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Last Updated: January 1, 2024

Program Overview

Started decades ago and with firm roots in the surfing, snowboarding, BMX, and motocross worlds, Vans has been an iconic purveyor of apparel and gear. Its customers are always enthused when they see new merch and styles pop up, and aren't shy about their ever-growing love for the brand. Perhaps the name of their loyalty program says it all, because Vans Family provides its members with some really nice perks and rewards with every purchase.

In 2023, Vans made some exciting new changes to Vans Family. Because the new program took awhile to be reconfigured and relaunched, fans were left to speculate on exactly how the changes would be implemented. In this guide, we’ll break it all down for you, reviewing the new changes and exploring what exactly it means to be a Vans Family member.

How it Works

In October 2023, Vans launched a new loyalty program. The revised Vans Family follows a simplified points system, where members earn 10 Points for every $1 spent on qualifying purchases. Most items in the store qualify, but there are some exceptions like the purchase of gift cards. Other fees and charges (like shipping and taxes) are excluded from earning points, as they are in most loyalty programs.

As soon as you reach 500 Points, you’ll get a $5 Reward that can be redeemed towards the purchase of Vans merchandise. This marks a departure from the previous system, which featured specific rewards tied to increasing point thresholds. While the old program included a variety of interesting rewards such as contest entries and merchandise like stickers, utensil sets, and pet bowls, the current structure focuses on a straightforward points-to-rewards conversion. This streamlines the redemption process for members considerably, making rewards more predictable and accessible.

Further reward redemption thresholds occur at every 1,000 points ($10 Reward), 1,500 points ($15 Reward), and 2,000 points ($20 Reward). This is a linear system that offers no added benefit of banking your points, so we would certainly recommend redeeming as early as possible, right when you hit the first 500-point threshold.

Reward Redemption

Redeeming your Vans Family rewards can be done in store or online. When redeeming in a Vans store, you’ll first need to head to the “Redeem” tab in your online Cans account. You’ll see your in-store rewards listed there, which can be selected and shown to the Vans in-store representative. The rep will provide you with a code that you’ll need to input into your online account, which will officially redeem the reward. The process for redeeming during an online purchase is more straight forward, requiring only that you are logged into your Vans Family account when making a purchase. After adding items to your card, you’ll see a convenient dropdown in the “Payments” section which shows your available rewards. Once you select the reward it will be automatically applied to your purchase.

Redemption Restrictions

In order to redeem a Vans Family reward, your purchase will have to be of greater or equal value to the reward you’re trying to redeem. For example, if you’re trying to redeem a $20 reward on a $15 item, you won’t be able to do so. This is another reason why we recommend always redeeming at the $5 reward threshold. It virtually ensures that your reward will always be redeemable, with minimal exceptions like combining a reward with other promotions. Vans also places a limit on your rewards redemption, with a maximum of $20 in rewards redeemable in a single transaction. Lastly, rewards are non-transferrable meaning they must be redeemed by the person who earned them.

Point Validity & Expiration

Vans Family points will typically appear in your account 72 hours after your purchase. Keep in mind that for online orders, this time window opens only after the item has shipped. That means you could be waiting a bit longer to see the points hit your account for purchases made online. Vans Family points expire 1 year after the date they are earned, meaning that points expire on a “rolling basis” with your earliest-earned points expiring first. Rewards expire concurrently with your points. So while you might see that you have an available reward, that reward could expire if the underlying points on which it is based also expire.

Returns

If you return items that you paid for in points, your points will be credited back to your account. Keep in mind that this does not reset the expiration date, and those points will still expire 1 year after they were initially earned.

Purchases Made Before Enrollment

Vans Family is one of the more customer-friendly loyalty programs that allows you to retroactively add purchases to your loyalty account, even before you completed your enrollment. This is a bit different than typical loyalty program guidelines which provide for adding credit to an existing loyalty account for a missed visit, and is quite generous considering these purchases would have been made when you weren’t even a loyalty program member. In order to add credits from before you were a member, you’ll need to contact Vans Family support at 833.652.3016.

Transition to New at Vans Family

Under the reinvigorated Vans Family, existing members had their existing Vans points automatically converted into a reward that can be redeemed immediately. Also, during the transition period, all Vans Family members were given a special one-time opportunity to claim a separate reward for free, regardless of whether or not they had previously earned any points.

What happened to my points?

As Vans has now fully transitioned to their new loyalty program, you may notice that your points balance has been zeroed out. On July 31, 2023 Vans reset all member point balances to 0, and members with a minimum of 500 points received a reward that was reflective of their current point balance. This reward was eligible for immediate redemption on a single purchase of product in Vans stores or online.

Free Vans Reward

In addition to the automatic conversion of existing points into a reward, all Vans members (regardless of whether you've earned any points) were eligible to receive a Free Reward during the transition period. To redeem it, you must have logged into your Vans Family account (or enrolled anew) before September 29, 2023. There was no purchase necessary to redeem this reward, and no points redemption was required.