Vans Celebrates Grand Prize Winner and Runner Up Finalists in High School Custom Culture Competition

Moanalua High School has won $50,000 for their high school’s art program in the 13th annual Vans High School Custom Culture competition

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Vans is thrilled to announce Moanalua High School as the winner of the 13th annual Vans Custom Culture competition and honoree of $50,000 for their school’s art program. The remaining four finalists, Central High School, Avella Jr. Sr. High School, Sisters High School, and Wrangell High School will also receive limited-edition Vans gifts and $15,000 to support their school art programs.

New this year, each of the top five schools will receive an artist mentorship lesson from one of Vans’ art ambassadors: Tony Whlgn, Sydney G. James, Jay Howell, Todd Francis, Mich Miller, Kelly Breez, Camilo Medina, Noah Humes, O.J. Hays, Tony Whlgn, Sara Yukiko Mon, and David Heo.

 
Finalists

Moanalua High School – Honolulu, HI

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Wrangell High School – Wrangell, AK

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Sisters High School – Sisters, OR

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Avella Jr. Sr. High School – Avella, PA

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Central High School – Knoxville, TN

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To celebrate this incredible moment, students at Moanalua High School received a surprise party on their high school campus, including a special guest appearance from singer-songwriter Bishop Briggs to celebrate at the school’s campus.

“Moanalua’s graduation was this week. Knowing that I ended my senior year with this win… I’m really happy and I wanted to cry happy tears,” said Jaidalyn Kamaunu, a senior at Moanalua. “We worked nearly every day after school for about one to two hours a day. There were days on the weekends, we would dedicate a whole entire seven-hour workday just to work on the shoes,” noted another Moanalua student, 11th grader Dianne Cabico.

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Thank you to our partners for empowering this competition, including Yoobi, Vans’ exclusive art supplies partner who provided gift cards to all the participating schools for them to purchase much-needed art supplies, Scholarship America for community-based scholarship programs, and Journeys, who awarded all participating students a gift card to their store in recognition of their accomplishments.

Vans Custom Culture has reached hundreds of thousands of students, continuing to show how impactful art programs are by donating over $1,110,000 USD back to high school art programs to date. Please visit Vans Custom Culture to learn how to register your school next year or follow us on social at @VansCustomCulture for design inspiration and how-to lessons from Vans art ambassadors.

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Vans Musicians Wanted Announces Global Concert Stream on September 22 Featuring Live Performances from Aspiring Talent in Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific Regions

Vans®, the original action sports brand and global icon for creative self-expression, announces the official concert stream for the 2021 Vans Musicians Wanted competition, to be hosted on September 22. The global music competition welcomes finalists from around the world including the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions to perform for a global audience and for their opportunity to win Vans product, Kramer gear, global music distribution, and Spotify and Apple Music playlisting. Vans Musicians Wanted regional finalists will also have the chance to share the stage with tongue-in-cheek, genre-bending British rocker, YUNGBLUD!

Following the platform’s global competition debut last year, Vans Musicians Wanted received over 30,000 submissions in 2021, another incredible record-breaking milestone for the series! 

Fans can tune in on September 22 to witness the finale unfold as Vans Musicians Wanted judges Denzel Curry, Julia Michaels, Sean Miyashiro and YUNGBLUD announce the final winner on Vans.com/musicianswanted.

Join Vans as we congratulate the top-5 finalists advancing from each region. And learn more about each band and their music on Vans.com/musicianswanted.

From the AMERICAS region, the top five advancing finalists are a multi-faceted selection of musicians and bands passionately inspired by hip hop, R&B, rap, soul and synth-pop. 

AMERICAS Finalists

  • PYT (United States)
  • TheBe$tJR (United States)
  • Joy Sales (Brazil)
  • Mare Advertencia (Mexico)
  • Diamond Café (Canada)

The top five finalists from EMEA bring to the stage a mix of true-to-form psychedelic rock, electronic indie, deep-rhythmic soul, heavy blues hooks and jazzy instrumentals.

EMEA Finalists

  • Lemonade Shoelace (Northern Ireland)
  • Kenya Grace (England)
  • KY’ORiON (England)
  • Altered Myths (Wales)
  • p-i (France)

Hailing from the Asia-Pacific region, where the original Vans Musicians Wanted platform began, are a strong selection of soulful vocals and immersive melodic sounds that take inspiration from classic jazz, dream pop, electronic R&B, and psychedelic rock origins.

