Van Doren

LOS ANGELES — James Van Doren and his older brother Paul only had sample sneakers to offer when they opened their first store, in Anaheim, Calif., in 1966. They took a dozen orders in the morning and delivered custom canvas deck shoes, made in their adjacent factory, in the afternoon.

Operating as the Van Doren Rubber Co., the brothers and two other co-founders planned to succeed by cutting out the middleman and selling their distinctive thick rubber-soled shoes directly to the public.

By the early 1970s, the company owed some of its success to Southern California’s burgeoning skateboard culture. The shoes were valued for the sticky rubber soles that helped skaters grip their boards.

From the start, the casual shoes were known by a single name: Vans.

James Van Doren, who ran the company from 1976 to 1984, died Oct. 12 at his home in Fullerton, Calif., following a battle with cancer, said his wife, Char. He was 72.

“He was a mechanic, a chemist, the brains behind the early shoe,” said his nephew, Steve Van Doren. “In his garage, he made all the molds for the very first soles,” including the trademark waffle design.

With James at the helm, Vans built up its manufacturing operation, doubled its work force and expanded far beyond the initial deck shoes into the competitive athletic shoe market.

The brand gained national recognition when Sean Penn donned a pair of checkerboard slip-on Vans to play the spaced-out Spicoli in the 1982 film “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.”

“He guided Vans through the checkerboard era, and we were flying,” said Steve Van Doren. “We were the hottest thing going.”