project //
Vans World - Roblox
Overview
Roblox has over 70 million daily users, most of them younger than the average Vans customer. That gap was the opportunity.
Vans World wasn't built to advertise to that audience. It was built to meet them where they already were, on a platform they loved, doing things they already cared about — skating, customizing, and expressing themselves. The goal was to create something they'd actually come back to, not a branded billboard with a play button.
Since launch, Vans World has driven over 120 million visits and outperformed other branded activations on Roblox in both engagement and time spent. It's been expanded with BMX features, live streaming events, and a co-branded collaboration with Gucci.
The Challenge
Building inside Roblox meant working within a platform that has its own visual language, its own physics, and its own culture. Making Vans feel like Vans inside that environment without it feeling forced or corporate was the first problem.
The second problem was retention. A branded activation that people visit once and never return to isn't a platform, it's a campaign. We needed to build something with enough depth and variety to keep kids coming back.
The third problem was staying true to what Vans has always been about. Skateboarding culture and creative self-expression aren't marketing angles for the brand. They're the actual foundation. Whatever we built had to reflect that authentically, not just reference it.
My Role
I led concept and experience strategy, working across design, engineering, and brand while partnering with external game developers who knew the Roblox platform deeply. My job was to hold the Vans creative identity through all of it, making sure the decisions we made inside a blocky, kid-focused gaming environment still felt connected to the brand's roots.
The Approach
Skateboarding was the natural anchor. It's authentic to Vans and it gave us a core gameplay loop that rewarded skill and repeat play. We built interactive skate features that gave kids something to get better at.
Customization was the second pillar. Vans has always been about making things your own, so we built a version of the Vans Customs platform directly into the experience. Kids could customize Vans shoes for their avatars, the same creative tools that power physical product customization, translated into a virtual environment. What you designed in the game connected back to real product expression.
Avatar customization and digital wearables extended that further, giving players more ways to express themselves and more reasons to keep playing.
The combination of skill-based gameplay, creative expression, and ongoing content updates, BMX features, live events, and collaborations is what turned a launch activation into a
View project // roblox.com/vans
Impact
• 120M+ visits since launch
• Outperformed other branded activations on Roblox in engagement and time spent
• Integrated a version of the Vans Customs customizer into the experience, connecting avatar customization to real-world product expression
• Expanded over time with BMX features, live streaming events, and a Gucci collaboration
• Established Vans as an early leader in immersive branded experiences on Roblox