Vans.. skate shoes?.

In realtion to the "Nike, social responsibility and the hidden abode", there is a similar case with the brand Vans. With it's promotion toward African American's and Caucasian skaters.
"Nike has been diversifying it's product line for some time"(199). While Vans is a relatively newer company in relation to Nike, there is still this forming of ideology in who wears the brand that has been evident. This is through the fact that the typical consumer and original targeted consumer of the Vans brand is the indie kid who wears skinny jeans (a few more stereotypes of this person) long sweeping hair and skateboard possibly in hand.. you get the picture.

Recently rappers like Lil Wayne, (who is a huge figure in today's hip hop culture) has projected his love for the shoes in a number of his songs, a popular phrase being "Skinny pants and some Vans". Hip hops artists of today are showing that the skater look is the new hip hop look and presenting a previously predominantly Caucasian style of shoes and clothing to the African American culture. I find this extremely ironic as there had been previous criticism in America that many Caucasian teens where "stealing" the African American bangy style of clothing in the 90's. The two pictures shown above emphasis the similarities between the two examples and the effects of popular culture.