In typical rebellious teen fashion, a band of SoCal secondary school students are fixated on subjects outside conventional education curriculum: sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. Smells like the 80s, doesn’t it, but that’s because it is. In 1982, the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High hit the silver screen with that as it’s backdrop. Based on real-life experiences as chronicled by Cameron Crowe, the story is centred around young Jeff Spicoli, a surfer jock that is constantly stoned who is at odds with Mr Hand, who is completely certain that everyone is on the joint.

It’s high school drama with a rockstar’s list of desires thrown in for good measure, making for a well-received film. The story told in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, however, is ultimately unimportant here. For sneaker icon Vans, what mattered is that this movie catapulted its Classic Slip-On, with its distinctive checkerboard print, into the limelight.

When Sean Penn’s stoned character Jeff was seen with the shoe in the movie, it cemented the checkerboard slip-on into the hearts of sneakerheads for years to come. Apparently, Universal Studios had asked Vans to send over some shoe options for the film, and back then the footwear company had no particular intention to market the checkerboard slip-on. However, Sean Penn picked it up as part of the look for his character, and he can be seen knocking himself in the head with it in the trailer.

A domino effect ensued as requests for the slip-on soar the moment people previewed the film, and it was later featured conspicuously on the cover of the movie’s soundtrack.

Note that it took a few years for the checkboard print to emerge as an iconic symbol of the Vans legacy. The creation of Vans style #48, which is the Classic Slip-On, pre-dates Fast Times at Ridgemont High by 6 years. Somewhere in the late 70s, Steve Van Doren discovered that teen skaters were colouring the rubber midsole of their shoe with black pens to create a checkerboard look. Inspired, he moved this aesthetic to the canvas upper to create the look we all know and love in 1977.

Thanks to Vans 50th Anniversary Collection, the Classic Slip-On has now gone Pro with the Slip-On Pro ’82. The upgraded checkerboard pair is a homage to the film that almost single-handedly ignited its explosion in popularity on the global stage.

Moral of the story? Advertise in potentially great films.