VANS MAG FY25 PART 3 by yvonne de cotiis

Dear Colleagues,

I’m excited to share the transformation of my role as Retail Operations Coordinator, now with a specific . This shift allows me to dedicate my efforts to

I will be particularly working on:

▪ Vans Retail University (VRU)

▪ Vans Retail Academy (VRA), and

▪ Mobietrain enhancement.

To help me, I’m thrilled to introduce , which, together with the marvellous Jo Mc Tavish, your L&D Manager, is committed to fostering a culture of continuous learning and professional growth:

Andrew Hatcher Roel Kornips Silvio D’Onofrio Laura Manzano

Kerry Clifton

Antoine Diarra

Miriam Luongo

Veronica Celeghin

her dedication and commitment truly makes a difference, setting a great example for the entire team. This is just one of the many ways our support team continuously exceeds expectations, please read her words below:

“After completing the VRU for SM, ASM, and SUP, we prioritized the module related to their specific D.O.R. for Sales Specialists and Sales Associates.

I always want the entire team to be involved in the big picture, so I assigned the D.O.R. to the five most experienced members (the three managers and the two 30-hour Sales Specialists), while the three 20-hour part-timers support with specific accountabilities.

Our vision is:

▪ Talent: Veronica (SM40h)

▪ Operations: Sara (ASM40h)

▪ Customer Experience: Filippo (SUP40h), owner of the DOR, supported by Riccardo (SA20h), who handles the tracking and driving of Vans Family, including board completion and team updates on club benefits and news.

▪ Brand: Alessia (SS30h), owner of the DOR, supported by Rachele (SS20h) with various missions on Yoobic, VANS Magazine, Reward & Recognition. Of course, when one is on vacation, all accountability falls on the other.

▪ Stock: Oksana (SS30h), owner of the DOR, supported by Alberto (SS20h) with out-of-stock reports, handover packs FTW, and overstock FTW. Naturally, when one is on vacation, all accountability falls on the other.

We use VRU as the basis for specific training and to outline the DOR, choosing which topic each “Robin” should support their “Batman” on. This fiscal year personal characteristics of each team member. In the future, I would like to rotate the accountabilities a bit to keep the team engaged and work on their development from all perspectives”.

Wonderful, INNIT?

I look forward to working closely with my support team and driving initiatives like this forward. Together,

Let’s embark on this exciting journey of growth and success!

Thanks for your attention and stay tuned for further GREAT initiatives!

COLOGNE LYON ISTANBUL ISTIKAL

ISTANBUL OPTIMUM

PALMA DE MALLORCA

CLARKS VILLAGE

JOHi All,

Unbelievably, It’s a little over SIX MONTHS since we launched the ELEVATE service strategy in Lisbon to your District Managers and Support Leaders. This was then shared at your District Meetings as we moved into Summer trade. I was lucky enough to be part of some of the District meetings and hear

It was vital that this was never just about delivering this at meetings though! This needed to come to life… live and breathe on the shop floors throughout EMEA. For this to be THE standard of service across ALL Vans Retail and Outlet stores, we needed to plan, implement and follow up throughout our teams.

We are delighted to hear from your District Managers about specific successful launches of the ELEVATE content. The elements of the service strategy have really been coming to life, and we asked these stores to share how they made ELEVATE a reality in their stores. Over the coming issues, we will be sharing their successes and hope that we can inspire each other with their actions.

First stop: GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN

SIMON in our Gothenburg store has shared their ELEVATED experience with us:

How did you roll out the initial elevate content?

I planned in a meeting with out management team the first thing I did when I got back from the district meeting in Antwerp. As help, I brought the three PDF’s you gave us. We went through them all, put our own twist on them to fit our team, our city and our customers. After that, we planned in a team meeting with the whole gang and the three of us (management team) presented and talked about one pillar each.

How have you kept the ELEVATE focus alive in-store?

We have a printed copy of the three pillars and the practice cards in the cash desk. During calm periods they sometimes comes out and makes sure that we keep the information fresh. The day-today SFC in store also has a big focus on elevated service.

What has been your most successful element of ELEVATE in your store, and why?

