The Los Angeles Times is reporting that James Van Doren, who co-founded the Van Doren Rubber Co., better known simply as Vans, has died. All quotes are taken from said article.

James Van Doren, who ran the company from 1976 to 1984, died Oct. 12 at his home in Fullerton after a long illness, said his wife, Char. He was 72.

"He was a mechanic, a chemist, the brains behind the early shoe," said his nephew, Steve Van Doren, one of several family members who still work for the company. "In his garage, he made all the molds for the very first soles," including the trademark waffle design.

Van Doren's waffle design allowed for a lightweight skate shoe that combined both grip and feel. Allowing the rider increased control, without sacrificing the skater's ability to feel the subtleties of the board beneath their feet, the waffle sole was a genuinely important shift in shoe design. The principle has been taken up, adapted, and arguably improved upon, often by Vans themselves, over the subsequent decades, but it began with Van Doren, and the influence of this innovation on skateboarding and it's surrounding culture is difficult to overstate.

However, James was a human being who existed in a fuller context.

"He was a very driven man, a hard worker, very giving, very funny," his son James said. "He could control a room with his stories." In addition to Char, his wife of 15 years, Van Doren is survived by his sons from a previous marriage, James, Mark and Eric; brothers Paul and Robert; sister Bernice; and five grandchildren.