Vans and Slam Jam are back together for the second chapter of Act of Disagreement: a capsule that looks at the early 2000s, when skateboarding blended with BMX, emo and a certain crooked way of wearing clothes. It has landed on our shelves in Lanciano and online, and it deserves a proper write-up: where it comes from, how it is made and how we would wear it.
what act of disagreement is
Act of Disagreement launched in October 2025 as a platform for youth subcultures: not just a product collaboration, but a space where Vans and Slam Jam explore defiance, self-expression and creative independence. The second chapter picks up that conversation and places it in a precise world, the 2000s: nostalgia, teenage angst, the need to stand out inside the group.
The campaign is directed by Lithuanian filmmaker Saulė Bliuvaitė, awarded for her films about adolescence, and it portrays friendship, small rebellions and the quiet moments that exist even in everyday chaos. Neutral backdrop, flat light, clothes left to speak: an aesthetic that anyone who grew up on skate magazines and music videos from those years recognises at once.
why slam jam matters, especially in italy
Slam Jam was founded by Luca Benini in Ferrara in 1989, when nobody in Italy used the word streetwear. It was the first to import many of the labels we now take for granted, and in thirty-five years it has become an international reference while staying loyal to the underground it came from. For a shop like ours, selling streetwear in a small Italian town since 1997, it is a story that feels close: street culture in Italy went through cities like Ferrara before it reached the capitals.
Vans, for its part, has been Californian skateboarding since 1966. Waffle sole, checkerboard, Off The Wall: a vocabulary that needs no introduction. The meeting works because neither has to pretend: Vans brings the icons, Slam Jam roughs them up with its own point of view.
the clothes: worn washes, laser and cross zips
The thread running through the apparel is vintage-inspired washes, oversized volumes and distressed finishes. The graphics are not only printed: some are embroidered, others lasered straight into the fabric, with checkerboard motifs and BMX references.
The piece you notice first is the oversized hoodie with cross-shaped zips: one vertical and one horizontal closure meeting on the chest, changing the garment depending on how you open them. Next to it are the Racing long sleeves, in black and red, with a layout borrowed from race jerseys; the Lasered tee, where the artwork is carved into the cotton instead of sitting on top; the mesh jersey, the most openly 2000s piece in the capsule; and the Braces tee, with studded braces reproduced on the front.
Below, wide-leg black denim with barbed-wire details and an oval Vans patch on the back: worn low and long over the shoe, exactly as it was done back then.
classic slip-on: the icon, worn in just right
The shoe of the capsule is the premium Classic Slip-On in black and white. The model is the one you know, but the treatment is different: lived-in canvas, printed sidewall and an Act of Disagreement sockliner. It is a Slip-On that arrives with a story already on it, made for people who actually use their shoes. You will find it with the rest of our sneakers and footwear.
Closing the set is the Star cap: six panels in heavyweight twill, worn visor and contrast embroidery. The kind of accessory that alone pushes a simple outfit towards something more considered.
see the slip-on and the full capsule →
how we would wear it
all black, different textures. Cross-zip hoodie, black denim, Slip-On. It works because the blacks are not the same: washed fleece, faded denim and shoe canvas have three different depths, and the whole reads rich without a single colour.
one strong piece. The red Racing long sleeve under an open Carhartt WIP work jacket, straight trousers. The graphic shows at the collar and cuffs, everything else stays quiet.
layered, the 2000s way. White Lasered tee over a long sleeve, wide denim, Star cap. To push it further, a white shirt peeking out at the hem: it is the detail you see across the campaign, and it costs nothing to try.
where to find it
The capsule is available in our Vans collection, online and in store in Lanciano, together with the other arrivals of the fall winter 2026 season. Quantities follow the real shelf, updated in real time. And this is not the end with Vans: more is on the way, and we will cover it here. If you are unsure about a size, write to us: we measure the actual garment, not the chart.