APAC Finalists

  • Q the trumpet (Korea)
  • Nathanie (Malaysia)
  • Yishun Panik (Singapore)
  • Squid The Kid (Australia)
  • Kinder Bloomen (Indonesia)

Vans Musicians Wanted is an inclusive global platform that enables creative self-expression through music and helps to provide a direct path for undiscovered artists to emerge and gain global exposure. Join Vans, Denzel Curry, Julia Michaels, Sean Miyashiro and YUNGBLUD as we announce the 2021 global winner of Vans Musicians wanted on September 22 beginning at 8PM EST on Vans.com/musicianswanted.

Vans Opens 2021 Submissions for its “Musicians Wanted” Competition, Uplifting Emerging Global Artists with a Chance to Share the Stage with YUNGBLUD

Aspiring Musicians Across All Genres from the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific Regions Can Enter for a Chance to Vans product, Kramer gear, a Premium TuneCore prize pack, Global Music Distribution, Spotify playlisting and more!

 

Submit Your Original Music Now at Vans.com/musicianswanted

Vans, the original action sports brand and global icon for creative self-expression, are opening submissions for its praised 2021 Vans Musicians Wanted competition. Launched worldwide for the first time in 2020 as a digital contest, Vans Musicians Wanted is the brand’s global music program, providing a stage for up and coming musicians just starting out. The contest series celebrates fresh, new and “Off The Wall” talent from all genres.

For 2021, participating regions will provide undiscovered artists the opportunity to gain international exposure and a chance to share the stage with the tongue-in-chic, genre-bending British rocker, YUNGBLUD. Additional prizes include Vans product, Kramer gear, a premium TuneCore prize pack including global music distribution, Spotify playlisting and more!

The 2020 Vans Musicians Wanted platform saw over 22,000 artist submissions across nearly every music genre from musicians around the world. Drawing off this epic success, the digital music platform continues to curate and build brand experiences that are accessible – allowing fans anywhere to participate through digital submission and virtual contest series on a global scale. Through the interactive website, artists from the United States, Mexico, Central and South America, Europe and Asia-Pacific shared their original music with a broad-reaching audience. Last year’s winners included JoeJas hailing from the UK, Lucia Tacchetti from Argentina and numnum from Korea.

A diverse cast of judges will be joining the brand as part of the selection process including multi-talented rapper, writer and comic book artist, Denzel Curry who is featured in the brand’s latest brand campaign, Grammy nominated pop singer and songwriter, Julia Michaels, creative visionary and founder of 88rising, Sean Miyashiro and US and UK Billboard charting artist, YUNGBLUD. The top five finalists from each region will be chosen to perform at the Vans Musicians Wanted virtual concert series, to be held this September. Additionally, regional grand prize winners will be selected to receive Vans product, Kramer gear, global music distribution, Spotify and Apple Music playlisting and the opportunity to share the stage with YUNGBLUD in front of live audiences as the opening act in 2022.

Vans Musicians Wanted is an inclusive global platform that enables creative self-expression through music and helps to provide a direct path for undiscovered artists to emerge and gain global exposure. To enter your original music and read the official contest rules and regulations, please visit Vans.com/musicianswanted.

VANS ANNOUNCES TOP 5 FINALISTS IN CUSTOM CULTURE HIGH SCHOOL COMPETITION

Vans is thrilled to announce the Top 5 finalists of the twelfth annual Vans Custom Culture competition. Vans High School Custom Culture was created to inspire and empower high school students to embrace their creativity through art and design and bring attention to diminishing art education budgets. 

After twelve years, Vans continues its dedication to give back to the arts through its competition giving students a chance to win $50,000 to benefit their school’s art program. Over 1,000 schools across the country entered and were asked to use Vans as their canvas and apply their creativity to Vans footwear, using the themes “Hometown Pride” and “Head in the Clouds”.

Finalists:

Cedar Hill High School – Cedar Hill, TX

Edison High School – San Antonio, TX

Fontainebleau High School – Mandeville, LA 

Secaucus High School – Secaucus, NJ

Temple City High School – Temple City, CA

After receiving both physical and digital submissions, it’s evident that this year’s winners were collaborative, innovative and dedicated to show the world their art no matter the obstacle. 

