Greetings readers.
As fans of our beloved Galaxy, there are a lot of dates that are significant to us. We have May the 4th, sometime this Fall for Rebels, April 16th 2015 for Celebration Anaheim (See you there!), and December 18th 2015 is of course the biggest release date on my calendar.
But what about June 1st 2014 (last Sunday)? Was I the only one excited about that day? On that day Vans released their Star Wars line of shoes for kids of all ages 4 to 41 year olds like me! This Old School SoCal skater/Shoe Fetishist/Star Wars Fan was more than ecstatic.
I came across the news about a week before May the 4th. Vans Vault was releasing a small collection of limited edition styles at only 3 locations nationwide (of course).
The Vault Collection descriptions are from http://www.vans.com/article_detail/vault-star-wars.html
“The OG Sk8-Hi LX and OG Era LX blend Vans’ heritage pirate skull and bones print into a pattern featuring Darth Vader and Storm Trooper heads with crossing pirate swords and light sabers.”
“An OG Sk8-Hi LX and the OG Slip-on LX duo use a vibrant Vans Miami print from the 80’s that incorporates At-At Walker silhouettes, the infamous four-legged transport and combat vehicle deployed by Imperial ground forces trekking across the planet Hoth.”
“Working with the permission of skate legend Steve Caballero, his iconic logo becomes the scene of an epic battle of Good against Evil. A skateboard riding, light saber brandishing Yoda uses the Force to fight the good fight on a marshmallow colored model versus a battle-ready Darth Vader with an invitation to the dark side in black. Both are constructed with premium leather and suede on the shoe that wrote history, as the first signature model in skateboarding.”
My head went straight to the Adidas line released a few years ago and just how difficult it was to get just one pair of shoes for anything less than hundreds of dollars. They do these limited runs which get picked up by crazy people and cause true fans to spend way too much on the secondary market. Some of those Adidas’ now sell for $1000 on ebay. Anyway, that’s how I felt about the Vans news. Of course on May 4th ebay lit up with the few Vans Vault selections for ridiculous prices. Right now it has calmed down and the Vault Collection is going for $170-$200 which to me, isn’t that bad (not getting any though…yet). I went to my local Vans store just to see if I could get any other info. I got to look at the employee shoe book and saw what was coming. The good news was Vans would be releasing a full line of shoes, hats, backpacks, and more…well, last Sunday (6/1/14).
About a week later I was showing a friend from work the shoes and found out the Journey’s had the shoes for pre-order with free shipping. I lost my mind! This guy was witness to a full-on Geek-out and had no idea how crazy someone like us can get with something like this. I saw that Journey’s even has exclusive and “online only” designs, so double whammy to your pocketbook. Actually, the shoes run around $60 which is pretty standard nowadays so that’s not too bad.
Once I loaded my cart with four pair, feeling a little crazy, I noticed some fine print. For each pair ordered I (and you) would get either a Boba Fett or Darth Vader Funko 6″ figure – Vans Skater-themed of course. Oh poodoo, I’m in it now! At of the time of this blog these figures are still available from Journey’s online. I hope I get two of each – as any collector would.
I was lucky enough to get two of the four pair I ordered a few days before the 1st. I rocked my Stormtrooper Bandanas with pride. They went well with some of my Trooper Collection if I say so myself.
Tilly’s also has some exclusive online items and of course the Vans store has stuff trickling in right now.
As I was leaving the Vans store I was informed there will be a second wave released in October 2014. Can’t wait to see what’s next…
Thanks for supporting Coffee with Kenobi, I wish you all happy hunting, and May the Force be you and your feet…
Darth T-Bone
Feel free to email me TROYM@COFFEEWITHKENOBI.COM
P.S. My Holy Grail is the most difficult to acquire – the Japanese Converse All-Star Chuck Taylor Hi released over 10 years ago. Retail on those was $240, so I could only imagine what they would go for now. I had people in Japan on the hunt but no dice. Good luck finding a size 11 to boot. Let me know if you have any leads!!!
They would be easy enough to customize, but what’s the fun in that? Oh yeah, that would be fun. I can’t make my own sandals though.
