Rio Rancho High School (Rio Rancho, NM) earned serious bragging rights after claiming top prize on Wednesday, May 30, 2011 at the Vans Custom Culture Art & Design Showcase at the Long Beach Museum of Art. The four shoes chosen from Rio Rancho High School came from a pool of over 900 participating highschools, with designes spanning four categories: art, music, action sports, and local attitude. The students earned their school $50,000 towards its art programs, in addition to an additional $5,000 for creating shoes that best embodied their “local attitude.”
LONG BEACH, CA (May 31, 2012) –
Creativity and innovation dominated the students’ shoe designs, transforming four themes – art, music, action sports, and local attitude- into four striking pieces of original art. The judges panel included skate legend Tony Alva, musician Jordan Buckley of Every Time I Die, tattoo artist Oliver Peck (Spike TV’s Ink Master), actress AnnaLynne McCord (The CW’s 90210), and designer, television host and author Whitney Port. Vans pro skater and LBC local Geoff Rowley also cruised by to check out the student’s impressive work.
Teacher Matthew Lutz’s Rio Rancho class initially was chosen through a highly competitive process that narrowed the 900 schools to 50 semi- finalists. The five national finalists were chosen by more than 100,000 votes place through online voting: Big Bear High School (Big Bear, CA), Mountain View High School (Meridian, ID), Watkins Glen High School (Watkins Glen, NY), Rio Rancho High School (Rio Rancho, NM) and Eastern High School (Louisville, KY).
How Vans Custom Culture Works
Earlier this year, each of the nearly 900 participating high schools were sent four pairs of Vans shoes as a blank canvas to design their creations. Each shoe was to represent one of four themes: Action Sports, Music, Art and Local Flavor. Schools then submitted photo entries via the Vans Custom Culture website with global voting eventually whittling the entries down to the “Final Five” showed their work at the Long Beach Museum of Art. The top school will receive $50,000, while each finalist receives $5,000. The Journeys “Local Attitude” trophy awards one school with a $5,000 donation for the most compelling local theme.
