Vans Counterattack Trilogy: Rise, Fall, Rebirth

Since 2015, Vans has become the driving force of the growth of the group. Especially in the Chinese market, Vans is even more eye-catching.

In 1966, Vans was born in Anaheim, California.

Conquering the hearts of a generation of young people swept the United States.

In 1984, Vans fell into despair and declared bankruptcy.

In 1988, a bank in San Francisco bought Vans; but the real change took place in 2004, and the American rich group bought Vans to revitalized the brand.

The newly born Vans is currently the number one star of the group, and thanks to its good performance of outdoor sports departments including Vans and other brands, the US group's sales and net profit in the first quarter of fiscal year 2018 achieved two digit growth.

For the Wei Fu Group set up in 1899, the acquisition in 2004 not only saved a brand, but also made the Centennial enterprise not submerged in the vast ocean of history, but it became more and more firm in the erosion of time.

We can learn more valuable experience from Vans who has experienced life and death. This experience is a valuable asset for all companies and enterprises.

The experience of Vans tells us that it is a disaster to move against the tide.

Stir up the "hundred years of prosperity"

Since 2015, Vans has become the driving force of the growth of the group. Especially in the Chinese market, Vans is even more eye-catching.

The latest data came from the first quarter earnings report of 2018 in the first quarter of May 7th issued by the Wei Fu group. Sales rose 21.8% to US $3 billion 45 million over the 3 months to March 31st, and net profit increased 20.9% to 253 million US dollars.

Outdoor sports departments including Vans, Timberland (Tian Bailan), Wrangler (Wiig) and The North Face have increased 19% to 2 billion 14 million US dollars in the period, accounting for 66.14% of the group's total sales.

Group Chairman, President and CEO SteveRendle pointed out in the earnings report that the extensive growth in the second half of the fiscal year began to continue in 2017, and the core engines such as Vans and The North Face have strong global growth momentum.

Among them, Vans's financial performance is outstanding. Its overall revenue surged by 39% annually, and achieved 24%, 36% and 44% growth in Asia, Europe and the Americas respectively.

Compared with Vans's leading position, the growth of other brands was slightly inferior. The overall income of The North Face increased by 7%, mainly driven by the growth rate of 19% in the European market, which rose by 3% in the Americas and 5% in Asia, while Timberland recorded a 1% decline in overall revenue.

The rapid sales growth of Vans has a positive impact on the performance of related brands such as The North Face and Timberland. So how did Vans make the backbone of "hundred years of prosperity" and how to rise in the brutal competition of sports brand? The most important point is that it makes a long history of skateboard shoes and grasps the era gene of the global trend culture.

Trilogy: rise, fall, rebirth

Vans brand was born in 1960s, and shoes sold at the beginning of its birth were quickly conquered by surfers and skateboard enthusiasts because of their heavy sole, low price and comfortable clothing.

At that time, the rise of the American skateboard tide was a great opportunity for Vans. After decades, Vans was once a sign of skateboard shoes.

In 1982, the film "open American Academy" was highly praised. Sean Pam, the famous film star, played skateboard expert Spicoli in the film. He was dressed in his Vans canvas shoes on his feet for various occasions, and Vans ushered in the heyday.

In just a few weeks, Vans rushed to produce over a million pairs of canvas shoes, and Vans soon became popular in the United States.

As long as there are young people, there are Vans, and Vans sales also climbed from $20 million to $45 million.

"Open American Academy", West and South pan hand, Vans canvas shoes.

In 80s, the Vans brand decision-makers, who were victorious, began to try to diversify their brand expansion. A large number of Vans marked leisure sports shoes, basketball shoes, baseball shoes, football shoes, and even sports shoes designed for boxing, wrestling, parachute and other popular sports events also appeared on the shelves of sports stores in the United States.

Different categories, different styles and different production lines mean the increase of production costs. Vans has entered the debt quagmire.

In 1984, Vans declared bankruptcy.

In 1988, Vans was bought by an investment bank and began to focus on skateboards and other street sports and accessories.

In 2004, the prestige group, known as "Popularization", acquired Vans for 396 million US dollars. In 2008, Vans entered China, mainly in the first and second tier cities. At present, the Chinese market has become the second largest market for Vans in addition to the United States.

The spread of street culture, such as skateboarding, and Vans had few competitors at that time, so Vans was always the king of the skateboard industry until the 80s of the last century.

But after entering 80s, a large number of European brands and American domestic competitors quietly appeared. With the diversification of Vans layout unsuccessful, multiple factors superimposed, Vans bankruptcy is inevitable.

