Vans' Winter Mule Is Back, and the Line for It Started Before We Wrote This

The insulated mule that off-duty skiers and coffee-run regulars alike have quietly claimed as their cold-weather uniform is back on shelves this season. Vans built its name on the skate shoe, but the shearling-lined slide has become its own kind of seasonal fixture, the thing pulled on between the car and the lodge, or the school run and the driveway. This time around, the brand's own early read on demand says styles are already thinning out. For a shoe with no red-carpet pretensions, that is its own kind of arrival.

With reporting from Footwear News.