Authentic by Paul Van Doren
"If I have to tell you what I stand for, I'm not doing something right".
For me, the trick to it wasn't just in keeping my mouth shut: it was in learning how and when to lower the volume in my head, so that once I made up my mind, I wouldn't rethink or unthink a wellconsidered decision my gut had already signed off on.
Commentary
Reading Authentic felt like hanging out with your grandpa—wholesome, corny, but in a satisfyingly nostalgic and charming way. Somewhat surprisingly, I picked up echoes of Munger, Taleb, and Thorpe, and Walton throughout the memoir. Paul Van Doren was a man of his era, but the wisdom he shares is timeless.
As a Southern California native, I’ve always been a bit of a Vans diehard. If I were held at gunpoint and forced to choose just one style of shoe for the rest of my life, it would be, without hesitation, the Vans Authentic 44 DX Anaheim Factory edition. My love for their classic simplicity only grows stronger with time—it’s the perfect all-purpose shoe for Southern California living. Nothing else comes close.
I bought1 my first pair of Vans in 1996 and have had multiple pairs in rotation2 ever since. Sadly, my introduction to Vans came through the cold-cured “Wally,” which arguably defined the dark ages in Vans' history. During that era, the leadership was less than competent, shipping all manufacturing to Korea, where the shoes were “cold-cured” instead of heat-cured through Vans’ traditional vulcanizing process.
What I’m stealing
Get your hands dirty. Cut out distractions. Find a way to keep everything moving forward.
When you have good people with you, the odds are with you, too
Beauty lies in simplicity
Companies are built person by person, not brick by brick
If you do things better than most, the odds are in your favor
Teach by good example
There is dignity in being of service — dignity and pride in a job well done.
Instigate and fuel discourse
Don't bet the ranch if you don't have all the details
When someone affords you a chance to rethink a hasty decision, consider accepting that act of mercy with grace
Figuring out who isn't going to win is just as important as knowing who is
Don’t rethink or unthink a wellconsidered decision your gut had already signed off on
Be a dedicated student of probability and the nature of chance
Success is more important than who gets the credit for it
Think outside of traditional productivity metrics when aligning incentives
The only reason things don't get done is because someone doesn't want to do them.
No chasing after pigeons
You don't know what you don't know, and if you don't know, ask.
“No’s” are opportunities to innovate.
Take a genuine interest in how your customers live life with your product
Supplemental Resources
A Brief History of Vans: "Off the Wall" Since '66
Pillowheat.com - “stock hunters & collectors by trade. we scour the earth for deadstock rarities & deliver vintage heat which is.....as cool as the other side of the pillow!"
The J.Crew x Vans collabs are always excellent.
I haven’t listened to this yet, but I have it the queue.
Dog ears, highlights, marginalia
it crystallized for me what I would be willing to work my ass off to avoid
What I considered most important about people was their attitude, their integrity, and their desire to do things the right way.
Without knowing it at the time, I was initiating what would eventually become the Vans empire by molding the inclusive, people-centric family vibe that became our signature Vans culture. I was building it person by person, not brick by brick
Over the years and throughout his life, he devised all sorts of gadgets. He also happened to be a checkers champion and a hell of a card player. He could engineer anything, build anything, fix anything, and outsmart just about anybody about anything. His projects were endless, and he loved doing them. Dad was a very wise, gifted, and creative man.
if you do something no one else can do, or do something better than most, the odds are in your favor for success.
The property's crowning glory was Dad's workshop.
Actually, his shop was a series of buildings: there was a utility room, a boiler room, a woodworking shop, a packing room, a printing room, and a saw room.
My parents taught me so much, more than I ever learned in school. Most of the positive attributes I still carry with me were taught by their good example. My parents taught me long ago that people were the most important thing in your life-more important than money or prestige or possessions. My father believed that family always came first. So do I-that's how I've conducted my own life and run my business.
Even back then there were child labor laws, but none of us-parents or children-ever questioned the expectation that we would contribute to the group. Neither of my parents offered validation or gratitude in exchange, and I didn't need it. We all participated in the family business, and there was dignity in being of service-dignity and pride in a job well done.
The Van Dorens were a raucous, loudmouthed bunch. My people communicate in decibels, and when we fight, man, do we fight. Whoever bellowed loudest won.
If the Van Dorens had a coat of arms, it would feature a lasagna and a bullhorn.
My father made it his job to instigate and fuel discourse and did so, I think, to get our dander up, to get us to take a position. All my childhood, there was always an argument about something. We were always looking at something two different ways.
He had just taught me a painful lesson: don't bet the ranch if you don't have all the details. I would argue that's another lesson best learned early.
That afternoon, Dad also taught me a lesson in strategy: when someone affords you a chance to rethink a hasty decision, consider accepting that act of mercy with grace.
