Nearly a year ago we put up a post on Eddie Van Halen’s mystery velcro ‘W’ branded sneakers and went down the rabbit hole on this one for awhile trying to find out what sneaker brand he was wearing. We’re glad to announce today that Van Halen fan Allen Garber has figured it out and it turns out that he was wearing Payless Shoes Pro-Wings brand sneakers. We have posted a pair of vintage Pro-Wings where you can see the similarities in the tongue label logo to the photo below. As far as the ‘W’ logo goes this must have only lasted for a short time in Pro-Wings history during the late 1970’s. According to Allen Eddie apparently wore this same pair of sneakers from late 1979 through at least 1984. Big shout out, all credit and a huge thank you to Van Halen fan Allen Garber who solved this mystery and passed along the information and photos.
Eddie Van Halen Frankenstrat W Logo Pro-Wings Sneakers
Btw you can see Eddie wearing these W sneakers in this 1980 performance of ‘You Really Got Me.’ Here’s another video from the same performance with the W sneakers.
One last note - we want to wish Diamond David Lee Roth the best in retirement. He is one of the greatest showmen in Rock N’ Roll history.