The most successful element for us has been initiating conversations energetically I think it’s because it comes very natural for us. That’s who we are as individuals. It doesn’t feel like we’re putting on an act, it feels real for both us and the customers. Everyone in our store loves the brand, loves the culture and loves meeting new people. It’s hard to not be energetic within these four walls

What has been the most challenging part, and how have you/are you working to overcome it?

I always find this question to be the hardest to answer. But I think our biggest challenge, even before the elevated roll out, is that some customers might find us being “too much” sometimes. It’s not that we’re bad at chameleon service or anything. Sometimes we just get a little bit to energetic and miss out on feeling the vibe from the customer. We’ve been going back to basics, talking about mirroring the customers, taking our time to feel them out and adapting to whoever is in front of us.

AND NOW LET’S FLY TO SWITZERLAND...

Second stop: LUGANO, SWITZERLAND

Lorenzo in our Lugano store has shared how they rolled our ELEVATE in their store:

How did you roll out the initial ELEVATE content?

We made a very powerful store meeting at the Lugano's skate park to discuss CUSTOMER CONNECTION and RECLAMING SKATE. The Team was happy to make a "different type" of meeting, not just slides on the screen but we made workshop with the activity cards and a Skate lesson with a master (see pics attached). SHOWCASING ICONS has been delivered in store touching and feeling our products in the next days after the meeting.

How have you kept the ELEVATE focus alive in-store?

Talking with the Team constantly about the meeting's contents: (At-a-Glance in SF) . We kept the focus high on every single interaction ,focusing on We implemented a project called ,with the scope to speak more to the customer about our shoes (story, features, benefits).

The focus is on a specific family of shoes for a timeframe (at least 1 month) and is also linked to an instore contest.

We have to talk about this shoe with every single interaction, using specific keywords or topics as a guideline (made by Marta).

The winner is who sells more pairs of these shoes during the contest and will get a special prize (Vans gadgets, weekend off).

Also, we refreshed the , using a new De-Brief card layout and re-focus on CES and NPS result (weekly update on results and customer feedbacks.)

What has been the most challenging part, and how have you/are you working to overcome it?

The Elevate project started with the store layout, and this has been one of the challenges that we had. Different exposition, more genderless, less size on the floor are the objections that we had from our customers.

The other main important factor is the , that is not going in the same way with the elevation strategy. People is still thinking about Vans as a low price point brand and not like a "premium streetwear" brand like other competitors.

WOW.. I love this kind of meeting!

Hi All,

Who are GMG?

I hope that you are all well! In late August, I was fortunate enough to with Natalie as part of our collaboration with . I am thrilled to share with you an overview of our visit… I had never been to this part of the world, and I was incredibly curious what I was going to experience. I had met many of the GMG leadership team in May and I was thrilled to get to work with them again.

GMG are a pioneering retail, manufacturing and distribution company that has a growing portfolio of brands across sports, everyday goods, foods as well as health and beauty. They distribute Vans as well as The North Face and Timberland in The United Arab Emirates as well as North Africa.

We delivered content over two days, to Dubai store managers and support leaders that attended face-to-face in their offices as well as many attendees online from places such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Tunisia in Northern Africa.

The content we delivered covered:

▪ Our brand foundations and creating a Vans culture in-store.

▪ Service focused build from our Customer Connections and Showcasing Vans Elevate content.

SFC and how we can drive our performances in-store. It was such a learning experience for me.

As someone born and raised in Scotland, it was hugely interesting to hear the different cultural feedbacks from our attendees across their different regions. One thing was clear from the start: we are working with team members that are very passionate about our brand and how we can share the Vans experience in their varied locations.

Working session In GMG office

Our final day was spent on a There it was awesome to meet store and GMG field teams out at work! The RSOD floor-set strategy was starting to be rolled out and it was awesome to get to speak to the teams about how we can elevate our service focus to best support the new shop layout.

We are really excited to be working with GMG as we move into Q3, I am looking forward to keeping you all updated on our WHAT NEXT!

Massive Thanks to Natalie for her support in this project.

