While Vans, that footwear beloved by skateboarders and other hipsters, are celebrated on Snapchat (see "Damn, Daniel!" phenomenon below), some Georgia high school students are doing what they can to make the shoes even cooler.
The shoe manufacturer is sponsoring a national design competition and inviting high school students to come up with some fresh new sneakers.
Students from more than 2,400 schools submitted ideas, and the top 50 designs were announced this week, including creations from students at three schools in Georgia: the Paideia School, Rome High School and McEachern High School.
At McEachern, in Powder Springs, students started brainstorming on Fridays in February. They came up with shoes featuring Botticelli’s Venus and Michelangelo’s David, shoes bearing miniature replicas of the Georgia license tag on the heels, shoes that look like they could go surfing all by themselves.
“My awesome students came in and worked during their entire spring break to get the shoes finished by the April 8 deadline,” said McEachern art teacher Danielle Mege.
Vans have never been hurting for street cred. As surfer dude Spicoli, Sean Penn sported checkerboard Vans in the 1982 film “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” More recently, two actual California surfer dudes, Daniel and Josh, became viral stars on Snapchat (and eventually every other social medium) with a daily update on Daniel’s stylish footwear.
("Damn, Daniel!" — Josh's catchphrase — has now been seen by 12 million viewers and prompted stories in The New York Times and a visit to Ellen DeGeneres' show.)
Some of the shoes designed by kids at McEachern and other high school students look like they stepped out of an art museum, which isn't so unlikely. The High Museum will host an exhibit on "The Rise of Sneaker Culture" this summer, looking at the sneaker's current role as "status symbol of urban culture and marker of masculine identity."
Fans of the new Vans designs are invited to vote for their favorite school between now and May 11 at vans.com/customculture. The voting will narrow the field to the top five finalists, and a winner chosen from among them will get $50,000 to support local arts education at their school, which could be very useful at McEachern, said art teacher Mege.
Her school could use a new pottery wheel, a laptop, even display cases to show off student artwork. “I can think of so many ways that we could use the money!” she wrote.
There were 11 students on the design team, which includes three seniors who will be studying art in college.
Mege said the students were advised that their versions might be manufactured by Vans, but not to expect to get paid for their design work. Still, a shot at $50,000 makes the effort worth it, she said.
“And it’s not just for the $50,000. We were trying to show people how hard these students can work.”
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