother and two partnersBuilt like battleship(twice thicker than normal rubber soled shoe was produced , priced@ $2.49 to $4.99)Planned through own retail stores-unconventional methodMade to order customized shoes were made for surfers because of its own manufacturing.Vans was a favorite of hard to fit customers who required non standard width and lengths.By end of 1960 the canvas , easy to wash shoes had developed a good name. In 1970 for California based skateboarding rebel group Z-boys, Vans quickly became the sneaker of choice.In 1975,z-boys dominated the first national skate competition and t-shirt and shoes were sponsored by VANS and it increased VANs popularity.

Early :days-rise-fall-riseIn 1970 for California based skateboarding rebel group Z-boys, Vans quickly became the sneaker of choice.In 1975,z-boys dominated the first national skate competition and t-shirt and shoes were sponsored by VANS and it increased VANs popularity.With Z boys skateboarding became popular and it became industry of $ 400million.At the same time VANS sales also had risen rapidly. By decade end skateboarding market started decline because skateboarding was replaced by other sports .By end of 1980 skateboarding was almost died and company was turned over to Vans brother James.But James van responded by broadening product mix in an effort to grab share from Nike and Reebok.Soon VAN was producing shoes for basketball, football ,soccer , wrestling , boxing and even umpiring.But the move backfired due to High cost of manufacturing ,strong competition from main brands which lead to bankruptcy in 1984.Paul Van Doren returned to revitalize the company.Paul Van managed to get the company out of debt ,pay back all the debt and then sell the company in 1988 to a private equity firm.

How the turnaround took placeIn 1995 ,Gary schoenfeld took over at Vans , assumed the mantle of CEOFirst move was to effectively eliminating the manufacturing units due to high cost.Gary worked on Vans strong connection to this new generation of sports, the kids who played them and their lifestyle.Vans customer base included both hardcore enthusiast as well as occasional athletes.The average Vans customer was a white, skateboarding male aged between 12 to 18 yrs.His interests are hip hop music, videogames ,skateboarding and other sports.The companys key challenge was maintaining a relationship with these young customers.Gary encouraged internal marketing of the productHe spent lots of time with atheletes ,young staff members which lead to the development of a number of carefully selected ,alternative sporting events and related forms of entertainment.Redifined the Goal-It was to create a proprietary brandingh platform that would build on our unique heritage and gives us a long term possition.

TurnaroundThe promotional mixTriple crown series-competition consisted of three different events (street skating, bowl riding and vertical ramp riding)Van warped tour- organizing skateboarding with hip hop musicVans skate parks-opening of skate parks and making them popularEndorsement of athletesThe channel mixIndependent specialty skate storesMall abased specialty storesBetter department storesSporting goods storesModerate department storesFamily shoe storesThe product mixSignature collectionPro series collectionSkate performance collectionSkate casual collection

Future planVans had always been organized into three business units:retail,wholesale and international . But Gary was now considering reorganizing the company along six business lines:Mens footwearWomens footwearKids footwearApparelEntertainment(Triple crown series, warped tour , Dog town movies)Hard goods(wheels , helmets ,pads , other paraphernalia)

ConclusionVans has expanded in a number of directions and the company is still looking for the specific position and place in the market when Schoenfeld led to the company. The company started expanding its network into number of directions and other locations that has been the important association for the company. This also increases the number of sports affiliation and is also known well with the help of promotion that increased the form of concentration of the industry in the field of athletics. This was also important for new opportunities with respect to the involvement of particular youths in different types of sports so as it was important in different trends. Therefore, the cost of promotion also started increasing that created the diversified products within different market place for different nature. The athletics industry is large itself and the industry is required to change its originalstrategyof performing well in the competition so there was the important need to address the organization in terms of varieties and collections for different categories in the market and for other important specializations.