Kicks Customized for Your Kids

Although I've never owned a pair myself I've been a fan of Vans for quite a while. It seems they were the shoes that all the "cool" boys used to wear when I was in high-school, college and even into adulthood. I dated many a boy who sported Vans in my day, so the shoes have fond memories for me. When we were offered the opportunity to create a pair customized just for my son I was thrilled! We have a friend who is a "cool" dad, as well as local rock star, who rocks his Vans regularly and my son, Dylan, has always loved them. So when the time came to create a pair for him I reminded him that these are like what Sam wears. It was his turn to be thrilled.

Since 1966 Vans has offered an option to customize their shoes. Sure, you can purchase a pair of Vans that are already designed to have a hip look. But for those of you who like to express your individuality, this is the option for you! Our experience creating the shoes was such a fun one. My son, Dylan, is 2 and his favorite color is orange. We knew that slip-ons would be our starting point. The hardest part was deciding where the orange would be placed. We played around with several different color combinations and finally came up with orange on the top and the gray checkerboard on the sides. I knew we had to have some of their classic, old school checkerboard pattern in there somewhere. Designing his very own shoes was a fun activity that we spent the better part of a rainy afternoon doing. Sure, it could have been completed in a matter of minutes, but we made it into a much longer event and enjoyed every minute of it. It was fun for me to see his face light up when his choice immediately appeared on the shoe on the screen. It was fun and easy, and the end result was fabulous!

So as soon as we were finished my son declared that the "orange shoe truck" was going to come to our house to make a personal delivery just for him. Sure enough on the day UPS arrived with our package our driver played along and told Dylan for that day he was the "shoe truck". You should have seen the big, happy grin he got! (I get the same way when the shoe truck is paying me a visit!) Dylan put on his new Vans immediately and has wanted to wear them just about every day since. They have been dubbed his "new kicks" and he loves them. I think what he loves most is that he had a hand in the design process - something every two year old wants in life - and now he gets to enjoy the fruits of his labor. So he's happy with his new customized orange kicks, and I'm happy that he has a new pair of shoes that are perfect for his Montessori classroom where lace-up shoes are not allowed, and that both look good and are comfortable for running on the playground. It's a win-win!