I’ll try to make a long story short here. For the past few years Vans has been sold through an agency in Sweden. They have been based in Gothenburg and as far as I know they have never been to any store in Stockholm. Not that the fact that they never visited anyone has anything to do with this, but to me it’s just weird to sell and represent a brand in a country and never even visit your biggest accounts.

Perhaps that was one of the reasons why the are no longer the agents for Vans in Sweden. Vans will now be sold directly from Vans and that can only mean good things. For us anyway. But there was a glitch in the set-up and the agents contract ended 2011, but the new sales organization will not be all set up for Sweden until end of March 2012. And the deadline to place your orders in order to get your stuff in time for Fall 2012 is… well, it was pretty much today. So, Vans were kind enough to invite us to their showroom in London to show us the line there. And I like London so I don’t mind going there – even though I already have a lot of travels scheduled for February.

Me and Peter took off around 7 in the morning and hit the Vans showroom in Hammersmith (Stockholm reference: Haninge Centrum) around 9 uk time. A quick chat and then browsing through the different collections; Vans California, Vans Classics and Vans OTW. They also do the Surf and Turf stuff, but we are not really that kind of store so they didn’t even bother showing it. Good call. We also looked at the Vans Vault collection where some styles looked really nice, although priced way to high and some designs are more unwearable experiments than anything else.

I like Vans, and thank you for your hospitality Andy and Kevin. It is still vulcanized shoes and that’s like driving around in T-Fords, but nice people and some good looking stuff makes my day.

Vans had us booked at K-West hotel. A pretty nice hotel. But it was close to that Haninge Centrum area, so we had to subway ourselves for while to get to central London. Not too bad though. English people obviously don’t do lunch. They do sandwich and crisps… Crisps?!? And around 4 pm they go straight to the Pub for beer and more crisps. I’m not sure how they survive. Me and Peter hit Tottenham Court Road around 3.30 and went straight to Bodean’s, a place Andy had mentioned. And I am a sucker for slow cooked meat so this was the perfect spot. Pulled pork and burnt ends is what I am all about.

Lot’s of meat later we were standing outside Footpatrol where Michael La MJC was hosting a book signing of the All Gone 2011 book. Yes, the same as we did in Sneakersnstuff last week (check the Sneakersnstuff blog for pictures). As we were among the first on the scene we figured we’d check out Liberty for a while first. I like to walk around in there and look at the shirts, even though they all remind me that I need to loose weight. Maybe that is why I like to walk around there. Because I need to let go of a few kilos and that is my brains way of sub-consciously remind myself of that. If only this damn snow would go away. As my wife says – fit people run in bad weather and enjoy good weather. Unfit people (hello) only run when the weather is perfect. There I go loosing track again. I am like a less funny Eddie Izzard, but without boobs. Or just not as big.. #chipstutte. He is very good at sidetracking. But I think he does it intentionally. I don’t… I just tend to write long blogposts. But I think I will keep that up, I figure most of you don’t even read the damn thing anyway. You just look at the pictures. I could write pretty much anything here. Aeogna lliena inlknglk inlkne haenk. Ase.

Back at Footpatrol a few friendly faces had popped in. Gary and Mubi from CT were there. And Marc from Le Coq Sportif and a few more people. Other than that I would say that it was pretty much the same routine as home. Free Red Stripe’s and hiphop music. After all the All Gone books were All Gone (had to be said) Michael wanted to go to Nandos. Apparently it reminded him of the ”Old” London when you used to go to 40 degrees and To be confirmed (trade shows). Well, I like the new London better. And I am not likely to ever eat at Nandos again. I mean, it wasn’t that bad – but of all the great places to eat in London… At least the company was good. Among other things I learned that Jimmy the hitman is now also know as Jimmy the granddad. Allegedly one of the youngest granddads in the UK. And I had him pinned down as 25 something.

A few chickens later me and Peter called Addison Lee to pick us up. Good chap that Lee fellow. Comes very well recommended as well.

Today has been more of a ”catch-up” day. Sending out FAll 2012 orders for Supra, New Black, Karhu and Vans. A trip to central London for that mandatory lunch at Busaba Eathai (still good food), checking out Nike Town (the palace of love and hate), picking up toys for my kids (cars). For some reason I skipped macaroons this time.. starting to regret that now though. And then pack ourselves in like sardines on to the tube to go to Paddington and the Heathrow express. I like Terminal 5 at Heathrow. Picked up some make-up for my wife and coffee and cookie (kaffe och kaka) from Starbuck (when in Rome). All of a sudden we are late, and had to hurry to the gate. Of course the plane would be 45 minutes late anyway so… And that was that. 36 hours later and safe at home. Next trip on Sunday. Las Vegas and New York. Who’s jealous? I am not gonna lie. I am really looking forward to that. I will of course miss my family (not looking forward to being gone from my kids for over one week). But the Las Vegas trips are usually legendary. So stay tuned…