High School students from the western communities have a chance to win big money for their school, as Vans Custom Culture kicks off registration at high schools throughout Florida on Wednesday, Jan. 2.
The Vans Custom Culture competition inspires high school students across the nation to embrace their creativity. In light of decreased educational funding, Vans created this project to help ignite creativity and raise funds and awareness for the importance of art in high schools all over the U.S. Since 2010, Vans has hosted a nationwide event called Custom Culture, in which high school students “design their own Vans.” The project has opened the doors to thousands of students across the United States to compete and create masterpieces of art from a pair of traditional Vans shoes. The winner is awarded $50,000 toward their high school art program.
Registration will take place in Florida from Jan. 2 through Feb. 11. How it works is that high school art programs can register for the 2013 competition on the Vans Custom Culture web site. After registration, each school will be tasked with customizing four favorite Vans styles: the Old Skool, 106 Vulcanized, Sk8-Hi and Classic Slip-On. Students are charged with designing each pair of shoes to fit within one of three themes representing the Vans lifestyle — action sports, art and music — and then also a fourth “local flavor” theme reflecting regional inspiration.
After an internal Vans team narrows down the selection, the public will have the opportunity to vote through the Vans Custom Culture web site from April 22 to May 13. The top five schools will be invited to New York City to showcase their designs for the crowd and celebrity judges at a special event in June 2013, where the grand prize winner will be announced.
In March, the designs created by 2012 Vans Custom Culture winners Rio Rancho High School (Rio Ranch, N.M.) will go on sale at Vans and Journeys stores as well as the Vans online shop. Rio Rancho claimed the $50,000 prize last year as well as Journeys’ “Local Attitude” award when their designs were recognized amongst the nearly 900 participants.
By providing information about registration, you will be helping to spread the word about the initiative and potentially influencing art programs who would otherwise not know about the project get involved. Entering its fourth year, Vans Custom Culture continues to draw attention to the importance of art as an integral part of our school’s focus in the face of shrinking budgets.
For more information, both students and teachers alike can visit www.vans.com/customculture. The web site is the central hub for the contest, providing registration information, contest rules, an exciting kick-off video and program updates.
