Founded in 1966, Vans, Inc. is an American company providing action sports footwear, apparel, and accessories. Owned by VF Corporation, the worldwide company primarily offers sandals, boots, surfsiders, and skate shoes. Vans has also since branched into providing apparel for men, women, and kids. Their customizable shoe feature, developed with Zobrist’s help, is part of the key to their wild and enduring success.

Looking to stay true to their roots—skater culture—Vans wanted to give their customers new, unparalleled online user experience. Vans offers customers the ability to design their own custom skate shoes. The style, texture and color of every detail is up for personalization in this offering. Customers can build their own unique shoe to show off their identity. 

However, their original website was not optimized to deliver the comprehensive sales service Custom Shoes demanded when the service launched in 2004. They needed a more powerful, detailed solution in order to provide maximum customer benefit.

Vans launched their first Custom Shoes in 2004, before the acquisition by VF Corp. This first version of Vans Custom Shoes was ahead of its time, and distinguished Vans from other lifestyle footwear brands. But Vans didn’t just settle for one launch. With Zobrist’s help, Vans implement a second launch in 2009, followed by a third in 2018. 

So why does Vans keep investing in evolving this product?

Vans’ Custom Shoes feature goes beyond typical online shopping experiences: it gives shoppers the ability to create and view their finished products with efficiency and ease. But the enhanced online customer experience doesn’t just stop at customization. Not only are shoppers able to interact with their product—they can also interact with other shoppers and share designs via chat and social media features, across multiple devices. It’s these innovative offerings that set Vans a step above their competition, and keep their customers loyal to the brand.

Since acquisition, Vans has become the darling of VF Corp with the highest growth rate of all their brands: 36% year to year! Zobrist began working with Vans in 2005, before VF Corp purchased the brand. From a humble start of $396 million business, Vans now posts $2.3 billion dollars in revenue, and the brand seems unstoppable. 

Vans has expanded from a humble skate brand to a worldwide footwear giant. Everybody wears Vans shoes—skaters, celebrities, the young and the old. Vans’ relentless pursuit of peak customer experiences sees them partnering again and again with Zobrist to deliver the web know-how to execute on their vision. 

With each successive relaunch, the Custom Shoes feature has been refined and expanded. Zobrist pairs with Vans to continually improve the way shoppers interact with Custom Shoes: how they select details, customize them, see them on the screen (now with rotatable functions for a 360° view), purchase them, and show them off. Thanks to this partnership with Zobrist, Vans’ constant evolution—while staying true to their brand throughout it all—has put them on a glide path to worldwide success.