The original model name of the Vans Old Skool was Style 36.
Vans introduced the shoe in 1977 as its first design to feature the now-famous leather side stripe. The stripe began as a doodled idea from co-founder Paul Van Doren and became one of the brand’s most recognizable visual marks.
The original Style 36 combined canvas and leather panels, helping reinforce high-wear areas while preserving Vans’s skate-oriented construction. Its shape and vulcanized sole later made it a major symbol of skateboarding and alternative fashion.
Vans eventually marketed the shoe as the Old Skool, the name most consumers know today. Style numbers remain useful to collectors because Vans has used many numerical model names, and the original designation is sometimes mistakenly attributed to a different classic Vans silhouette.