Market visit in Dubai

NIKWAX SALES CONTEST

Hello there!!

In Vans Store Outlet Malaga, during July and August, a was held where each participant recorded their daily sales on a sheet of a paper daily.

It was a very close and exciting competition that ended with the following results:

First place: PEPELU, with 74 units sold.

Second place: RAUL, with 34 units sold.

Third place: JAVI, with 29 units sold.

The winners received the following prizes:

•First prize: 70% discount on a selected item.

•Second prize: a decorative Van Doren skateboard deck.

•Third prize: a pack of Vans Off The Wall temporary tattoo stickers.

An impressive result!

You may recognize the names of the first and second place winners as they are among the latest hires to our team (we featured them in an article in the previous magazine). What a pair!

Congratulations to all 3, you have done a

VANS' BETTER THAN SKETCHERZZ

We are always aiming to the top, so we want this place for sure

Not trying to make an unfair competition, BUT 4 times a Sketcher user profiles walks into the store (expecially women)They are usually just waiting for their relatives to find some vans shoes, but they still think they don't like vans. Then, our team decided to guess their size taking a quick look at their shoes and to bring a pair of ULTRARANGE NEO VR3's and offered them to try it on while kids are browsing

So let's not lose our chance to be one of the shoe purchasing brand of many people that thought they wouldn't do Vans!

David Irvine sent us some of the Store Boards from UK. Let’s have a look to the ones in Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester

This is our recognition board in the staffroom, where, after our Elevate training, we got all the team to tell us who their Icons were, we got them to write a little bit about why they had chosen their Icons and then we put our 3 Vans icons on the board

Underneath is our recognition section where WE CELEBRATE THE TEAM’S ACHIEVEMENTS, whether its great service, positive attachment’s or just a great day’s work! We share the feedback card with the team member and then present it in the staffroom for everyone to see.

Keeping ELEVATE alive, was created as a hub for the team to:

▪ share information

▪ stay up to date on all things VANS

Whether it be influencers pushing product, events, Interviews, or Steves positive experiences in Costco! !

I love the Store Floor plan with the color coding and the products set in the right place.

The Vans’ Board in Manchester Traffors is the «cleanest» one!

What can we say about our Sara??

We can describe her in three words: precise, madly in love with Lizzie Armanto and a true brand ambassador!

In her private collection she can boast the ERA 95 DX Anaheim factory red-blue worn for the first time by one of her idols: Stacy Peralta.

One of her big dreams? As a true photography enthusiast:

Hi all,

my name is Stefan, I rejoined VF after a three-year absence, stepping into the role of Vans Multi-Store Manager in Berlin. My previous career with VF has taken me across multiple companies and countries within cities like where I advanced from a Junior Sales position to managing a European Flagship Store as Assistant Store Manager.

I have been snowboarding since 97 and skate since 99. My first touch point with Vans was in 2001 I think, and the model was a black Revert, and my shoe quiver has been growing since, mostly Half Cabs, Rowleys and other pro models, also a Vans Aura Pro for regular snowboarding and a Brian Iguchi Verse Range boots for splitboarding.

In my time off I also love to spend my time out in nature, accompanied by my four-legged friend Barney ( a 2,5-year-old Border Collie), hiking and bikepacking.

Cheers

Stefan

My name is , I'm 23, and I'll be joining Vans in the Kalverstraat at the end of September as . My ‘’original’’ background ranges from medicinal chemistry to scientific research, where I developed a strong attention to detail and problem-solving skills. However, through my experiences at Napapijri and Timberland, I discovered a true passion for retail, especially in connecting with customers and being part of a dynamic team. I'm excited to bring my background and enthusiasm to Vans

I'm 24), I've been with Vans for 3 years this August, which is also the month I officially became the .

I've always loved Vans, been wearing the shoes for as long as I can remember and continue to do so ;) I'm excited for this new step in my career and to see my team and store thrive as we all continue to grow together!

My name is and I work in recruiting for Retail.

We have a lot of single Vans sample shoes at the office, and I thought it would be a good idea to paint them and make them into decorative items for the home. I always loved art and think you can be creative with anything. I am currently approaching charitable organisations to paint the shoes with either children or people with disabilities.

