Vans Founder Paul Van Doren Talks the Power of Good People in His New Memoir ‘Authentic’

If you’ve been in the footwear business since the 1940s, you’re bound to have a story or two. Thankfully, Vans founder Paul Van Doren is willing to share some of his best. From his humble beginnings as a service boy at Randolph Manufacturing Co. to creating the giant that is Vans, the sneaker industry icon revealed decades of strikingly honest stories, both personal and professional, through his memoir “Authentic.” In the book, Van Doren — who is now 90 — offered insights into his journey with the detail one would have as if the moments just occurred. For instance, the shoe dog relived the day he quit Randolph Manufacturing Company (referred to throughout the book as Randy’s) in February 1965, which led to a trip to Japan a year later at the request of Serge D’Elia, the upper material supplier for the Randy’s operation on the West Coast. Because of that trip, D’Elia would finance what would eventually become Vans. What’s more, Van Doren spoke at great lengths on the decisions that led to the Vans-only retail store at the front of his shoemaking factory in 1966 — something common today but an anomaly at the time. And there wasn’t a topic Van

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