Mattias Gollin turns the Vans Authentic into a $750 Pearl-covered art sneaker

Vans is pushing its skate classic into gallery territory with the Mattias Gollin “Authentiche,” a museum-grade take on the Vans Authentic that swaps clean canvas for thousands of hand-set gems and a $750 U.S. price tag. Releasing on December 5, 2025, exclusively at Art Basel Miami, the drop turns a once-everyday sneaker into a hyper-limited wearable artwork for collectors who treat shoes like sculpture.

From checkerboard staple to Authentiche

The project starts with a standard black-and-white checkerboard Vans Authentic, the low-profile silhouette that has underpinned Vans’ identity for decades. Each pair is then shipped to the Marche region in Italy, where Mattias Gollin transforms it into the “Authentiche” through intensive hand-embellishment.

It follows last year’s pearl-covered Vans Slip-On collaboration, which transformed a familiar skate shoe into a jeweled collector’s piece and helped define Gollin’s niche as “everyday icons, maximalist finish.” With the Authentic, that formula returns on a lace-up silhouette many fans grew up wearing, now radically elevated.

Hours of handwork and thousands of gems

Each Mattias Gollin x Vans Authentiche pair requires around 8 hours of labour and incorporates roughly 2,000 hand-applied pearls, crystals, and beads, all finished in Italy. Other sneaker outlets note that some early prototypes and related designs from Gollin have pushed gem counts even higher, underlining the extremely labour-intensive nature of his approach.

The lighter checkerboard squares are rebuilt with layered pearl clusters and gold accents, while the darker areas gain dense arrangements of black beadwork that create a sculptural, almost armoured surface. Gollin’s name appears in serif lettering on the tongue and insole, a subtle designer signature set against an otherwise maximalist upper.

A $750 U.S Art Object, not a GR

The Authentiche’s pricing reflects that craftsmanship: the pair retails for $750 U.S, placing it among the most expensive Vans ever released at retail. Platforms like Sole Retriever and SneakerNews highlight that the figure is driven not by tech, but by time, materials, and “made in Italy” execution.

Given how last year’s pearl Slip-Ons moved on resale platforms, commentators expect the Authentiche to surface on marketplaces such as StockX with a premium over its already elevated launch price. That trajectory highlights how Gollin’s work now sits at the intersection of sneaker culture, luxury pricing, and limited-edition art.

Art Basel Miami is an invitation-only access

The Mattias Gollin x Vans Authentiche releases on December 5, 2025, exclusively via an appointment-only in-person event at Art Basel Miami. Prospective buyers must secure a slot through Mattias Gollin’s official website, and even then, appointment confirmation does not guarantee a specific size.

This scarcity model mirrors gallery drops more than typical sneaker launches, reinforcing the Authentiche’s status as an art object rather than a mass-market product. For anyone not in Miami, the shoe is effectively viewable only through images and social coverage, adding to its mythologised feel within the broader Vans lineup.

Where this leaves Vans in 2025

For Vans, the Authentiche caps a run of collaborations that have repositioned core icons like the Authentic and Slip-On as canvases for luxury-level experimentation. From pearl-encrusted pairs to gem-studded checkerboards, the brand is leaning into artists who treat skate silhouettes as sculpture, not just streetwear basics.

That strategy sits alongside a wider “luxury skate” moment, where classic shoes are reinterpreted with couture-level details and pricing, aimed at collectors as much as riders. The Authentiche neatly fits that shift: familiar in shape, extreme in execution, and positioned to live as much in glass cases as on actual pavement.