"Weak."
Things are just not going the best, right now, for Vans. Eight-ish years ago, the iconic waffle-soled surf-infused classic was riding impossibly high. On the feet of every tween to twenty-something, sleek and cool, title sponsor of the Triple Crown, no cloud in sight. Then came “the big crash.” tween to twenty-somethings opting for a different silhouette, the World Surf League taking a hammer to North Shore competitive surfing, downturn, downturn, downturn.
As the United States economy rebounded, those sitting in the corner offices of Vans parent VF Corporation might have thought their luck was going to turn back good.
Then came the fateful decision to not invite Jamie O’Brien to the upcoming Pipe Masters.
Notables such as Josh Moniz lowered their aim and blasted “Vans has nearly ruined what it means to be a Pipeline Master. The way this event has been handled in recent years, since Vans bought the rights to it, feels disrespectful to one of the most iconic waves and events in the history of surfing—right here at OUR home in Hawaii.”
Less notables in the comments piled on, excoriating various “kooks” and “barneys” at Vans who had lost their way.
Worse than being called names by surfers both high and low, though, was being described as “garbage” by than Standard and Poor. Those who dabble in the financial markets are keenly aware of S&P and its rating system. Stocks are rated from AAA to D. VF Corp. was once sitting at a lofty BBB but just got downgraded to BB, officially a “junk stock.
According to the economic geniuses, Vans was largely to blame.
“Vans declined 11% in the second quarter of fiscal 2025, after declining over 20% in each of the last five quarters, and in the teens for the past three quarters of fiscal 2023,” according to S&P. “The sharper declines in fiscal 2024 include an inventory realignment and strategic decision to take inventory out of the wholesale channel to make space for newer products, given excess inventory levels and products not resonating with consumers in a weaker demand environment. The weak demand and inventory misalignment led to significant deterioration of (VF’s) operating results and credit metrics.”
Not stated, but clearly implied, was the aforementioned JOB’s lack of Pipe Masters invite.
Dark days.
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JOB should have just held his own contest at Off the Wall.
He’s torn
not too big to flail
I’m personally able to multitask.
The silent g in ‘imbroglio’ makes my nipples hard.
Job back in the event. Squeaky wheel blah blah blah. Man I was really hoping that vans would cancel the whole thing tell the whole north shore cadre to fuck themselves and they could have a for the boys comp where they compete for seashells rather than money.
Rumor has it all competitors at Pipe have to wear not only the Apple Watch, but Vans booties too.
Some are left to wonder if a surfer wearing the Vans booties would get beat up for wearing them anywhere but Pipe
The real treasure of the BG adventure is not the occasional decent article, but all the friends we made along the way.
You rang!?
The Vans Wildcard Intermediate is going to be great event, haters
Vans an icon of sorts within the massive burgeoning surf growth. And it is massive. Fresh concrete being laid worldwide to prove the fact as we go forward. Be like a Roman amphitheatre as time goes by. Waves are the new lions.
Se Vans a la mierda!
Pipeline for the team riders
Negs you did a funny! ☺️
Xox
An experienced plumber, surely you can get automatic wildcards as a Pipe Master.
Power went out on both sides of my area but all good. Everytime I look at the radar it’s a firehose pointed at Sonoma county. I don’t mind a one or two day storm but not a week straight. Have fun in the jungle.
wait, I can buy equity in BG? There’s Gamestop-level meme stock potential in this
You got salmon swimming up your driveway yet? Already tired of the rain.
Aligning themselves with the House of Tudor instead of the House of Gudang was a royal fuckup!
With the amount of working poor in CA living in Vans, they missed a clear low-hanging marketing collab
I’m no fan of the gudangs but definitely more relevant than Joel who is at least 15 years past relevance.
Their biggest mistake is not having popcush or ultracush insoles in every shoe.
Sponsoring 7,000 people was probably not a good idea either. Should have stuck with skate and snow.
Their biggest mistake was making skate shoes , they actually suck for your feet if your not a skater, and you wear them as everyday footwear they wreck your arch and have no ankle support.
Very disrespectful to the very very Hawaiian JOB :'(
*NOB
KOB
BBB is anything but lofty. Although the BB rating is technically a speculative stock (ie junk stock in Chad’s mirror) it is the highest rating of those stocks. BB are simply sensitive to the economy but are not necessarily in danger of default. Only take a little reading to understand that, you don’t have to be Nathan Florence to understand it.
FYI- The rating in question is a credit rating not an equity rating so while Chas hates surfing his hate(or confusion) of credit versus equities needs some tutelage. So after a quick review of VF’s most recent 10-Q they actually improved their net income for the 3 months ending Sept 30th. BUT their Derivatives boys seem challenged on their currency hedging program for the same three months, so that exposure generated a losing trade or in technical terms it sucked pond water. Their net debt to capital rose to 83% while in other shiny news, they can look forward to their 4.125% Senior Notes coming due 2026…