Is Your Player Wearing Vans in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4?

Tony Hawk is equal parts icon, skateboarder, and entrepreneur. Thanks to the release of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater in 1999, where Tony Hawk actually sat in on development related to the virtual player’s skating experience, skateboarding video games were revolutionized forever. From the punk and hip hop soundtrack to the pro skaters featured in the game, everything about Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater felt authentic to Tony Hawk. 

Well, almost everything. While Vans were the first skate shoes Tony Hawk ever wore and he skated in Vans all through the first half of the ‘80s, they were nowhere to be seen in the first rendition of the game. To be fair, no brands were seen in the first rendition of the game.

Installments 3 + 4 brought more of a narrative to the game play, as well as new parks and, you guessed it, new skaters. Activision decided to further up the reality of the game by allowing real-world brands into the virtual landscape for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4: especially brands that sponsor characters in the game. Several iconic styles of Vans shoes can be seen gripping the virtual decks as players kickflip and revert their way through the levels of the game. The Skate Half Cab, Skate Lizzie, Skate Sk8-Hi, Skate Old Skool, Skate Slip On, Skate Authentic, and even the polarizing (but cult classic) Rowley XLT can all be seen on screen.

After these decades of informal partnership, Hawk officially signed as a global ambassador with Vans on April 13th of 2020. In a post to Instagram, waxing about his earliest Vans memories, writing, “I remember my first pair of Vans that I incessantly bugged my dad for at age 11, and then eventually convinced him to buy the ‘ankle guard’ accessory (before high tops existed). I wore them until I literally burned through to my toenails doing kneeslides... and then applied duct tape just to wear them some more. I continued to wear the brand in my formative years (which are well documented), including being the odd-man-out in Search For Chin as everyone else wore Jordans. Thanks to Vans for keeping the core of skating alive.” 

Hawk famously wears the Skate Sk8-His, but all of the shoes seen in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 are available for purchase on Vans.com. We can’t promise they’ll allow you to ollie over parking lot structures and remain unscathed, but they won’t hurt your pop, either. 

Vans Skate Shoes, including the Skate Sk8-His, Skate Half Cab, Skate Lizzie, and more are available to shop now across select Vans retail locations and at Vans.com. View Vans Skate Shoes here.