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Another skate shoe? Oh yeah. Beyond the harder to obtain select store pieces, Vans picked up on the 2008 Classic Kicks project to bring a few more pieces immortalised in 'Off The Wall' skate-specific ads to the shelves again. We were particularly grateful to see colours of the '77 Mid Skool design out for the Summer. Perfect with denim, shorts and easy-to-wear for skaters, hipsters...even the born-again 'Free & Easy' brigade who are "over" sneakers could appreciate these. Best of all, no queuing, no mail order panic, daft markups or anything like that. Curious that we still get excited about models and makeups like this when over 32 years have passed since their release, but that's a testament to their design. Senior Designer Nathan Iott talked us through reissuing shoes like this...

These amplify everything we love about Vans - how did the whole ad-inspired pack project come about about? Was the Classic Kicks collection from '08 a launch for this approach to the archives?

Yes, the Classics Kicks and Conveyor project was the launch for the "Off The Wall" pack. We wanted to go back to our roots and bring back some product that harkened back to Vans' early history in skateboarding. The inspiration came from an old ad that's been in the office for years.

The whole "Off The Wall" collection is strong, but how did the whole resurrection of the Mid Skool 77 silhouette come to pass? There's been the Mid Skool shape that got the camo treatment with Syndicate, but the '77 silhouette seems a little different?

We released a black and white Mid Skool for Tony Alva when the Dogtown and Z-Boys documentary was being worked on. That version of the Mid Skool (and the Syndicate version) had been refined/adjusted over the years. For this project we decided to bring back the original 1977 pattern with the original colours that Tony Alva and the team would have worn back in the day.

Beyond archived ads, are the original Off the Wall shoes featured in the ads in a Vans archive anywhere as a reference point?

We've got several good references and samples of those shoes to pull from. Also, many of the people that work here now have grown-up with those shoes and some have worked here for 20 or 25 years.

Will these advertising-inspired stories make any reappearances in coming seasons? So many brands seem to ignore the original PR materials for their older models when they reintroduce 'em...

We followed up the first "Off The Wall" pack with another package of original archived colorways that referenced a different ad. As of now there are no plans to reintroduce any more packages based on archived ads even though much of the in-line product pulls from our traditional colour palette. The 20 anniversary of the Half Cab will be 2012...that might be the next opportunity to incorporate old imagery, ads etc.

There's so many catalogue pieces that don't get props beyond the core heritage classics - how important is it to bring 'em back with a little bit of history and cultural context behind them too?

We feel it's very important to tie Vans' history into our product and brand message. We strive to ground all of our new design and product with Vans' originality and authenticity. Vans has over 40 years of history and design to build from starting in the '60s with the first ever skate shoe; the Style 95 (the Era), which was a traditional deck shoe with suede overlays, a thicker outsole, and a padded collar added specifically for the team. As skateboarding evolved into the '70s, our team needed more durability which led to the second ever skate shoe; the Style 36 (The Old Skool). The Style 38 (The Sk8-Hi) followed in the late '70s. Vans introduced the first ever signature skate shoe in 1989 with the Caballero. Steve Caballero's second shoe, The Half Cab, was introduced in 1992 and has become synonymous with modern skateboarding and has been produced continually since its original release.

In 2000 the vulcanized Geoff Rowley was introduced, bridging a new generation of skateboarder to the previous generations. Now Vans has a team that spans all of modern skateboarding from legend to young amateur...Tony Alva, Steve Caballero, Geoff Rowley, Johnny Layton and the rest of our team continue to inspire and design new pieces that could become future classics.