Vans releases 'Day of the Dead' sneakers for Halloween

Vans is always on the lookout for inspiration, whether it’s ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas, ‘Harry Potter’, or even NASA. This time the skate brand is looking to Mexico and taking inspiration from the funky ‘Dia De Los Muertos’ festival.

Using the iconic Sk8-Hi sneaker as a canvas, Vans has opted for an all-black shoe, and given it one of the most famous images associated with the festival, the sugar skull. The skull sits on the shoe surrounded by a bouquet of orange flowers and touches of red. The skull is detailed with hints of teal, yellow, red and green. There’s cob-webs in the eye-sockets to give it that extra Halloween charm.

As with any Vans sneaker, the shoe features the “Off the Wall” phrase on the tongue, this time in a matching orange. The insoles of the shoes also feature a matching floral design as the ‘Dia De Los Muertos’ artwork.

‘Dia De Los Muertos’ or ‘Day of the Dead’ is a Mexican holiday celebrated within the country, as well as by people of Mexican heritage around the globe. Celebrated in early November, close to Halloween, it’s a time for families to come together to speak to the spirits of their family. The festival is largely a celebration of the dead and past relatives, making the sugar skull a key symbol in remembering the deceased.

Frances Ann Day in her Latina and Latino Voices in Literature book describes the three-day celebration as such:

“On October 31, All Hallows Eve, the children make a children’s altar to invite the angelitos (spirits of dead children) to come back for a visit. November 1 is All Saints Day, and the adult spirits will come to visit. November 2 is All Souls Day, when families go to the cemetery to decorate the graves and tombs of their relatives. The three-day fiesta is filled with marigolds, the flowers of the dead; muertos (the bread of the dead); sugar skulls; cardboard skeletons; tissue paper decorations; fruit and nuts; incense, and other traditional foods and decorations.”