Vans shoe company has been holding a custom culture contest each year from April 10 to May 12. This year, New Haven High School students have the opportunity to work with the shoe brand in this national competition. The purpose of the competition is for the Vans company to receive new and original styles from students. According to the vans.com website, “Custom Culture was created to inspire and empower high school students to embrace their creativity through art and design, and bring attention to diminishing arts education budgets.”
So what’s the first step? Well, the 5,082 schools that are involved are going to recieve four different pairs of blank shoes. The shoe designs made by the students of the school will cover four different themes. The themes are Art, Music, Local Flavor, and Action Sports.
After each pair is decorated with a theme, pictures of the shoes will be sent to the website and judged by the international team. “The fact that this is a national competition almost makes it ten times more entertaining,” said Tenille Duessler.
For designs continuing to the top 50, selection and a rank will be given. The top 10 shoe designs in each region will then be available for public vote; next, the top 5 finalists will be available for public and international vote, with the winners announced on May 12, 2015. These finalists will be invited to join the Vans crew in New York for the final event to announce the grand prize winner.
This winner will not only be given the satisfaction of having a design of their own chosen, but also their school's art program will be awarded $50,000! This will give current and future students opportunities that are not at the moment available to them. Art student Jon Stone said, “I think this is a really cool competition! It’s nice that there’s something out there for students to help their own art program.”
After all the work was submitted by Jon Stone, Dominick Pataky, Tenille Duessler, Kenzy Vedder, Kate Weiser, Anna Miller, and Sharon Brewster, Mrs. Katie Borcherding stated, “We received a lot of really smart designs. I'm really excited to see the final products. Just judging from the concepts that I've seen, I'd say that we will have a very strong submission. I'd hate to suggest more than that and jinx our designs. Only 5 schools will be selected out of a huge pool, but we will put out our best work and see what happens!”
- by Tenille Duessler
After each pair is decorated with a theme, pictures of the shoes will be sent to the website and judged by the international team. “The fact that this is a national competition almost makes it ten times more entertaining,” said Tenille Duessler.
For designs continuing to the top 50, selection and a rank will be given. The top 10 shoe designs in each region will then be available for public vote; next, the top 5 finalists will be available for public and international vote, with the winners announced on May 12, 2015. These finalists will be invited to join the Vans crew in New York for the final event to announce the grand prize winner.
This winner will not only be given the satisfaction of having a design of their own chosen, but also their school's art program will be awarded $50,000! This will give current and future students opportunities that are not at the moment available to them. Art student Jon Stone said, “I think this is a really cool competition! It’s nice that there’s something out there for students to help their own art program.”
After all the work was submitted by Jon Stone, Dominick Pataky, Tenille Duessler, Kenzy Vedder, Kate Weiser, Anna Miller, and Sharon Brewster, Mrs. Katie Borcherding stated, “We received a lot of really smart designs. I'm really excited to see the final products. Just judging from the concepts that I've seen, I'd say that we will have a very strong submission. I'd hate to suggest more than that and jinx our designs. Only 5 schools will be selected out of a huge pool, but we will put out our best work and see what happens!”
- by Tenille Duessler
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