Vans Puts Pearls and Signal Flags on the Old Skool 36

Vans opens its fall Pearlized run on September 10 with a colorway called Yacht Club, a Premium Old Skool 36 that sells for $130 in style code VN000E8VBGK. Green canvas, blue suede at the toe and heel, a red heel tab, a gold quarter panel and pearl studs running the length of the Sidestripe. It is the first of six Pearlized colorways Vans has scheduled through December, and it is the least subtle way the brand has interpreted the shoe in a while.

Vans dates Style 36 to 1977 and calls it the second skate shoe the company ever built. It was the first Vans to carry the Sidestripe, which became the brand’s most recognizable piece of design language, and it was renamed the Old Skool in the early 1990s before being folded into the Vans Classics line after its 30th anniversary. The 36 designation is the one enthusiasts look for, because Vans uses it to mark the older pattern rather than the mass-market Old Skool that sits next to it on the same wall. Vans has spent the last several years using the 36 as its canvas for anything that needs to look considered, which is why the LX and Premium tiers almost always run on this pattern rather than the standard one.

The Pearlized treatment is what the collection is named for and it is doing more work than a print would. Pearl and crystal studs run along the Sidestripe, around the toe cap and up the collar, set into a canvas upper that has been distressed at the factory rather than left clean. The foxing tape arrives already scuffed and yellowed with a black trim line, so the shoe leaves the box looking like it has been worn for a season. Yacht Club takes its color blocking from international signal flags, which is where the green, blue, red and gold panels come from, and Vans pairs that with the high-gloss sidewall and heavier stitching it uses across the Premium range. The laces are cream rather than white, which keeps the aged story consistent.

Pre-distressing a shoe is not new for Vans. The Vault line has sold factory-aged canvas for years and the LX packs have leaned on it repeatedly. What is new is the tier it is happening in. Premium is the range Vans built to sell a classic at a higher price without a collaborator’s name on it, and embellishment is the fastest available way to justify that number to a buyer who already owns an Old Skool. That is a fashion strategy rather than a skate one, and the release calendar confirms it. Six colorways rolling out on set dates between September and December is how a seasonal apparel collection is merchandised, not how a skate shoe usually reaches a shop. Whether that works depends on whether the studs read as considered or as costume, and this particular colorway is the loudest test Vans could have led with.

At $130 the Premium Old Skool 36 sits in the middle of the Old Skool ladder on Vans’ own store. A standard Old Skool is $75. The Premium Old Skool, the non-36 pattern in the same elevated tier, runs $150. So Vans is charging $55 over the classic for the older last, the embellishment and the factory distressing, and asking $20 less than the shoe directly above it. It is also the price Vans needs the Pearlized story to carry with no collaborator’s name attached, which is a harder sell than a partner logo and a more durable one if it lands.

The Premium Old Skool 36 in Pearlized Yacht Club Green and Multi launches September 10 at $130 in style code VN000E8VBGK, on Vans.com, at select Vans retail stores and through wholesale partners. In EMEA the Marshmallow colorway restocks the same day, with Lime Pop on November 12, Navy on November 19, Black and Marshmallow White on November 27, and Red on December 10. For more on this silhouette, see the Old Skool 36 in Charcoal Paint Splatter and the earlier Vans Old Skool Pearlized in Vintage Cocoa Brown. For where Vans takes the Premium idea with a partner attached, read our piece on OTW by Vans and NEIGHBORHOOD’s Authentic 44.

Written by

The Sneakers Team

The Sneakers Team is the editorial desk behind becausesneakers, founded and edited by Nick Engvall. Nick has spent more than two decades in the sneaker industry. He built the original Eastbay Blog, led the first dedicated sneaker team at Complex, ran the first UGC and seeding programs at Finish Line, was employee number nine at StockX, and served as Senior Director at Stadium Goods. He hosts the Sneaker History podcast, and his first book, Small Luxuries: Sneakers, arrives in October 2026 from Motorbooks. Release details on this site are checked against the brand's own product information before publication, and anything we cannot confirm is labelled rather than stated.

More from The Sneakers Team →