Peter Davis is the editor-in-chief of Avenue magazine, a contributing editor at PAPER Magazine and a blogger here at PAPERMAG.com. If there's a chic society event in either New York or L.A. he's there and usually rocking one of the 300 pairs of slip-on Vans he's collected over the years. Davis says he loves pairing the hundreds of different patterns and colors with his casual day looks or formal attire to either "match anything I'm wearing or clash with anything I'm wearing." Here's his Vans story, sponsored by our lovely online advertisers.
 
I've been wearing Vans since I bought my first skateboard at 10 years old. They were the black and white checkered ones. I used to have Vans custom made. Vans had a store on Sunset Blvd. where you could bring in any material like plaid or leopard print and make slip-on Vans. I rotate all of my Vans between my closet and storage. The ones I store I keep in clear plastic boxes -- like really anally ordered.
 
My favorite pair that I never put in storage is a custom pair that I got on eBay for $9.99. They have a "Rudy's Taco Stand, Orange County, CA" logo all over them. I'm like an archivist. I still have a black and white checkered pair that are completely torn apart, holes everywhere, from when I was 18 years old.
 
People usually ask me where I got the ones I have that are really rare -- like this pair I have with safety pins on them or this pair with a Pancho pattern that I got in Tokyo, which you can't get here. I also love this store called Size? in London. They make Vans slip-ons that you can't get anywhere else. And every time I go to L.A. I go to the Vans store in Santa Monica. I'm a freak. I wish that custom-made store was still open because I would make my own Vans all day long. That's my dream.
 
 
The above story is an advertorial sponsored by Vans.