Vans Taps Women, Trans and Nonbinary Skateboarders for Creative Workshops
Partnership with The Skate Witches extends ongoing "This Is Off the Wall" campaign
There’s an art to creating skateboarding media, and Vans is inviting consumers to learn the basics with help from women, trans, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming talent.
The shoe and apparel brand partnered with The Skate Witches, a submission-based media zine and platform for the skating community, to launch the Depth of Field virtual workshop series. The video tutorials, led by members of The Skate Witches network, focus on a different aspect of skateboarding content creation, from photography to video and writing.
Vans initially had planned a global tour of two-day pop-ups involving masterclasses and skate events at House of Vans locations, with the goal of inspiring women, trans and nonbinary people to develop new skateboarding content capture skills. When the pandemic canceled those plans, the brand worked with The Skate Witches founders Kristin Ebeling and Shari White to script and film the virtual series remotely in about six weeks.
“You could say The Skate Witches inspired us, but really, all Vans is doing is helping bring their vision to life. This was what The Skate Witches wanted to do, and Vans is providing a platform for them to extend their message to a broader audience,” said Jamie Reilly, global vp of creative at Vans, in a statement. “We want to continue to celebrate skateboarding as a form of personal expression and show the vibrant communities it helps to build. We love skateboarding and we love skateboarders, and we’ll do whatever we can to support their creative pursuits.”
The workshops kicked off this week, with the first one focusing on photography. The next workshop, on videography, is coming on July 23, followed by a zine writing workshop on Aug. 6.
The end of each workshop offers beginner and advanced challenges, where fans can participate for a chance to win free Vans products—including a one-year supply of shoes—and have their work featured in upcoming The Skate Witches zine and video content.
For the photography workshop, the beginner challenge invites viewers to submit an original photo using the new tricks in the lesson, and the advanced challenged invites people to submit a photo collection for a zine using different styles such as portrait mode and the fisheye lens.
Depth of Field is the latest chapter in Vans’ ongoing “This Is Off the Wall” campaign, which debuted in 2017. Vans revealed the 51-year history of Off the Wall’s meaning to kick off the campaign, celebrating individualism and creative expression.
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