If you’re into shoes, then you’ve probably heard of Nike ID, the site that allows users to design their own custom shoes. Fellow shoe company Vans is now allowing high school students to put their own spin on this concept.

The Vans Custom Culture contest is a national art contest where competing high schools receive four pairs of blank Vans shoes and turn them into works of art. Each pair must fit in to one of four categories: art, music, action sports and local flavor.

The high school was looking to build on last year’s success. “Last year we made it to the semi finals and were one of only 50 schools out of over 2000 that went to the public voting phase,” said Art teacher Mr. Reddy.

Unfortunately the high school was unable to replicate last year’s success and did not make the top 50 entries, but that does not take away from all the hard work put in by students throughout the year.

“This year after a lot of hard work and great designs we did not make it to the top 50. It’s obviously disappointing and frustrating but it doesn’t take anything away from the excellent works of art we submitted. I’m very proud of our finished pieces,” said Reddy.

“I think we all worked really hard on the vans and it was a great entry into the competition, we just weren’t selected. I’m proud of our teamwork and it was a good experience even if we didn’t make it into the top 50,” said Valerie Collins ’16.

Keeping with current trends, students submitted designs that featured lots of bright colors. These eye-popping colors are sure to draw attention to the shoes. However the best shoes balance bright colors with darker ones as well so they do not overwhelm the viewer. This is where the designs really stand out, the balance in color is excellent.

“I worked on the “local flavor” shoe for the competition and our design was based off of the Boston T subway map,” said Teddy Sevilla ’16.

Despite not getting tons of recognition from Vans, the students should be applauded for the hard work they put in to designing these shoes, hopefully we will see them on sale soon.

(Peter Santo ’16, Sports Editor)

 

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