Action Sports Heavyweights Mongoose And Vans Release Throwback Collection With Our Legends

Since coming on the scene in 1966 with its original Authentic silhouette, Vans has been at the core of skateboarding culture.

It has maintained a mainstream presence, recently partnering with Tony Hawk and fielding a pro skate team that features Olympians Lizzie Armanto and Pedro Barros, but it has never forgotten its roots, with legendary pros Christian Hosoi and Steve Caballero remaining on the team.

And yet, despite all that star power, if you head down to your local skatepark and take a look around, odds are a majority of the young groms are wearing Vans.

Since 1974, Mongoose has done for BMX culture much the same Vans has for skate. The brand’s innovative cast aluminum Motomag wheels revolutionized BMX, which would explode in popularity over the years to follow.

Even today, as with Vans, Mongoose fields a talented pro team including multi-time X Games medalists Pat Casey, Kevin Peraza and Mykel Larrin as well as Olympic bronze medalist Nikita Ducarroz but is also likely the bike of choice for kids at the skatepark.

On August 12, the two brands, along with designer Our Legends, dropped a collaboration that honors their mutual contributions to action sports culture over the decades.

The drop features special edition footwear and apparel that combines classic Mongoose colorways on the iconic Vans Authentic silhouette.

The designs of the collection’s three Authentic 44 DX shoes each signify an important moment in Mongoose history—the 1970s-era orange-and-yellow rainbow on black bike graphics and stickers, the red-and-blue checkerboard Americana jerseys of the 1980s worn by the Mongoose BMX race team, and the early 1990s, represented by the turquoise-and-pink checkerboard design.

The three shoe designs retail for $105 USD per pair and are available online from Mongoose.com, OurLegends.co and Vans.com as well as select Vans dealers globally.

The collection also includes two Mongoose long-sleeve T-shirts ($50) and one crew fleece ($80) that retail for $50 and $80, respectively, whose designs are nods to vintage Mongoose and Vans marketing materials and bike and shoe designs.

Chad “Shoes” Blawas, creative studio director for Our Legends, said the designer “ wanted to pay homage to both of these iconic brands with designs that reflected multiple eras.” It’s a collection aimed not only at BMX and skate core consumers but at overall lifestyle.

In the first quarter of 2022, Amsterdam-based Pon Holdings acquired Dorel Sports, which owns Pacific Cycle, the parent company of Mongoose, along with Schwinn. Since 2004, Vans has been owned by VFVFC
Corporation, the parent company of fellow action sports brands The North Face and Supreme.

Skateboarding culture has long broken out of action sports as a subculture and become dominant in the U.S., both in street style by non-skaters and in new kids picking up the sport. Even though freestyle BMX made its Olympic debut alongside skateboarding in last summer’s Tokyo Games, however, it was much less heralded. That the Mongoose x Vans collection can be a rising tide that lifts all boats is easily the best thing about it.