itself towards the non-sporty fashionable youth with events such as “Classic and City” events, promoting local artists and designers as well as “critically acclaimed musical” performances. Vans also orientates itself towards this segment with collaborations such as “Vans X Led Zeppelin” Vans continues to pursue a market penetration strategy in terms of its product offerings. Vans’ new collections still remain under the same type of apparel and therefore illustrates Vans’ will to increase its market share by offering similar products to its existing markets. Vans has also reinforced its orientation towards the skaters as seen in their latest TV advertisements and with the Vans “QZP DX Silhouette”. 4.3 Choice of potential countries for Market Development Strategy In the case of a market development strategy, Vans would decide to move into countries where the youth indulge in fashion and where skating is a prevailing way of life. From this main idea, we came up with a shortlist of 4 countries which Vans could choose to enter next. These countries are Nigeria, New Zealand, Argentina, and Morocco The criteria Vans would use to establish a shortlist of countries is the following. Firstly, the country must have a large youth demographic as that is Vans’ main customer segment. Secondly, the country must have a reasonably open way of life, where the youth and skaters can express themselves freely with their apparel, and be able to practice their activities, skateboarding, modern art, drawing, music etc. with no repercussions. Thirdly, the presence of many skateparks, ocean coasts or mountains would be optimal as Vans would be able to offer all its products in the same country. On top of that, if there was an opportunity for Vans to create or to sponsor an event promoting their goods and the practices that come with it, that would be extremely beneficial to the them. Furthermore, the presence of so called “influencers” or already prevailing artists and skaters that could become brand ambassadors will enhance Vans’ reputation and performance in this country.>