I walked the Vans US Open site with Vans President Kevin Bailey on Friday, the day before the week long event got underway.
Kevin showed me some key features of the US Open, and talked about why Vans is making the investment.
Why the US Open is a fit for Vans
Kevin: “We’re a local brand, it’s a local event, and Vans is the original action sports footwear company that came from skateboaders trying to emulate surfers.
“We’ve always been deep in surf, but we don’t always get credit for it. In our eyes, it was a chance to show the full breadth of Vans to consumers. The full idea around creative self-expression, around music, art, action sports, street culture as the pillars of the brand, and how we embrace all of that as part of youth culture instead of just being a skateboard brand.
“We also wanted to make a commitment in our backyard. We think it’s important to have an authentic, endemic brand in our backyard doing an event like this.”
Family friendly and inclusive
Kevin said Vans is trying to change the vibe of the event by
* Showing a family-friendly movie like “Goonies” on the beach
* Bringing down the “edge” of the musical acts to make it more approachable. “We know how hard this is for the locals, we want to make sure they feel welcomed in,” Kevin said. Musical acts include The Faint, Twin Shadow and FMLYBND, Modest Mouse and Matt Costa.
* Forbidding any brands in Vendor Village from stenciling or spray painting risqué statements on the bodies of teenage girls. “We made clear to IMG that no brand on the beach should be doing that.”
* Welcoming other brand participation. “We wanted to return this to the industry. We invited other brands in. Having that open door is part of our approach to inclusiveness, and we think that’s important,” Kevin said. “Some have chosen to participate and some haven’t. We had hoped more brands would activate – we don’t know if it’s because Agenda is going on, or for budget reasons, though we made it pretty cheap to participate.”
Vans is hopeful brands will check out how they are doing things this year, and will get involved in year two.
See Page 2 for site features
Some site features
Retail store – The store is 7,200 square feet including the stock room. A vast majority of the merchandise is event product, with the addition of some other offerings including boardshorts, women’s apparel and the Joel Tudor collection.
Vans is also showing a wide breadth of its footwear, which led to some logistical challenges including placing large storage containers outside the store to house the back stock of shoes.
“There were definitely logistical challenges but we are known for footwear so if we don’t sell it here, why are we here?” Kevin said.
The Vans retail team was called in from surrounding stores and is managing and staffing the US Open store.
There are also a few retail outposts in different areas of the 14-acre site – something Vans has learned is effective at the Vans Warped Tour.
Brand Vignettes – Sprinkled around the site are open containers showing different brand stories, such as the Chima Pro, the LXVI line, the OTW Collection, Surf Siders, the Joel Tudor Collection and more.
The goal there is to show the breadth of the Vans products.
Concrete skate bowl – Vans built a concrete skate bowl modeled after the famous bowl in Marseille, France.
Concrete also gives the “idea of skating the pool, which is Southern California style,” Kevin said.
There is also a smaller, wooden course for locals to skate that will be managed by nonprofit groups in exchange for getting a free booth at the event.
Social Media – Those who go to the event can sign up for the Off the Wall pass on the event iPhone app. Vans installed multiple photo booths at the site, and photos can be posted to a mass website and shared with friends. It will also give Vans data about where kids at the beach are spending their time.
IMG has told Vans it should get 4.5 million web views, a million uniques, and 800,000 kids on the beach during the event, Kevin said.
Up next
On the heels of the Vans US Open, the company will be opening the Vans Off The Wall Skatepark in Huntington Beach this fall.
For more about the Vans US Open of Surfing and to see photos of the site, see our slide show, above.