Thank you to our partners for empowering this competition, including Yoobi, Vans’ exclusive arts supplies partner who provided gift cards to all the participating schools in order for them to purchase much needed art supplies, Scholarship America for community-based scholarship programs and Journeys who awarded all participating students a gift card to their store in recognition of their accomplishments.

Since its inception in 2021, Vans Custom Culture has reached hundreds of thousands of students, donating over $1,110,000 USD back into high school art programs nationwide. 

For more information, please visit Vans Custom Culture.

Check out each school’s entry after the jump Read More

NAACP Creative Sole Scholarship Powered by Vans

Vans, the original action sports brand and advocate for creative expression, has partnered with the NAACP, the nation’s preeminent social justice and civil rights organization, to launch the ‘NAACP Creative Sole Scholarship Powered by Vans.’ As part of Vans’ commitment to uplift and drive equity, diversity and inclusion within our communities and our industry, this scholarship program aims to support African American students by providing them with monetary aid to use towards their college education as they pursue a creative career across a variety of disciplines including art, music, journalism, marketing, design, communications, or architecture. Full eligibility requirements below. 

Applications for the NAACP Creative Sole Scholarship Powered by Vans opened today and will remain open until June 18, 2021. 50 students will be selected as recipients of the scholarship by N-SPIRE, a committee within NAACP that focuses on the creation, development and awarding of scholarship programs. The selected students will be announced August 9 and each will receive $5,000 to use towards their tuition fees. As a way for Vans to continue supporting these students throughout their entire college education, Vans will award the selected students $5000 each year that they are enrolled up until four years, which means one student could receive a total of $20,000 through the program, if eligibility requirements continue to be met. Vans hopes to incentivize the selected students to complete their full college education and graduate at the end of the four years.

To learn more about the application process, eligibility or to share with friends or family who may be interested in applying for the scholarship, please be sure to visit naacp.org.

“Vans’ commitment to tackle racism while ensuring diversity and inclusion become a mainstay across communities and industries is an essential step in the fight against institutional racism. We look forward to a sustained partnership that brings about change for the Black community.” 

 YUMEKA RUSHING, CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER, NAACP

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR CREATIVE SOLE SCHOLARSHIP:

Applicants must: 

•       Be African American and a member of the NAACP. 

•       Be currently enrolled full-time or accepted to an accredited college or university in the US.

•       Be a graduating high school senior or undergraduate student.

•       Possess a grade point average of 3.0 or above on a 4.0 system. 

•       Demonstrate interest in pursuing creative careers, i.e., art, music, journalism, marketing, design, communications, architecture or film as examples. 

•       Be a US resident.

Vans Custom Culture High School Competition Launches with a Grand Prize of $50,000 to the Winners High School Art Program

To kick off the new year, Vans invites all public and private high school students to take part in Vans Custom Culture 2021. Vans Custom Culture returns for its twelfth installment with a couple of new themes to match the current times. To reflect the state of the world, this year’s new topics are “Hometown Pride” and “Head in the Clouds.” Students will have the opportunity to showcase their creativity and artistic abilities by submitting a unique digital shoe design that illustrates this year’s themes for a chance to win a grand prize of $50,000 for their high school’s art program. Runner ups will receive $15,000 and the top five schools will receive an artist mentorship lesson from one of Vans’ art ambassadors: Kelly Breez, Robin Eisenberg, Jay Howell, Todd Francis, Olivia Krause, Camilo Medina, Noah Humes, O.J. Hays, Tony Whlgn, and Sydney James.

Online registration at the Vans Custom Culture website opened on January 4th and will close on January 29th, 2021. This year’s themes of “Hometown Pride” and “Head in the Clouds” look to highlight the special qualities of where each school is located as well as student’s visions for the future and their communities. These new themes look to challenge and encourage students to come up with unique and meaningful digital shoe designs that represent their school’s culture. Vans has partnered with Yoobi, Americans for the Arts, and Journeys to supply students and schools with resources and scholarship opportunities.

