The last decade was uniquely positioned to help van life go from subculture to mainstream movement In the summer of 2011, Foster Huntington left his job as a designer at Ralph Lauren in New York City and moved all of his possessions into an off-white 1987 Volkswagen T3 Syncro van. It wasn?t long before Huntington started using the #VanLife hashtag on Instagram?in between surf sessions and camp outs, he would spy a cool DIY camper van or vintage Volkswagen bus, snap a pic, and then post it to his feed.
Nine years later, the #VanLife hashtag has spawned a lifestyle movement, brought new blood into the RV industry, and inspired over six million Instagram posts. The past ten years were, in many ways, the decade of the camper van.

Camper vans are not a new thing, of course. The tricked out Sprinter vans of today have their roots in 19th-century land yachts that were pulled by horses and used for leisure travel. And the Volkswagen buses of the 1960s and ?70s popularized camper vans to a new level; retro VWs became a common choice for everyone from hippies to camping families. However, the 2010s were uniquely positioned to help van life go from subculture to mainstream movement. Photo-centric app Instagram launched in October 2010, social media use was on the rise, and a whole generation of millennials questioned what creating a home really meant amid a still struggling economy.
Not many van lifers consider themselves part of the RV community?the DIY values, off-grid g...