'van' usually denotes that a person come from that family. Example: Aaron van Horne. Aaron came from the van Horne family. In Germany, they have the same idea, except with 'von' instead of 'van'.
Vans was the first company ever to create shoes for skateboarding, way back in 1966. vans a flat bottom shoe mint for skateboarding and they are sold at most places but can cost any were for 20-200$...