Answer :In 2017, Vans began making track pants that feature a checkerboard stripe running down the sides of the legs. Hardly an arbitrary design decision, the Orange County, California-based footwear company was playing on the checkerboard pattern that has famously adorned its slip-on sneakers since the 1970s when Steve Van Doren, son of Vans founder Paul Van Doren, adopted the canvas design after seeing young skateboarders drawing similar prints on the sides of their own sneakers with black Sharpie markers.