After the digital submission window ends on February 19th, 250 schools will be asked to submit a physical shoe design that best embodies “Hometown Pride” and “Head in the Clouds.” As an added bonus to challenge and encourage students to think critically about the environment, Vans will be offering a $500 gift card for art supplies to the best designs that can be made out of sustainable materials. Vans will also be donating $500 per school to an environmental organization to help promote and encourage investment in sustainability.

Once the top 50 designs are selected, the online voting window will determine the top five finalists. Online voting begins on April 26th and each school has the opportunity to make it to the finals by encouraging their communities to support them through online voting. The grand-prize winning school will be announced in May via an online livestream event and they will be receiving a $50,000 check for their school’s art program.

“The variety of submissions we received in the past continues to reveal the pool of talented artists we have and the need for well-funded art education programs across the country,” said Carly Gomez, VP Marketing of Vans the Americas.

To learn more about Vans Custom Culture 2021 and register your school, head to customculture.vans.com and to watch some how-to lessons from Vans art ambassadors head to Vans’ YouTube Channel.

TODAY: Vans Musicians Wanted Global Concert Stream with Performances by Aspiring Artists from Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific Regions

Today: Vans Musicians Wanted Global Concert Stream with Performances by Aspiring Artists from Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific Regions

 Tune in to see J.I.D, Bohan Phoenix, Nilüfer Yanya and Anderson .Paak Award the First Global Vans Musicians Wanted Winners 

 Watch today at Vans.com/MusiciansWanted

*Global stream times available on website

 

Vans, the original action sports brand and global icon for creative self-expression is proud to announce the Vans Musicians Wanted global concert stream happening today. The global contest series will welcome the top finalists from all around the world including the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions to perform for a global audience for the opportunity to win Vans product, Fender gear, global music distribution, Spotify and Apple Music playlisting and the opportunity to share the stage with Vans Global Music Ambassador, Anderson .Paak! Viewers can tune in today to see Vans Musicians Wanted judges, J.I.D, Bohan Phoenix, Nilüfer Yanya and Anderson .Paak announce the final winner on www.vans.com/musicianswanted.

Originally, created by Vans’ Asia-Pacific region in 2015, Vans Musicians Wanted competition was introduced as a digital platform in 2020 that was open to all musicians and genres of music around the world, allowing promising talent anywhere the opportunity to participate through digital submission of music and virtual concerts on a global scale. Featuring special guest judges as part of the selection process, Vans Musicians Wanted welcomes J.I.D and Bohan Phoenix, artists featured in Vans’ latest brand campaign, ‘THIS IS OFF THE WALL’, European based singer-songwriter Nilüfer Yanya, and Vans Global Music Ambassador, Anderson .Paak

In the global platform’s inaugural year, Vans Musicians Wanted received over 22,000 submissions, a landmark accomplishment for the series!  Please join us as we congratulate the top-5 finalists from each region. Joining us from the AMERICAS region will be 28-year old rapper and producer, Charlee Parker, female rock trio Total Rubbish from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Los Angeles based hip-hop artists Bando, Argentinian electro-pop group Lucia Tacchetti and Canadian hip-hop artist, $tik. Top five finalists from EMEA include rapper and producer JoeJas, 19-year old British-Italian singer Nikaa, pop-rock quartet Duck Baleno from Verona, Italy, grunge rock musician, YGGL and British-Polish multi-instrumentalist and performer Nat. Top five finalists from the APAC region include experimental rock group, Num Num from Seoul, hard hitting rock group Ultra-Mega Cat Attack from Singapore, DJ and producer H4RDY from Seoul, Chinese underground hip-hop artists 龍胆紫PurpleSoul and alternative rock-duo, Niko Niko Tan Tan hailing from Tokyo, Japan. 

AMERICAS Finalists: Stream at 5pm PST at www.vans.com/musicianswanted

  • Charlee Parker
  • Total Rubbish
  • Bando
  • Lucia Tacchetti
  • $tik

EMEA Finalists: Stream at 9am GMT at www.vans.eu/musicianswanted

  • JoeJas
  • Nikaa
  • Duck Baleno
  • YGGL
  • Nat

APAC Finalists: Stream at 8pm HKT at www.vans.com/musicianswanted

  • Num Num
  • Ultra-Mega Cat Attack
  • H4RDY
  • 龍胆紫PurpleSoul
  • Niko Niko Tan Tan

Vans’ Musicians Wanted competition is an inclusive global platform that enables creative self-expression through music and provides a direct path for undiscovered artists to step into the limelight and gain global exposure. Join Vans, J.I.D, Bohan Phoenix, Nilüfer Yanya and Anderson .Paak as we announce the first global winner of Vans Musicians wanted today in the US beginning at 5PM PST on http://www.vans.com/musicianswanted.

