Social Media Duel: Vans Vs. Converse

Casual, sporty, colorful shoes. Which brand comes in your mind? The skateboard-fan, the fashion-conscious person, the Rockabilly-Fashionista and all the other shoe-lovers will now suggest at least two brands: Converse and Vans, the world's most loved all-round sneakers. The worldwide shoe stores can't go without the two brands because the demand is high. Obviously, feed around the whole globe walk in their sneakers. But taking a medial look at the competition of the two shoe brands, we can't help but wonder: Do Converse and Vans also walk well through the jungle of social media? In the following article, we're going to analyze the performances of the two brands on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. But before starting the social media shoes duel, a short historical overview shall introduce the sneaker achiever.

A Short Historical Retrospect Of The Sporty Footwear

Both shoe brands look back to a popularity for decades and have started in small factories. But with the development of both businesses, Converse and Vans have evolved several unique features.

Converse, the shoe brand with the white star, was already founded in 1908. The Converse Rubber Shoe Company started producing the sporty footwear with the rubber sole and established the Converse All-Star Sneaker on the market, short called Chucks. Once created for basketball players, the Chucks have soon taken over the masses and have built a new casual look. The name of the trend shoe came from it's creator, Chuck Tayor. Since 1917, Converse has sold 655 Million pairs of Chucks worldwide. Thereby, the Converse Chucks are the most popular shoes in history.

Converse's slogan: Shoes Are Boring. Wear Sneakers.

Vans, the strongest competitor in the matter of sporty shoes, was founded some decades later in 1966. Since it's foundation, the brand shows a high level of creativity in each marketing channel and in fan actions. For example the Vans Warped Tour, a concert tour, yearly inspires and brings together thousands of people since 1994. Artists like Katy Perry, No Doubt, Blink 182 and many others yearly enter the Vans stage. The brand separates between skate, surf, snow, BMX and other segments and amazes millions of young as well as old shoe freaks. For each segment, Vans has own channels and pages on social media to most efficiently target the single audiences.

Vans' slogan: Vans "Off The Wall".

Vans Vs. Converse: A Numeric Overview Of The Competitors

Tables are boring? Having a look on the numbers, the duel between Vans and Converse is starting exciting, because the brands are nearly going head to head on Twitter and YouTube. Only the Facebook numbers offer a first favourite: Converse registers triply more fans than it’s competitor Vans. But that means nothing for the crowning of the social media shoes in the end of the duel.

Brand	Logo	Facebook Fans	Twitter Followers	YouTube Subscribers
Converse		37,239,992	344,953	26,966
Vans		12,644,933	339,512	40,200

Are The All-Stars Also The All Stars On Facebook?

The key metrics radar gives the first overview we need to go on with the social media duel. The strengths and weaknesses of both shoe brands diversify extremely. Converse receives a high fan engagement refer to interactions and fan count, whereas Vans is very active on Facebook and regularly posts relevant content, but can't receive the even nearly the same engagement as Converse. Nevertheless, we shouldn't place a winner too hasty: Vans isn't able to reach Converse's interaction rate on Facebook, which could be different analyzing Twitter and YouTube. Maybe the fact, that Vans responds to nearly each question and post on Facebook, can be interpreted as the driver of the growth.

The radar has already indicated, that Converse causes a higher interaction rate on Facebook than Vans does. But both brands constantly post on their Facebook page. Now, we'll take a closer look at the posts to get an idea about the real differences refer to the single interactions. The chart shows the average interactions per post from Sep 2015 to March 2016. So we can see, that Converse's fans have interacted a lot more than the Vans' fans have done, nevertheless Vans managed to receive huge peaks in Facebook interactions. And the interactions on the Converse page have increased during the last two years. Nevertheless, it's important to keep the huge discrepancy of the number of fans in mind.

Converse Are Jumping Off  The Wall On Twitter

The analyzed Key Metrics Radar shows the high numbers in Followers, Follower Growth, Retweets, Mentions and Interactions for Converse. The manufacturer of Chucks seem to perform even better than on Facebook. Vans is almost as active on Twitter as Converse what can be seen in the Own Tweets data point. As well as that Vans has a very high response rate whereas Converse does not seem to reply at all. With the following chart, we're going to expand mentions.

Fans and followers are the basic drivers of social media success. Getting users mentioning a brand's name on a platform is a tough job, but provoked one only one time, a mention can create a strong viral buzz. In this case, Vans and Converse are more or less often mentioned on Twitter during the last two months, but Converser is leading with a significant higher count of mentions. Also the radar already showed, that the users on Twitter rather mention Converse than Vans during the measured time period. Converse registers some peaks in the development, which result from different campaigns and events.

Social Shoes Blues On YouTube

On YouTube, both shoe brands have nearly complete opposed strengths. On the one hand, Converse reaches a high interaction rate during the measured time period, on the other hand it doesn't register a high number of subscribers and videos. Meanwhile Vans regularly feeds the high count of subscribers with videos and reaches more interactions, views and subscribers than Converse - Interesting!

These Sneakers Are Made For Walking - And Social Media

Finally, we have to crown the social media shoes winner. But which shoe brand convinces on each network?
On Facebook and Twitter Converse wins with a high number of fans and interactions. The shoes with the white star also provoke a high number of interactions on each post. Vans isn't able to keep up with Converse. But the trendy slipper shoe catches up on Twitter with a high good service, which reflects in reacting to the users questions and other tweets. Converse again, takes another lead by being mentioned more often than it's competitor. On YouTube, Vans does a great job and overtook Converse in the last two years by far - Great Job! Interesting to see are the different strategies, the companies have. For Vans, Twitter and Facebook seem to be a customer support channel, whereas the brand manages to engage a lot of followers on YouTube.

All in all, both shoe brands are driving their social media performances very well, but Converse reaches its audience more effectively. So, drum roll for Converse, which has definitely won the duel on social media! But in the end, you are the consumer and you decide, which footwear gets the privilege to protect and also adorn your feet. Both brands are comfortable to wear, but which reaches your taste mostly? And what kind of shoe-freak are you? The hipster, the surfer, the skater? Grab your All-Stars or your Slip-Ons and go out enjoying walking in your sneakers, until the weather is going to force you to swap them for warm winter shoes.