Submitted by Quinceia McBean
OAKHURST – Artists employ many forms of canvas, and in the case of some students, their canvas is pair of popular kicks.
Yosemite High School was selected to compete in a nationwide shoe design contest sponsored by Van sneakers.
Custom Culture is a national high school shoe customization contest where schools from all over the United States compete for a chance to win money for their art programs.
Registered schools receive four pairs of blank Vans sneakers to be customized in four themes: Art, Music, Action Sports and Local Flavor. The Top Five finalists will be flown to New York City for an exclusive final event where the winner will be selected.
The grand prize winning school will receive a $50,000 prize for their art program and the chance for their shoes to be produced and sold in Vans’ retail stores. The four runner up schools will also receive money for their art programs.
We were one of 2000 schools chosen to compete. For the four topics, we designed shoes about Yosemite, Snowboarding, 80’s art, and Bass and Treble clefs.
For the Yosemite shoes, we used images of Half Dome and Yosemite Falls. We did the art shoes in a tie-dye pattern with 80’s style writing. For the other pairs we just designed it with snowboards and music notes.
Melinda Morrison was our main artist this year and she did an outstanding job with the designs.
This year, YHS was not selected as one of the finalists, but we are looking forward to another attempt next year!
Quinceia McBean is a student at YHS in EAST class
