The very first vans store was in anaheim but they had a TINY retail shop right near a house we lived in in lakewood ca. right off del amo blvd,i had 6 brothers and sisters so my folks didnt have alot of money and vans were cheap so we always wore vans plus my dad knew the van doren's.Kids made fun of us in school for wearing them because they knew we couldnt afford nicer shoes.My oldest brother was a door gunner on a huey in vietnam and we have a great polaroid of him with that gun blazing and brass flying everywhere as their flying over a rice paddy wearing a pair of vans that he asked my folks to send him as his feet were always wet and in the issued boots your feet would just begin to rot but the vans dried fast.After paul van doren saw the picture and heard the story he shipped hundreds of 'seconds' they could not sell to vietnam addressed simply to 'Any US soldier,frontline, vietnam',Of course all of this was before vans became well known,around 1968 i think.