Airwalks vs. Vans

The pricing of shoes ,who wears shoes, and where they can be can bought, determines the “coolness” of them for example Airwalks vs. Vans . Vans are cooler. The term coolness can be described as what’s new and what is in. Airwalks shoes where founded in 1986 by Bill Mann, George Yohn, and Jess Laguna, Vans came along 20 years earlier in 1966. Vans shoes were created by Paul Van Doren. Airwalks can be purchased at Payless. Vans are purchased at Journeys, and other stores at the mall. Payless is seen as uncool because it is cheaper. The people you tend to see shopping at Payless are the older and younger generations not the teenagers. Growing up in elementary and middle school if you walked down the hallway with payless shoes on you were made fun of simply because your shoes were cheap and the brand may not have been a well known one for example Airwalks. However Journeys is seen as the cool store. Mostly teens go to Journeys where as older people tend to go to payless more.

Vans are seen as cool in today’s teen population. Skaters wear vans while they grind on rails and do tricks on their skate boards. In the hip- hop world vans are seen as cool too. There is a hip hop song named Vans were the artist, The Pack.”They slide in and out real easy like chucks. You can get different colors like rainbows.” This is a line from the song that explains how convenient vans are(they slide in and out real easy) and how cool they are because you can get them in all different colors to match your style. Cool also means to match. Vans also symbolize “coolness” because famous people wear them. For example the hip-hop artist Pharrell always wears vans to portray his skater look. You don’t see too many famous people walking around wearing Airwalks because they are referred to as the “fake me out” vans. Meaning Airwalks are the cheaper, fake versions of vans.

But what is the real difference between Vans and Airwalks? You can also get different color air walks and they slide on easy as well. They look exactly the same. The only difference between Airwalks and Vans is the name on the back of the shoes. But lately payless has been making a statement. More and more teens are starting to buy sandals from there. I think if this recession continues people will begin to turn to the cheaper store for their shoe needs. But as of today because Airwalks are cheaper and can be purchased from Payless so they have been stamped uncool.

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