Vans

How do you build rules for a brand that broke them?

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Since 1966, Vans has grown alongside the communities that made it iconic. But decades of shifting ownership left it fragmented. A frankenstein of disparate rules, outdated guidelines, and global inconsistency. Vans came to us to level set, to build one cohesive foundation.

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Our answer: rules were never the point.

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The context‍

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Vans was built on creativity, reappropriation, rebellion. You don't fix that with a rulebook.

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The brand was still strong with the skaters of the past. But that audience was ageing up and Vans was missing the next generation, the way it once won the last one. So we went back to the origin story. Their relationship to skate culture. How it grew, organically, without a plan. Looking back, to go forward.

The approach‍

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Off The Wall was never a slogan. It was always a mindset — born from skaters who turned California's droughts into opportunity, skating drained pools, changing the sport forever.

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The question: how do you make that same spirit matter today?

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We directed the shift through a new north star mapped across three audience personas, unifying the business around one central truth. SoCal origins. A modern read on outdoor sports. A real connection to the next generation. An evergreen foundation, built for the next 60 years.

The design‍

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If Vans exists to enable expression, the brand itself should behave like a canvas.

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So instead of a rulebook, we built a two-layer identity system: Our Canvas. Your Way. Vans products have always been reinterpreted, customised, made personal. We built the brand system to do the same — inviting participation instead of controlling it.

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We defined what stays fixed. Everything else, we opened up for reinterpretation. Not a guide for uniformity, but a method for originality. A framework for creative rebellion.

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Future-proof not because it predicts what's next, but because it evolves with the people using it. We audited the full product range too — footwear, apparel, packaging — and built new standards that raised the bar across the portfolio.

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The impact‍

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More than a clearer brand system. A more resilient one; aligned teams, one cohesive way to show up globally, a framework that evolves with its audience instead of constraining it.

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The bigger win: Vans reconnected with the mindset that made it iconic in the first place. Not a nostalgic reference, but an operating principle. Authentically itself, and built to keep moving forward.

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We partner with brands at moments like these. Some regaining momentum, others preparing for what's next before they have to. In both cases, we build the strategic and creative foundations that let them evolve with confidence, and stay meaningful for years to come.