I believe this project demonstrates that everyday items can be reused and made into something beautiful and novelty.

Hi to you all!

Let us introduce to you our newest member of the team!

She is , who is working with us for two months already.

In this time, we got to know her a bit and she is a She is very easygoing and always has a smile on her face. She also loves skateboarding and Vans since she was a kid. Punk rock is her first choice when it comes to listen to music.

Wish her all the best!!

My name is , I am from Almería, but I live in Seville.

I work at the Vans outlet store in Seville. I have been working with VF for a year and seven months, and I have been a sales specialist and since July 1, my position is I love my job because I like dealing with customers. Working at Vans outlet Sevilla is like being with family, it’s been a long time since I felt so comfortable working in a store and I owe that to my team and my manager (she makes you feel like you always have someone by your side).

I also find my work easy because I love the brand, it’s a lifestyle and a way of seeing things and I love that everyone uses it regardless of age. I love working for VF and for Vans and especially for Vans Sevilla and I hope it will be for many more years… my goals are to be happy and to be happy with my work and here I am getting it. Thank you all and I will continue to work hard to make tomorrow bright.

Hi guys,

My name is , I´m in Vans Seville, I carry 3 years on Vf company and I am very happy be a member on this family. In these years the company and the team help me for grow a person and professional, I start with a temporally contract then 10h sales associate, 20h sales specialist, 30h supervisor and 40h Asm. Thanks all the stayed with me in these years!!!! And for more years on this family.

Hi! I have been working in the shop in Bilbao for a month, and I couldn´t be happier!

Vans has been one of my favorite brands since I was a child, so being working with them it´s being a pleasure!

As an animal lover, I connect even more with people that come into the shop with their 4-legged family members.

However, it is incredibly easy to work with customers, people, that are so passionate about Vans, and that keeps you learning a little bit more about the brand and its culture every day. In conclusion, I´m very gratefull for this experience that has just started!

Both coming from the same high school to perform their in our company, here we have

Let's start with the one with two years of experience here with us, the . It has been crazy his glow up all this time! We are so proud of him and deeply happy to assist this professional and personal growing, too! Now, he's moving to Switzerland to challenge himself. That a huge loss for the team. Nevertheless, we wish him so much luck even he doesn't need it at all!

Dumb roll for our beloved ! From the very first day, he has been courageous and dare to manage good sales! Since then, he has not stopped finding how to improve his skills and perform our skate procedure. This way, he became one of the most awake sales attendant. Once he finished the summer period with us, he continued working at TNF.

However, now we have the spot to have him back! Lucky us!!

Sorry we only have good words for these two

beach vibrated for two days, on , . Selected for their style and technique as well as for their attitudes and commitments, these athletes include iconic figures such as Sasha Jane Lowerson, the first transgender surfer. The festival highlights diverse profiles, including Lola Mignot, nicknamed ‘the Rosalia of Surf’, Elisa Aberlbide, our local from Côte des Basques, as well as Basque surfers Alaitz Cabada and Ana Morau. This year, the competition format innovated with a team event, bringing together surfers from Japan, Morocco, Norway, Mexico and the United States.

To further promote inclusion, we have offered a Wild Card, including a plane ticket, to Rafael Nogalo, a queer surfer from the Philippines, to participate in the festival. A raffle has also raised €600 to The Expression Session (free sessions outside the competition) has been organised by the

In August we had the second contest from the Grenzlandcup

This is a

This time it was the first time in Roermond and the first ever contest in Roermond and Vans was there ofcourse with the delicous waffles. It was a super fun day and everybody was super happy with the waffles we got a lot of compliments that they tasted amazing. The best part was to do this for the place where i grew up and spend the most time, to see all my friends compete with each other and have fun and most importantly having a amazing day!

We had another edition of the Grenzlandercup , this time in Kevelaer in Germany , this event was way bigger than in Roermond , we had a cool location beside Skate-Aid . We had some really good weather and the vibes were there! There were alot of of people and there was much to do around the skatepark there were jumping castles for the kids there was a graffiti wall skateshop and even a tattoo artist ! The waffles sold like crazy and had people come back multiple times for the delicious waffles , we also put a Tip jar there because alot of people wanted to pay but there was no opportunity for that ,

This was one of the coolest waffle stands i ever did !!

