Unique Car Wrap Looks Like a Vans Sneaker

EVERY ONCE IN A while you see a wrap that’s so unique, so well done, you just know the shop was involved way beyond printing a customer file and installing it. That’s exactly what happened when an employee of Redline Designs (Tampa, FL) who’s a Vans shoe and apparel enthusiast ‘to boot,’ wanted their VW Golf Sportwagen wrapped to look like a big Vans sneaker.

The design called for the roof to display the shoe top: tongue, eyelets, white laces and insole branded with the Vans logo. The sides feature a wavy stripe textured — by design, not material — to resemble leather or suede and ‘stitching’ across the front and rear quarter panels. The rocker panels land the design on solid footing by mimicking the sides of foam-rubber soles.

This Vans sticker bomb under the VW emblem was a little “Easter egg” that the owner of the vehicle wanted to include.

Redline’s art department created all textures, stitching and other elements from scratch using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. The process took about eight hours to design the files and break them down for production. No proofing was necessary — wouldn’t you love that? Just the input of the vehicle owner was needed for the color and style of shoe.

Once everything was ready, the shop printed the wrap on General Formulations GF 830 AutoMark Cast with DRIFT Technology using their HP Latex 570. They then applied GF 840 AutoMark Matte Laminate by way of their Graphic Finishing Partners Gfp 463TH Laminator.

Another indication this originated within a signshop: The wrap was designed to look good as well as be easy to install, so it required almost no lineup points from panel to panel. Nothing to have to shoehorn here! Four installers completed the job in an eight-hour day.

The textures for both the stitching and the stripes are part of the design, not the vinyl itself.

The car gets a lot of attention out in public, Redline Design reports. People are always wanting to touch the leather stripe or the suede to feel if it actually has a texture to it. Never stop being creative, the shop says.

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