There are a lot of online stores out there like urban outfitters with great prices on vans, however they have trade restrictions on them.
I was wondering if anyone can shed any light on if its okay to send to a relative in the states and have them send it over. Is this okay?(relatives send us bog things all the time so it won't be much extra cost) Or will something happen at customs or whatnot (sorry if this is a really stupid question, I'm just unsure.)
Thanks in advance
What you have described is fine. The restriction is placed by the manufacturer (Vans) to restrict resellers (Urban Outfitters) to selling to only certain countries since they have other ways to sell in country x (or want more profit from country x through price gouging). Customs doesn't have anything to do with it. However, customs will impose GST on orders 1k or above by withholding your goods till you pay.
Most people use forwarding companies to get around it such as http://www.hopshopgo.com but there are others. It gets delivered to a US address then gets sent on to Australia - similar to how it would work with your relatives… but not everyone has relatives in the US.