The truth is that almost everything in life hangs in the balance of likelihoods or odds. That sounds ominous, but it should be of some comfort that odds are driven by basic arithmetic anyone can understand. In other words, math.
In almost every race, there are many unknowns and even more variables. And in almost every race, it's just as important to figure out who isn't going to win as who is.
Dad had taught me to watch and listen carefully to what was being said around me. His lessons in situational listening taught me the wonders of keeping my mouth shut. I'd listen to the owners, jockeys, and oddsmakers and then distill what I'd overheard.cd For me, the trick to it wasn't just in keeping my mouth shut: it was in learning how and when to lower the volume in my head, so that once I made up my mind, I wouldn't rethink or unthink a wellconsidered decision my gut had already signed off on.
I was a dedicated student of probability and the nature of chance.
As far as I could tell, the bottleneck hinged with the stays,
It did not take a rocket scientist to figure out that Randy's routines, methods, and procedures did not make sense.
If someone had a better idea than mine, of course I would adopt that. I really didn't care if I didn't get credit. I didn't need credit; I needed success.
The boss was telling me, "Don't do it."
I said he was wrong and then I proved it. Most people won't do that-which is why things don't get done.
I really had to hustle to get everything in place. The next day, the moving truck arrived. For most of that night, I set up furniture and unpacked every single box. When I was finally done in the wee hours of the morning, I thought the house looked like a model home.
**Note:** Surprise and delight
No surprise, they did. What was not to love? This was California in the sixties, the land of endless sun, snazzy convertibles, and the Beach Boys.
Back in Massachusetts, I had gotten into the habit of washing my car at least once a week. As the kids got old enough, they would come out and help. I would hose and they would wipe.
Since the weather in California was nice virtually all year round, I expanded the family tradition. Every day when I got home from work, I would call out, "Hey, kids! Dad's home!" and everyone would troop out to the driveway with buckets and hoses.
It might sound like I was a slave driver, but we had a lot of fun splashing and sudsing and catching up with what everyone had done that day.
We followed this same routine most every day for years.
My daughter Cheryl says, "It taught us responsibility, and that there was no value in not doing things the right way."
If Serge's company was going to make the uppers for Randy's West, I wanted it done right. I devised a simple sample kit that would instruct anyone on how to stitch a tennis shoe upper correctly.
, "Honestly, I don't know how you are ever going to defeat the union."
I knew I wouldn't have to; the workers themselves would do it when they realized I was on their side, which I was.
The reason I had developed the idea of incentives in the first place was because I'd had a problem with production quotas versus quality. When I focused on production numbers, quality went down.
When I worked on quality, production went down. It was frustrating.
Finally, I convinced the workers that if they produced the quota for eight hours of work and made whatever parts they were assigned to produce at top quality, but did it in fewer hours, they were free to go home early that day.
We eventually reached the point where we agreed that if the workers accumulated enough hours, we'd allow them to take Friday off. The goal was to make in four days what used to take five days.
This meant they worked a four-day week but were paid for five days.
As long as they maintained their production quotas and quality, everyone was a winner.
That day at the US Open of Surfing, Duke Kahanamoku was there along with Fred Hemmings, a world champion surfer who went on to become a Hawaii state senator later in life, as well as Butch Van Artsdalen, Corky Carroll, and Paul Strauch. They were all wearing matching blue Hawaiian shirts.
When Duke Kahanamoku came by our booth to check out the shoes, I introduced myself. Looking at those shirts, I was suddenly struck by an idea. iceb dod "Say, I could make you a pair of sneakers that match your shirt
Really, I have found the only reason things don't get done is because someone doesn't want to do them.
no chasing after pigeons
Navajo white was the color of choice.
one of the most important business lessons: you don't know what you don't know, and if you don't know, ask.
My mother was Catholic, and I was raised going to church, but by that point in my life, I didn't go very often. I couldn't deal with things like confession: you could rob a bank, but if you went ahead and confessed it the next day, it was okay. That didn't wash with me.
Those annoyingly sticky soles would turn out to be a huge selling point for skateboarders, so eventually I learned to love the sticky.
The soles were cracking across the ball of the foot after only a short time in use. We ended up adding nine vertical lines to the pattern over the ball area to create a denser woven pattern there-and voila! Our signature feature.
Our bread-and-butter was style no. 44, a classic deck shoe that later became known, aptly, as "the Authentic." Deck shoes were the kind of casual footwear popular all over the country then, but ours was the first to feature an extra-thick waffle sole. Our version of the generic shoe shape called a CVO, which stands for circular vamp oxford, came in both canvas and suede: since any material being vulcanized must be heat resistant, the upper material is typically limited to suede, leather, and cotton with metal hardware. There were five eyelets for the laces.
we offered our four standards in canvaslight blue, navy blue, loden green, and white-and we carried them in sizes for men, women, boys, and girls. The suede shoes came in white, blue, gold, and red.
