The latest partner to jump on board for the Babes Ride Out UK debut is legendary footwear brand, Vans. A firm favourite of the VC, the London ladies rarely have anything else on their feet.
Celebrating their 50th anniversary earlier this year, Vans has a long tradition of supporting sports, art and music events that embody the brand’s ‘Off the Wall’ mentality. Enabling creative expression is at the heart of everything they do…and they make pretty rad shoes too!!
Gemma Harrison is one VC chick who rocks the Vans sidestripe on a daily basis…
Tell us about yourself:
My name is Gemma Harrison & I run the VC. I'm 31 years old & I live in east London but I'm originally a Yorkshire lass from Leeds. I work as a luxury womenswear designer alongside running the mess that is the VC & I also design VCC with one of the fellow VC founders Namin Cho.... In a nutshell :)
VC’S GEMMA HARRISON TALKS BABES RIDE OUT UK x VANS
The latest partner to jump on board for the Babes Ride Out UK debut is legendary footwear brand, Vans. A firm favourite of the VC, the London ladies rarely have anything else on their feet.
Do you remember your first pair of Vans?
I can't remember how old I must have been but I was pretty young. It was a pair of old skools in black... I wore them until they literally fell off my feet.
What connects you to the Vans brand?
For me the lifestyle aspect of Vans has always been the thing. It just seems to fit with how we live our lives here in London with the VC & The Shop. It’s all just bikes, friends, hanging out & having a damn good time whether that’s with motorbikes or whatever we do.
What does Vans stand for to you?
People doing cool shit.
Favourite style / pair of Vans?
A pair of black Sk8-hi ... I think people are pretty shocked to ever see me without a pair of these permanently glued to my feet & my leather jacket on. ha h
VC’S GEMMA HARRISON TALKS BABES RIDE OUT UK x VANS
01/08/2016 f Vans United Kingdom
Vans joins the first ever Babes Ride Out UK presented by VC London August 5-7th 2016 in beautiful Merthyr Tydfil located near South Wales
VC’S GEMMA HARRISON TALKS BABES RIDE OUT UK x VANS
The latest partner to jump on board for the Babes Ride Out UK debut is legendary footwear brand, Vans. A firm favourite of the VC, the London ladies rarely have anything else on their feet.
Celebrating their 50th anniversary earlier this year, Vans has a long tradition of supporting sports, art and music events that embody the brand’s ‘Off the Wall’ mentality. Enabling creative expression is at the heart of everything they do…and they make pretty rad shoes too!!
Gemma Harrison is one VC chick who rocks the Vans sidestripe on a daily basis…
Tell us about yourself:
My name is Gemma Harrison & I run the VC. I'm 31 years old & I live in east London but I'm originally a Yorkshire lass from Leeds. I work as a luxury womenswear designer alongside running the mess that is the VC & I also design VCC with one of the fellow VC founders Namin Cho.... In a nutshell :)
Do you remember your first pair of Vans?
I can't remember how old I must have been but I was pretty young. It was a pair of old skools in black... I wore them until they literally fell off my feet.
What connects you to the Vans brand?
For me the lifestyle aspect of Vans has always been the thing. It just seems to fit with how we live our lives here in London with the VC & The Shop. It’s all just bikes, friends, hanging out & having a damn good time whether that’s with motorbikes or whatever we do.
What does Vans stand for to you?
People doing cool shit.
Favourite style / pair of Vans?
A pair of black Sk8-hi ... I think people are pretty shocked to ever see me without a pair of these permanently glued to my feet & my leather jacket on. ha ha
What’s the history of VC London & what you do?
The best way to describe it is maybe a collective as there are so many things that go on under the VC name. Although there are 3 of us that sort of founded VC (myself , Namin & Mai) it really started as a bunch of friends hanging out at The Shop (the workshop we share with @five_customs & @frictionmoto ), fixing bikes, learning together how to wrench & maintain them. We just got drunk together one night & gave it a name (well actually someone else bestowed the name on us ... ha) & that’s where it all started.
We made an instagram there & then & I just used it as a way to document what we were getting up to. I later put a post out on instagram asking if other women wanted to give motorcycles a try then we could help them out as we felt it would be a good way to get the scene here in the UK to grow on the same scale as the US after we visited Babes Ride Out 3 in J-Tree last year. We got such a huge response and now we’ve ridden all over together, organised ride outs, flat track days in collab with the DTRA, events & parties. It sounds like a lot but to be honest it all stays focused around a few mates having a good time together & living our lives around motorbikes.
What does the BRO event coming to the UK mean to you & what are you most looking forward to?
Seeing all the months of hard work come together & getting together all these rad women from all over the world that I've been speaking to over the last year to finally put some faces to names is going to be pretty awesome! Its always been really important for me to grow the UK community of riders as when I went to Babes Ride Out in the US last year I couldn't believe how incredible the scene was over there & immediately wanted to have that same vibe at an event in the UK..... Also seeing Slowcoaches & Zealous Doxy play live is pretty high on my list.
ALL IMAGES BY JAMES A GRANT