“Well done, Daniel, well done.”
That’s Steve Rendle, president and COO of VF Corp, on an earning call yesterday (April 29), thanking the star of the viral video “Damn, Daniel.”
“Damn, Daniel,” which originally appeared on Snapchat in February, stars high-schooler Daniel and his shoes. Twice in the video Daniel is praised for his white Vans—and as a result, says the company, white Vans had a great quarter.
In the American market, Vans as a whole saw a near 20% increase in direct-to-consumer sales and 30% increase in e-commerce sales in the first quarter of 2016.
The white slip-on shoes (called “deck” shoes) are an icon of the beloved skater brand, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Though Vans filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the ’80s, it bounced back in the mid-aughts, when it was bought by apparel giant VF Corp. For the last five years it’s reported consistent double-digit growth in sales each quarter.
Image by David Martyn Hunt on Flickr, licensed under CC BY 2.0.