From 70s to the beginning of 80s, skateboarding culture was at its best.

In 80s, many companies began to get involved in the field of skateboard shoes, such as Supreme with high popularity in the world, Hiphop injected into the world, luxurious style, unique design, especially Supra in China, and concise and direct Emerica.

Nike, Adidas and other giant brands have also added high profile to the field of skateboard shoes. With the representatives of Nike SB and adidasZX, the skateboard movement began to introduce "new parameters" such as easy to wear off, attention to protection, landing impact and so on.

But with the disappearance of the last sunset, skateboarding began to peak.

Vans Stephen Mills, vice president of the global design department, said that in the past 1988-1995 years, skateboarding has been on the decline.

In the new century, the trend of skateboarding has been increasing.

According to Outdoor Foundation survey data from the American Outdoor Sports Association, 8 million 750 thousand teenagers were playing skateboards in the United States in 2006, and this figure dropped to 3 million 480 thousand in 2013.

The same is true in the Asian market. If we only produce skateboard shoes, the final outcome is "desperate."

After being bought by Wei Fu Group, Vans is no longer confined to the original "skateboard shoes" positioning, but is mainly oriented to the young market, bringing more popular elements into the brand.

Vans has not only avoided the positive confrontation with Nike, Adidas and other professional sports brands, but also won the popularity of the consumer market under the double attack of Nike and CONVERSE.

In recent years, Vans has named the "Mountain Edition" winter mountaineering series of shoes, clothing and so on, which is named "despise the cold winter".

Since 2015, Vans has become the "first power" to boost the growth of the Wei Fu group. Sales account for 17% of the total revenue of the group. Over The North Face has become the most successful sub brand.

In 2017, Vans continued strong, sales grew 19% year-on-year, and the other two core brands The North Face and Timberland contributed only 4% and 2% of sales growth.

Mountain Edition winter mountaineering series shoes

From the birth of 1966 to 1980s and now, although the skateboarding culture has changed from prosperity to decline, Vans has also experienced the rise and fall of the trilogy. The 52 year old Vans, who has been baptized by years, is now very mature in all street brands.

The everlasting business rule

Sam Poser, a senior footwear industry analyst, once pointed out that Vans has been an emotional young trend culture brand before discussing the overall strong trend of Vans. Although sales of sports shoes are still hot, not everyone likes Nike basketball shoes, and different consumers love different styles. Vans's positioning is obviously a brand that can make consumers younger, cooler and more personalized.

It can be seen from this passage that the key factor for the smooth growth of Vans lies in grasping the characteristics of the trend culture and fashion movement. The brand style of "pure movement" in the past is no longer suitable for the young people nowadays.

From this passage, we can also read out the reasons why many sports brand giants are enduring. The important point is to draw inspiration from the fashion culture and grasp the trend of mainstream culture in different periods, not only stick to their brand genes, but also "youth fashion" and always follow the trend of the times.

Vans, who rarely asks big stars to endorse, has been insisting on creative graffiti and customization so that it can easily walk in street sports and hip hop music.

Therefore, without the need of celebrity endorsement, the young people with creativity can be attracted to the greatest extent.

At the same time, Vans is also a marketing expert, sponsoring Music Festival as a conventional marketing tool.

During the 50th anniversary anniversary of the brand, Vans held at least 12 music festivals around the world. In the Chinese market, Vans was also one of the most popular brands to focus on music festivals.

Vans believes that young people now tend to delineate identity labels through beautiful things and unique experiences in life, and music is one of their favorite content in social media sharing such as SNS. Music Festival is an important platform for the brand to gain attention and word of mouth.

The success of Vans also enabled the parent group to see the importance of restructuring the M & a strategy, and continue to push the brand restructuring strategy.

Following the acquisition of Williamson-Dickie in August 2017, the New Zealand sportswear brand Icebreaker, which has annual sales of over $150 million, was acquired earlier this year.

In March, the group announced again that it would buy a running shoes brand Altra, which has an annual revenue of about $50 million, as part of its outdoor sports brand.

Overall, the prestige Group continues to increase the number of outdoor sports.

At the same time, it is also stepping up efforts to expand and invest in the Chinese market, which will be a major boost to Vans's subsequent strategic evolution.

With the "fickle" of the trend culture and the fashionable fashion of the present, we have experienced beating, giants and

The Vans of "gene" has already secured the backbone of "one hundred years of wealth". Vans's counterattack will also provide new ideas for other rich brands and struggling enterprises in the survival quagmire.