Check Out These Kicks: Students Decorate Vans Shoes for Customer Culture Competition

Featured on pastemagazine.com

Vans is once again asking for original and creative high school students across the United States to participate in the sixth annual Custom Culture competition. High school teachers can register their classes to participate in the contest, allowing their school to go up against thousands of other students for an opportunity to showcase innovation and creativity. The canvas is simply a blank Vans shoe, and the winner will receive a $50,000 donation to the school’s art program as well as the chance to see the creation sit alongside Vans products in stores and online.

The Vans Custom Culture competition has exponentially grown since its inaugural year in 2010, going from 326 schools that year to more than 3,000 schools expected in 2015. Entry begins now and will be running through Feb. 13 at 12 p.m. PST. If you are a high school teacher and want to get your school involved, you can register here now. Students will be provided with four pairs of Vans shoes, with each shoe representing the four themes of the Vans’ “Off the Wall” lifestyle: action sports, arts, music and local flavor.

Once entries are submitted and the deadline has passed, Vans employees will narrow down the field to the top 50 designs, which will be posted online for a public vote on the Vans Custom Culture website from April 24-May 11. The top five vote-getters will get the opportunity to travel to New York City to showcase their designs. In addition to the $50,000 first-place prize, Vans will donate $4,000 to each of the four runners-up, plus another $50,000 to non-profit partner Americans for the Arts.

The competition has been a resounding success in the past, and Vans hopes to see it continue to grow and allow high school students the opportunity for a unique means of expression going forward. Vans’ vice president of global consumer marketing, Sarah Crockett, said of the contest, “Vans believes in expressing creativity and building a life around pursuing your dreams; we are actively striving to make sure students receive the opportunity to show the world who they are through the arts.”

You can check out four of the amazing past designs above in the gallery. Click here to view the gallery.