Paul Van Doren

Paul Van Doren
Born	Boston Area, United States
Parent(s)	VF Outdoor Inc., a subsidiary of VF Corporation
Website	www.vans.com

Paul Van Doren is the founder of Vans, a shoe company in the United States.

Paul Van Doren is one of the two children of Johnson and Rena Van Doren. His father was an inventor while his mother was a seamstress.

Van Doren dropped out of school at the age of 14, when he was in the eighth grade. Interested in horses, he went to the race tracks every day; there, he became known as 'Dutch the Clutch.' His mother then insisted that he get a job in a shoe factory.

In 1966, Van Doren, his brother James Van Doren, and their friends Gordon, Ryan Emmert and Serge D’Elia became partners in opening the first Vans. It took a year to build and set up the factory at 704 East Broadway in Anaheim. They offered only 3 different styles of shoes when they first opened; their prices ranged from $2.49 to $4.99. Vans had about 70 stores in California by the end of the 1970s. Van Doren ran the company until 1976, when James Van Doren took over.

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