Texon insole board shown in Vans promotional video

Watch how Vans makes its secret skate shoe rubber with Texon inside.

Vans has spent a half-century making some of the best skate shoes on the planet. Now, on the company’s 50th anniversary, they showed us the magic they’ve been using to make great shoes all these years. Okay, a little bit of the magic.

Also shown in the video is Texon cellulose insole board.

Since the company’s inception in California, Vans has used a proprietary formula involving a mix of compounds, tread patterns, and design details to create its skate shoe outsoles. While Vans contracts its shoe rubber creation to a number of factories overseas (the original Vans outsoles were made in California), only two factories handle the performance skate-specific rubber soles—one in Shangdu, China, and the other in Vietnam.