Dude, Where's my VAN!?: Thanking the shoezen one..

The FAL fam loves having their fair share of (though falsely used as of late by duck ass niggas), Swag. More than often we push the limits allowing textiles and textures to fornicate and create what the confused mind of the 80% consider, avante garde. It’s no secret that a vibing fit is incomplete w/o SOLE, let’s face it sneakers could serve as that extra pinch of mescaline that'll have niggas wide eyed breaking necks in a fucking daze, while they watch you moon walking with Jesus. Relax I’m catholic. Today I grow my beard out (Jew ref) to the passing of a gentlemen that in this pass few yrs more than others have blessed the likes of many with sole Sir James Van Doren The father/creator of Vans. Below is a shrine accompanied by a bio of the late great. The FAL fam has their own unique taste but we seem to find middle ground under the idea that vans go hard, whether it be Takashi's, Off the wall, Vaults, Sk8 hi's, or Half Cab we been rockin' since two way pagers was poppin' so we pay homage to a man that added a lil seasoning to the FAL stew.

With his brother Paul and two others, Van Doren started the Van Doren Rubber Co. in 1966. Based in Anaheim, Calif., it made rubber-soled canvas leisure shoes.

Not long afterward, the company developed an especially high-grip shoe, conceived as a boat shoe that would hold the wearer firmly to a pitching deck.

Van Doren collaborated with a chemist to develop the rubber recipe used in the sole. A mechanical engineer by training, he also devised its characteristic tread pattern: diamonds interrupted by a band of tiny six-pointed stars at the ball of the foot. Together, rubber and tread made the sole clingy.

What the company had not foreseen was that in Southern California, pitching decks also were found on skateboards.

Embraced by West Coast skateboarders in the 1970s and afterward, the shoes helped their wearers avoid the fate of Icarus as they performed aerial moves that put the feet well above the head.

The shoes — and the company — became known in popular parlance simply as Vans.

 Van Doren died on Oct. 12 at his home in Fullerton, Calif. He was 72. The official cause of death Cancer although the news of his passing was not released publicly until early November.

Death seemed to be a central theme this week, The Fam also pays homage with an honorable mention to the following icons.

Dwight “Heavy D.” Arrington *HipHop Legend* (May 24, 1967 – November 8, 2011)

Joseph “Joe Frazier” Williams *Boxing Great* (January 12, 1944 – November 7, 2011)

William “Bill Keane”Aloysius *World renowned Cartoonist* (October 5, 1922 – November 8, 2011)

Written by: B