gonna jet over to London and party with The Stones.

I broke out my checkered Vans for the barbeque at my house last nite. To be honest, they’re just my go-to slip-ons for anything around the yard, I didn’t mean anything by them.

But sure enough, everyone commented on them. Some of my wife’s friends snickered a little, but most people gave me the ‘whats up, braa’ head snap along with the long drawn look at the shoes, and then the simple compliment: “Nice Vans, dude.”

I’m pretty sure it’s a generational thing– me and my middle-aged doofus friends are wearing vans because we wore them in High School right along with Jeff Spicoli and Diamond David Lee Roth. I am equally sure that the kids are wearing these shoes now out of a little bit of hipster irony against me, but also because the shoes are a core skate icon, and icons are always there (that’s why they call them ‘icons’).