by Serena Richards

Gallery • 5 Photos

Action sports theme winner designed by Ariel Bobe | by Jenna Johnson

After learning about the Vans Custom Culture contest from Principal Reagan, art teacher Jenna Johnson and other art teachers encouraged students to create sneaker designs for one of five categories. Johnson’s fashion design class voted on the submissions in those five categories on March 24.

The art teachers loved how well the contest fit with the new fashion design class’s curriculum, Johnson explained. Since the class currently does not have a project planned around footwear, Johnson thought giving the students the opportunity to vote on our school’s submissions would be good for the class.

Several students entered. “Since so many of the students here are into their shoes, it was a good idea to give them an opportunity to design their own,” Johnson said.

The fashion class voted on four submissions, one from each category, to represent the school in the contest.  In the action sports category, they voted for eighth grader Ariel Bobe’s design. For the art category, they chose eighth grader Kaytlynn Butland’s design. Freshman Annalise Chaves was chosen for the local flavor category, and sophomore Chris Hatch was chosen for the music category. Savanna Fillmore also won for the textile design pattern.

After the fashion design students picked the winners, each contestant applied the designs onto a physical shoe. The school winners have been working on the final designs since March 24.

The window for submissions to the national contest opened on March 1 and closed on April 10, but national voting on the designs does not start until April 26. Van’s will create and sell the winning designs, and the art department would win $50,000. The top five national winners would fly to Los Angeles to celebrate the designs.