Vans new Mary Jane skate shoe is a lot of things at once. This sneaker is, simultaneously, inspired by classic Mary Jane leather shoes, features a chunky creeper sole, and is built with the DNA of a classic Vans skate shoe.

It’s a rare combination of design traits to find on a single shoe. And that it's this wearable and cool at the same time is clearly quite a feat. 

The Vans Mary Jane Creeper sneaker’s thick, ridged outsole carries the rebellious DNA of classic creeper shoes, a subcultural icon rooted in the 1950s teddy boy scene and later adopted by punk, rockabilly, and goth bands as a throwback motif.

In the modern day, Vans fuses that stomptastically bulky creeper sole with a delicate Mary Jane upper, creating a footwear silhouette that taps into decades of countercultural history while also playing off a nice design contrast. 

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The sneaker's oversized grommet strap only amplifies its punk bravado, ensuring this shoe isn’t your average mary jane shoe.

Not that mary jane shoes are ordinary themselves, but this Vans skate shoe goes the extra mile.

Mary jane? Chunky creeper? Waffle-soled skate shoe? This is all of them, combined. and made better.

And that's pretty fitting for a shoe style that came to prominence not as part of the uniform worn by British schoolgirls but because of an early 20th-century comic strip.

There's always more to the mary jane than meets the eye. It seems simple but it's not exactly what you may think.

Hence why the Vans’ Mary Jane Creeper, available now on the Vans website for $75, is a sneaker that only gets better by its refusal to be easily categorized.

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