Companies are always looking for new and creative ideas for their products. Custom Culture is a competition that reaches out to high schools all across the United States for new ideas for their shoes. Registered schools get four pairs of white Vans shoes to customize into four different themes:  Music, Art, Local Flavor, and Action Sports. The top five finalists are flown to New York City where the winner will be chosen to win $50,000 for their school. Zack Smithey’s AP Studio Art took advantage of the opportunity.

“The competition is a good way of getting our art into the world for people to see. I wouldn’t mind being flown to New York either,” junior Lindsey Usry said.

The class worked in groups to design the shoes according to their assigned theme, collaborating and sharing ideas with each other to make the best shoe possible.

“The idea for the music theme was to pour the paint over the shoe to make it look like waves of sound. We talked to each other about a way to pull that off and Smithey gave us the idea to simply put different colors of oil paint into one cup and pour it over the shoe. We used lamps to dry the shoes so we could make a music design on the heel,” Usry said.

The award for the competition lured the class into setting aside their current projects and participating in the competition, but the trip to New York City wasn’t the only only prize the students had their eyes on.

“Most people don’t pay attention to contests that they don’t get a personal gain from, but the $50,000 would benefit our art program a lot. Our school has struggled all year with having enough supplies and alot of it comes from the teachers pockets,” senior Monica Cattron said.