The first supplier to reject us was the guy we had contracted to make our shoeboxes. He reneged on a deal we had made, and ultimately refused to work with us at all, ever. I took the opportunity to come up with a new type of box.
My novel solution was to use a single, flat piece of cardboard, which could be folded with a built-in, folddown lid. I might have held a grudge against Japan for Pearl Harbor, but the origami I'd seen when I'd first visited my backer Serge there had inspired me.
the sign over our first retail store would read "House of Vans."
Getting a pair of Vans should be a really terrific and satisfying experience. That's the difference: people wear Vans all day, every day.
the mom is really the boss of the family. Mom is almost always the one who decides when, where, how, and everything else about shopping for the family. This changed my entire perspective on our core market.
We had to get more moms. Selling shoes to moms took longer, because our shoes just lasted for a while, and sometimes they wouldn't come back for sixteen weeks or so. We just kept sewing our shoes with moms in mind-that's what we did, for years and years and years.
I had noticed that almost everyone wore white cotton socks with their sneakers, regardless of style. Why not sell white socks in our stores?
We contacted the rep for the Trimfit brand
store walls would be painted the usual Navajo white, with blue trim.
The formula we came up with for the placement of a Vans store was to choose a small, free-standing building on a busy street, rather than one that was sandwiched between two other stores. That seemed to work best for us
Mel was the one who pointed out to me, during a conversation about a mural for one of our first half-dozen buildings, the importance of opening a business not just on a busy street, but in a location where drivers had a right-hand view of the outside wall.
But from that time on, we never opened a store with the exposed wall on the left side of the street
Our lines of customers got so long that we decided to institute a sort of fast-track reservation system. We gave people a ticket to come back during a certain time slot later in the day. That way, they wouldn't have to waste time standing in line but could go right into the tent when they returned.
The system worked great, and our customers really appreciated the efficiency.
The best advertising decision we made at the fair was to put every sale we made into one of our large, bright-red handled bags with the name Vans emblazoned across both sides. They were roomy and sturdy, so most people would put all their fair purchases and doodads into our bag. By the end of each day, there were hundreds of ing our brand.
When skateboarders adopted Vans, ultimately, they gave us an outward culture and an inner purpose.
Our patternmaker called it the "jazz stripe.
I guess I always felt that my wife did not appreciate what I did.
Sometimes if things weren't going right at Vans, I didn't come home for days. I wasn't running around; I was working.
a lack of focus always jams things up, while putting on blinders has the potential to serve a greater good. What I am saying is when leaders limit distraction, they're better able to lead.
Spicoli. Not only did he skate and surf, but he was also in a band
If jealousy is a lack of confidence, then greed is an excess of ego,
It strikes me that I always seem to remember being slighted or snubbed-even the illusion of it-more keenly than I do being rewarded. For me, I remember when someone overlooked or dismissed me more clearly than the times I was chosen or I made my own choice.
To give customers what they want, you have to know what they want. To that end, VF launched a Global Consumer Insights Assessment, a comprehensive survey of twenty-six thousand customers in twelve countries to determine who and what constituted our core market. Imagine that!
They asked customers what they liked about Vans, how they viewed themselves in terms of subculture, and how our shoes fit into their lives. The marketing team actually went into people's homes and even into their closets to see what they wore for both clothing and shoes and asked them what they do in life.
in 2007 Vans also decided to reissue the very first authentic Hawaiian-print surfer shoe I had made for him
accessible brand to people around the world, not just because of the focus on action sports, but also because of the company's "center point, creative selfexpression.
If I have to tell you what I stand for, I'm not doing something right.
California is Vans' "secret sauce.
It's a Southern California by-the-beach company. If you shut down a collaborative gathering there, you really lose something vital.
when you have good people with you, the odds are with you, too. And the longer I live, the more I see the truth of it
hard work, honesty, and caring for people are what yield success. The beauty lies in simplicity, so don't overcomplicate things. Instead, focus on blocking and tackling, consistently, one day at a time.
**Note:** XI
What I've accomplished comes down to one thing: my knack for identifying and then solving problems. What I do better than anything else is cut out distractions. If a system isn't working efficiently, I can see where it's jammed, eliminate the problem, and find a way to keep everything moving forward
**Note:** xiii
Pay attention to the people using your product or even better, work with them to create something completely new.
**Note:** xiv
Many of my guiding principles are equally simple, and they've served me equally well. Don't sit still or rest on your laurels. Do the work-don't just look on as others do it. My famous credo: get your hands dirty.
**Note:** xv
I also say find honorable people to be your partners, work with creative people, and be fair. Be kind. Give a shit about how you treat people and be aware of how your actions might disturb or distress them. In other words, don't be a jerk. Stand up for others. Until our last breath, we can do something good for someone else.
got their hands dirty and worked for tacos
**Note:** xvi
Or, rather, my Mom purchased. PVD was bang on with that intuition.
Current count is six pairs of Authentics