CYPRESS, Calif., April 26, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Vans announces
that starting today, Tuesday, April
26th, consumers will have the opportunity to select
the five top finalists for the 2011 Vans Custom Culture program.
The national contest, in its second year, allows students to design
their own collection of Vans sneakers for the chance to win
$50,000 towards their high school art
program. Additionally, the winning school's designs will be
available at retail in 2012. Starting today, the general public
will have the ability to view the shoe designs from 50
semi-finalists at www.vans.com/customculture and help move five
schools to the final phase.
"We had a tough job this year narrowing down to the 50
semi-finalists," said Doug
Palladini, Vans' Vice President of Marketing. "We were
absolutely blown away by the talent coming out of these schools and
it just cements our position even further that we must take action
to ensure that arts education remains a core subject. As we say
about Custom Culture, there's no art to education without Art in
education."
The 50 semi-finalists were chosen by Vans from a pool of nearly
400 entrants from all 50 states. Consumers may vote for their
favorite school in each region (Northeast, Southeast, Northwest,
Southwest and California) for one
week only from April 26th until the
polls close at 11:59 pm ET on
May 2nd.
Representatives from the top school in each of the five regions
will fly to New York in June to
take part in the final exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design
Museum. There, a judging panel of industry experts will deliberate
and select the winning school. Judges this year include artist,
Mister Cartoon; musician, Jordan
Buckley; skateboarder, Tony
Alva; and fashion expert, Nicole Young. There will also be a celebrity
judge on the panel, announced at a later time.
Lack of funding for arts education has become a national
epidemic that led Vans to create an annual contest to help inspire
kids to enact change in their own communities. In New York alone, schools experienced a decrease
of 20.8 percent across their arts budgets from 2009 to 2010 and a
34.4 percent decline in their funds for art supplies and
equipment.(1) And New York is not alone – schools across the
country are experiencing significant budget cuts that are leading
the eradication of arts education entirely.
Art programs encourage innovation and nonlinear thinking, skills
that can be used not only in academic settings but in the
professional world as well. Last year, IBM asked 1,500 corporate
CEOs from 33 industries to name their top "leadership competency"
and they ranked creativity first. Vans' Custom Culture program
strives to provide students the incentive and opportunity to get
creative while making a positive change in their schools and
communities.
Consumer voting begins at 12:00 am
EDT on Tuesday, April 26, 2011
and ends at 11:59 pm EDT on
Monday, May 2, 2011. Consumers can
visit www.vans.com/customculture to vote for their favorite
designs.
ABOUT VANS: Vans, the original action sports footwear and
apparel company, is a brand of VF Corporation (NYSE: VFC).
Vans collections include authentic footwear, apparel and
accessories, snowboard boots and the Pro-tec line of protective
gear and are sold in the United
States through more than 250 company owned stores as well as
independent retailers. Internationally, Vans sells its goods
in approximately 70 countries through a network of subsidiaries,
distributors and foreign offices. Vans promotes action sports
lifestyle and youth culture through support of athletes on boards
and bikes all over the globe and through progressive events such as
the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing®, the Vans Downtown Showdown, the
Pro-tec Pool Party and the Vans Warped Tour®.
For more information on Vans, please visit
www.vans.com.
(1) NYC Department of Education. (2010) Annual Arts in
Schools Report.
SOURCE Vans