Vans Musicians Wanted!

Tune in to see J.I.D, Bohan Phoenix, Nilüfer Yanya and Anderson .Paak Award the First Global Vans Musicians Wanted Winners

 Watch on Dec 9 at Vans.com/MusiciansWanted

*Global stream times available on website

Vans, the original action sports brand and global icon for creative self-expression is proud to announce the Vans Musicians Wanted global concert stream on December 9. The global contest series will welcome the top finalists from all around the world including the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions to perform for a global audience for the opportunity to win Vans product, Fender gear, global music distribution, Spotify and Apple Music playlisting and the opportunity to share the stage with Vans Global Music Ambassador, Anderson .Paak! Viewers can tune in Dec. 9 to see Vans Musicians Wanted judges, J.I.D, Bohan Phoenix, Nilüfer Yanya and Anderson .Paak announce the final winner on www.vans.com/musicianswanted.

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Vans Musicians Wanted Campaign

Vans Launches ‘Musicians Wanted’ Global Music Competition to Spotlight Undiscovered Artists and Award the Chance to Share The Stage with Celebrated Musician Anderson .Paak

 Digital Music Competition is Open to Artists of All Genres Globally;

Finalists Will Earn Vans Product, Fender Gear, Spotify Playlisting and More!

 Submit Original Music Now at Vans.com/MusiciansWanted

 Vans, the original action sports brand and global icon for creative self-expression is proud to launch the Vans Musicians Wanted competition globally for the first time since its inception in 2015. Vans Musicians Wanted is the brand’s global music program that aims to provide a platform for musicians who are just starting out. The contest series will celebrate fresh, new and “Off The Wall” talent from all genres. For its 2020 global debut, each region around the world will provide undiscovered artists the chance to gain international exposure and the opportunity to share the stage with Grammy award-winning artist, Anderson .Paak. Additional prizes include Vans product, Fender gear, global music distribution, Spotify and Apple Music playlisting and more! 

Originally created by Vans’ Asia-Pacific region in 2015, the Vans Musicians Wanted competition began as a program to directly enable local, undiscovered musicians to submit their original music and be discovered on a national scale. With more than 7,000 artists that have entered the program since its inception, Vans is proud to launch the program globally to welcome artists from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions for a chance to share their original music with the world. Artists can submit their original music now through October 11 on Vans.com/MusiciansWanted. 

Vans evolves the 2020 global platform into competition series that is truly digital and open to all musicians and genres of music. The brand continues to curate and build experiences that are optimized for digital; allowing promising talent anywhere the opportunity to participate through digital submission of music and virtual concerts on a global scale. 

Featuring special guest judges as part of the selection process, Vans Musicians Wanted welcomes J.I.D and Bohan Phoenix, artists featured in the Vans latest brand campaign, ‘THIS IS OFF THE WALL’, European based singer-songwriter Nilüfer Yanya, and Grammy award-winning artist, Anderson .Paak to review the top-5 artists from each region. Three artists will be chosen to perform at the Vans Musicians Wanted Virtual Concert, to be held this December. One grand prize winner will be selected to receive Vans product, Fender Gear, global music distribution, Spotify and Apple Music playlisting and the opportunity to share the stage with Anderson .Paak as the opening act in 2021.

Vans Musicians Wanted competition is an inclusive global platform that enables creative self-expression through music and provides a direct path for undiscovered artists to step into the limelight and gain global exposure. To enter your original music now and read official contest rules, please visit Vans.com/musicianswanted.

It’s Time For Another Year of 31 Days of Vans! (#31daysofVans)

Yes, it’s that time of year again to celebrate our unofficial Vans holiday, created by us, for us!  Show off your love for all things Vans.  There’s no formula to this shit, just share your pairs, and use the campaign hashtag #31daysofvans.  Let’s see how much the Vans Family has grown from last year.  Thanks to Kyle for producing some sick banner graphics for the cause!