Vans sold 12 pairs of shoes on its first day of business.
The company opened on March 16, 1966, as the Van Doren Rubber Company at 704 East Broadway in Anaheim, California. Unlike many footwear businesses, it manufactured shoes and sold them directly to customers from the same location.
The first-day story is unusually hands-on: the store displayed three shoe styles, but the founders had not yet prepared finished inventory for every order. Customers selected shoes and returned the next day to collect them. The early shoes were simple deck shoes with sturdy rubber soles, later associated with the Vans Authentic.
This episode is often remembered alongside another detail: the store did not have enough change available for those opening-day purchases. The 12 pairs figure refers to pairs bought by customers, not the number of people who visited the store or the number of styles on display.