Vans is delighted to announce Strawberry Mansion High School of Philadelphia, PA and George Washington High School of San Francisco, CA as winners of the eleventh annual Vans Custom Culture competition. Vans Custom Culture was launched to provide high school artists and students a platform to embrace and showcase their creative talents. This year, Vans’ continued its dedication to give back to the arts through its competition where students had a chance to win $50,000 to benefit their school’s art program. Students were asked to use Vans as their canvas and apply their creativity to Vans footwear. New this year, Vans offered an additional $50,000 and made digital submissions available for students who did not have access to a physical pair of shoes. In addition, the top four runner-up schools in each category highlighted below will now receive an artist mentorship program equaling one digital lesson from one of the following Vans’ art ambassadors Kelly Breez, Robin Eisenberg, Todd Francis, Penelope Gazin, Tony Whlgn or Jay Howell in fall 2020.
Strawberry Mansion High School
“Congratulations to both Strawberry Mansion & George Washington High School. The growth of Custom Culture within the past eleven years has far exceeded our expectations and allowed us to make a difference for more students than we could have imagined when we started this program,” said Carly Gomez, VP Marketing of Vans the Americas. “Enabling creativity remains our focus and we quickly pivoted the program so all participating schools could submit their designs even if they were stuck at home. Again, the submissions we received far exceeded our expectations and the participation from students showcased the creative spirit when it’s needed the most.”
Through both the physical and digital submissions it’s evident that the breadth of talent and creativity nationwide has been at an all-time high. This year’s contest has certainly presented some unique obstacles along the way but each high school could not be deterred in showcasing their own individuality and creativity.
Thank you to our partners Yoobi, Americans for the Arts and Journeys who joined us in drawing attention to the importance of art education across the country and provided art materials to all the participating schools.
Vans Custom Culture has grown tenfold since its inception in 2010 reaching hundreds of thousands of students and putting more than $1,000,000 USD back into high school art programs nationwide.
PHYSICAL SHOE – Grand Prize Winners:
Strawberry Mansion High School, Philadelphia PA
PHYSICAL SHOE – 2nd Place Prize Winners:
South Lafourche High School, Cut Off LA
Vallivue East High School, Caldwell ID
DIGITAL SHOE – Grand Prize Winners:
George Washington High School, San Francisco CA
DIGITAL SHOE – 2nd Place Prize Winners:
High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology, Brooklyn NY
Clay High School, Oregon OH
For more information, please visit Vans Custom Culture.
About Vans
Vans®, a VF Corporation (NYSE: VFC) brand, is the original action sports footwear, apparel and accessories brand. Vans® authentic collections are sold in 84 countries through a network of subsidiaries, distributors and international offices. Vans® has over 2,000 retail locations globally including owned, concession and partnership doors. The Vans® brand promotes creative self-expression in youth culture across action sports, art, music and street culture and delivers progressive platforms such as the Vans Park Series, VansTriple Crown of Surfing®, Vans Pool Party, Vans Custom Culture, and Vans’ cultural hub and international music venue, House of Vans.
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