My town celebrated their with a best trick contest. They approach us to support the local skateboard scene with the waffle stand 2 sales associates of Vans Roermond cooked up their best waffle baking skills and supported the skaters and spectators with the iconic Vans waffles during the event.

- words I will mumble when they wheel me into an old folks home, wearing my Old Skools. But also words to live by when planning a birthday party for a toddler as a millennial parent. I decided to throw my two-year-old

Complete with a Warped-proof playlist, custom posters and merch, stick-on tattoos, cupcakes … I’m not afraid to admit I had the most fun planning and executing this.

Special thanks to our friend Nico from the Antwerp office, for donating a few gadgets. The kids (and their parents) absolutely loved it.

Cheyenne, ex-VF colleague (Belgium offices, 2016-2023)

fantastic because we have the privilege of sometimes making friends.

And that's where I wanted to go!

VANS had the privilege of being the theme of a friend's birthday party at VANS ALCOCHETE.

on August 31st and we can say that since he was a little boy he's known what's good!

As a team we can help make his party a success by providing some boxes and stickers to make our little friend's day even more VANTASTIC!

It was a pleasure to meet João Pedro and his family during the visits to our store. We know that everyone will love seeing and learning about João's day and we look forward to hearing more stories like ours!

LOOK AT THIS VANS BOX CAKE!!! YUMMY!!!

Just flip the Hungarian flag to have an italian one ☺

-‘’What satisfies people? working with passion. ‘’

-‘’What if your passion became your job? That's exactly my case. ‘’

Hello everyone, my name is and I am the

My passions are tattoos and hip-hop culture, although I admit to having a soft spot for the great Frank Sinatra classics.

I was born in Budapest in the Hungarian capital, and then moved to Italy as a child, specifically Novi Ligure (Alessandria), and that's where my story began. I remember behind my house there was a public park, where there was a ramp for skateboarding. That place soon became the meeting point for us teenagers, where every day I would see guys older than us enjoying the asphalt with their boards to learn some new tricks, skating all day long and despite their skinned knees they always had a smile on their face. I still remember our shining eyes full of admiration for them. Soon, driven by curiosity, I started saving up from my pocket money to buy a board, and the first time I managed to complete a ‘’Kickflip‘’ trick I cried with joy. Later on, driven by my passion, I had the chance to enter the retail world, where I have now been working for 11 years.

But the real question is how did I end up at Vans?

I worked for 9 years at the Serravalle outlet, in Italy, and then the last 2 years my previous company gave me the opportunity to put my skills to the test and I started working in, and developed other retail outlets store abroad as District manager, specifically in France, Italy and Germany. For a total of 6 Stores.

During the last 8 months, my stay in Germany has been extended, allowing me to divide my time between the points of sale in Ingolstadt, Metzingen and Wertheim, where I currently reside. Now far from home, my partner decided to join me in Germany, and by mutual agreement we decided to live in Wertheim, where my working life would later change thanks to Vans.

Twenty-three years and 900 kilometers later, I still retain the same passion that allows me to inspire new people every day, and the best thing? It has become my job.

Ciao italia!

HiFamily,

I’m Rossana, District Manager Italy South-RSM and Greta’s mother, she is 23 and she is my best success in this life. I am the first District Manager Woman hired in my Country.

But I started as part-time sales specialist in Timberland in 2008.

I worked hard everyday to do my best. Many time I felt tired. Many time I wondered if it was the right way. It was hard to find a balance being a woman, between my life

Hi everyone!

It is a pleasure for me to open a new stage by participating in Vans Magazine.

I'm and my role is to (El Corte Ingles, a well-known department store that you will find in any large city in Spain) . We are 43 stores and we continue to expand. My place is in Barcelona, at the office and travelling around visiting the stores. I share this role with my colleague Raul Izquierdo.

From now on in each edition, we will present one of our stores and the team that makes it up.

