Much of our excitement centered on all of the cool things happening with each of the stellar brands we carry. Vans, Converse, Stance, and Herschel all kept on pumping out the goods in 2016, which made our job of pleasing you guys that much easier.

First off, a look at what Vans was up to in 2016:

Vans Had a Busy Year

The year marked an exciting time for Vans as the iconic shoe brand reached its milestone 50th anniversary. It celebrated by hosting huge events on a world-wide stage, and also released the Vans 50th Anniversary Collection, which features gold-flecked re-vamps of its old school styles, like the Vans Sk8-Hi Reissue (50th) Black/Gold.

vans sk8-hi gold

Read More: The Vans 50th Anniversary Collection Is Pure Gold

Around the same time, Vans was also hard at work debuting its collaboration with Nintendo and presenting the Vans Nintendo line. In this exclusive partnership with Nintendo, Vans became the only shoe brand around that allows North American fans to rock their NES devotion with their footwear. It was immensely popular at Baggins, but we were fully prepared for the demand, meaning we still have some stock left.

vans nintendo baggins victoria

Read More: The Vans Nintendo Collection Is Complete Fun And Games

Other highlights that came from Vans in 2016 are all of the adorable items in the Vans Toy Story line, as well as the continued expansion of the Vans Lite Line .

vans toy story victoria

Converse Also Had a Solid Year

Converse also had a big year in 2016, but this should come as no surprise as the brand is constantly pumping out new kicks in all sorts of new seasonal colours and patterns. Amongst our favourites in 2016 were the pretty colours of the 2016 Chuck II Spring Line, as seen here with the Converse Chuck Taylor II Hi Top Bordeaux/White.

converse chuck ii bordeaux

Read More: Showing Off The New Converse Chuck Taylor IIs For Spring

And of course we loved the new Converse Chuck Taylor All Star Sex Pistols Collection, whose release was timed perfectly to celebrate 40 years of punk music. The line includes the iconic Sex Pistols logo on the tongue of the sneaker and in the foot bed, as well as stitch detailing and graphic overlays.

converse sex pistols

Read More: When Sex Pistols And Converse Collide: The Spring 2016 Converse Chuck Taylor All Star Sex Pistols Collection

Stance’s Big Play in 2016

Not a brand known to be stagnant, Stance also released a bunch of fresh stock in 2016. They also became the official socks of the Major League Baseball organization.

stance socks MLB

Read More: This Just In: Stance Socks Are The Official Socks Brand For The MLB 

What Was Baggins Up to in 2016?

As for company news at Baggins headquarters, we have been quite busy as well keeping up with all of the fresh stock highlighted above. Also…

We celebrated our 47th anniversary in style:

baggins footwear victoria bc

Had to mend a broken heater in the warehouse (in style, though!)

baggins staff victoria

Got invited to a wedding (sort of, well, at least our shoes did)

wedding converse vans

Had the pleasure of welcoming Yusuke for an internship

baggins internship in victoria

Created an Instagram account solely for our Custom Print Shop @bagginsprintshop

And received dozens of new reviews on our Facebook page—we can’t stop blushing after reading all of your kind words!

Contest Action at Baggins

We also held a few contests throughout the year, too, like:

The Baggins Collection Contest #bagginscollection

baggins collection contest

The Baggins Printshop Contest #bagginsprintshop

baggins printshop contest

The Baggins Where In the World Contest #bagginsworld

baggins where in the world

The Baggins Summer Contest #bagginssummer

baggins summer contest

The Baggins Spring Fever Contest #bagginsspringfever

baggins spring fever contest

 

and The Baggins Life Contest #bagginslife

the baggins life contest

For each contest we received so many inspired, exciting responses to our call outs for photos. Want to be the next winner? Like us on our social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to hear about upcoming contests in 2017 so you don’t miss out on the chance to win a $100 gift certificate for our store.

Meet the Staff Series

Lastly, we kicked off a Meet the Staff Series on our blog. If you haven’t already read ‘em, you should definitely check out our previous posts on Madilyn, Jenna, Tara, and J’aime.

Baggins Ramped Up Production in December 2016

This December, the entire Baggins team pulled together and hit some new records. We completed more than 178 custom print shoes, and we shipped out more 1,200 packages worldwide for Christmas. This, of course, was all in addition to the uncountable number of people who visited our retail store. We thank you for relying on us to supply you with all of your Converse and Vans needs.

We have had an exciting 2016 and we hope the trend continues into the New Year. We have lots of cool new additions to keep an eye out for in 2017, including an online rewards program and tons of new styles from Vans, Converse, Stance, and Herschel.

2017: Here We Come!