PHILADELPHIA -- Michael Lorenzen is more of a skater than a surfer, but he enjoys both.
He grew up in Orange County, Calif., where he graduated from Fullerton Union High School and then spent three years at Cal State Fullerton.
Lorenzen is SoCal to the bone. It is the easiest way to explain how he became the only player in Major League Baseball to wear Vans, which was founded in Anaheim, Calif., in 1966. Lorenzen wore a pair of custom-made white Vans cleats on Wednesday night at Citizens Bank Park, where he threw the 14th no-hitter in Phillies history. Afterward, he took a photo with the Vans in front of his locker, then handed them to a clubhouse attendant, who shipped them to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., on Thursday.
“Those will be the first pair of Vans in the Hall of Fame,” Lorenzen said.
Don’t worry. Lorenzen will have a new pair of Vans before his next start on Aug. 18 in Washington.
“It’ll be good,” he said. “I think we might come out with some Phillie-colored ones, which will be cool.”
Lorenzen decided in 2020 that he wanted to wear Vans because they fit his personality, and honored his south Orange County roots.
"I’m like, 'I’m going to wear what I want to wear,'” Lorenzen said.
Lorenzen’s reps investigated a possible partnership with Vans. It was an unusual call to make. Skateboarders and surfers wear Vans, not baseball players.
Vans said, "Sure, why not?"
“What it really shows is that Michael stayed true to his character,” CAA head of baseball marketing and client management Marissa Dishaw said. “He’s from Orange County and finds these shoes incredibly comfortable. It’s really an homage to his upbringing. He played in Anaheim last year, the team he grew up watching, in shoes that he wore to that very stadium. Now these shoes are going to Cooperstown. It gives me chills.”
Lorenzen customizes his Vans on the company's Web site like everybody else. Once he receives the shoes, he sends them to Custom Cleats in Holbrook, N.Y. Custom Cleats transforms them into cleats, like the ones Lorenzen wore with Detroit before he got traded on Aug. 1, and in July at the All-Star Game in Seattle.
“Customization will always be core to Vans’ identity,” the company said Thursday. “We are honored when athletes like Michael Lorenzen take that customization to the next level, do things their own way and make history in their beloved Vans.”
Said Lorenzen: “We’ll have some custom ones coming. They have some in the making. We'll see how quickly they can turn it around. We have a lot of different jerseys with Philly, so I have to make all these different ones.”