Some of you already know me but most of you not…. I have been in the company for 14 years... wow!! 14! I would like to tell you a little more about myself...

, I'm a vinyl collector, I mainly listen to punk but lately I'm crazy about bands from the sixties and seventies made up mainly of women, also I dedicate a large part of my free time organizing events with different collective with the mission of generating safe spaces in which all people (regardless of gender or sexual orientation) can enjoy punk and hardcore music . You can check it one of those collective in IG ( ), and maybe you can come to one of our concert or festival. Know I'll stop talking about music because honestly, I could go on for hours. ;)

My other great passion and my life partner for 14 years (yes, he entered my life at the same time as Vans) is called and he is charming... a real gentleman with a very cozy hair.

I love my job because I can be my self each day and I really like the contact with people, I learn every single day working directly with the team, they are the most important part in my day.

I hope we can meet soon and have the opportunity to continue chatting.

Hi super Vans Family,

We are so happy to saw the new two stores in Madrid. The concession map is continuous growing up and we want to share with all of you our excitement about that.

At the end of August, is located in a neighborhood of Madrid named in honour of Francisco de Goya, Spanish painter known for "The Nude Maja" or "The 3rd of May in Madrid" among many others.

Well, with this creative essence and a lot of enthusiasm, have teamed up to offer our customers all the Vans culture in a space where they feel inspired.

GOYA NEIGHBORHOOD IN MADRID & THE AMAZING ECI TEAM: PEDRO, TANIA AND MACIEL!

is located in Alcalá de Henares, a city northeast of Madrid, which saw the birth of Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish novelist and poet author of "Don Quixote".

Rubén and Helen, two veterans in our concessions, have combined their experience and their very present Vans feeling to offer our customers interest and connection with the brand.

They arrive anxious to introduce themselves and tell you a little more about them, ¡Let's go!

Ruben writing…

In a certain village in La Mancha, which I do not wish to name, there lived not long ago a gentleman-one of those who have always a lance in the rack, an ancient SHIELD, a lean hack and a greyhound for coursing... all these words do not describe me at all.

I have taken the audacity to use these words to address you and introduce you from the lands where he was born, Alcalá de Henares, to one of the most relevant figures in Spanish literature, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.

Lands that have just welcomed our new and wonderful concession in El Corte Inglés in Alcalá de Henares.

And you may wonder why this enthusiasm is due, this is because, although I was not born in this wonderful city, it welcomed me a few years ago as another son, and where I met my other half.

Well, after this long preamble, it's time for me to introduce myself.

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.

My name is and together with my fantastic partner Helen we form the team of our new concession. I love nature, traveling and playing sports, but with one condition, I always be accompanied by my other half and our two little furry ones.

I have dedicated more than half of my life to the wonderful world of retail, yes, although it may seem like a lie, twenty years go by in the blink of an eye, but since my soul is eternally young, I have many more left!

But I don't want to talk about past battles and I will focus on the present.

I want to convey my joy, enthusiasm and gratitude for welcoming me into this great family.

It's been almost eight years, and those that remain, but I still remember my first days.

I have shared thousands of experiences with all my colleagues, colleagues who continue, who are no longer here and those who I will meet, and I want to convey to them in my own handwriting my gratitude, thank you for making me grow, thank you for making me be part of your family , thank you so much.

I send you a huge hug. My Vans family.

Helen writing…

My name is and I've been part of the big Vans family for 11 years. I started working in the corner of the Corte Inglés de Sol covering a holiday period and they gave me the great opportunity to stay and I couldn't say no! (Not only because I love Vans, is because I had to feed my dogs and they ate a lot.).

After 8 years working in the center of Madrid, at ECI Sol, I moved to the store located in the Corte Inglés Sanchinarro where I spent 2 wonderful years. This summer I had the opportunity to move close to home, to the corner of El Corte Inglés in Alcalá de Henares, and, although it was hard for me to say goodbye to my colleagues in Sanchinarro, working close to home is a gift. In addition, I have met again with an old colleague of Sol and ¡we make a perfect tandem! I am very happy to have started this new adventure with Rubén.