Shoes painted by Orange High School students have landed in the top five finalists of the 2016 Vans Custom Culture contest.
The results of the online voting were announced Thursday.
High school art students design and decorate four pairs of Vans sneakers for the annual competition that awards the winning school $50,000 for its art department. Themes are art, local flavor, action sports and music.
The Orange High team of Izabella Simpson, Thao Nguyen, Jaime Flores and Jacob Ayala based its designs off of the steampunk style.
“We threw together a list of things that we’d like to try on the shoes, and we voted from there,” Flores said previously. “Steampunk won. It’s challenging, and we wanted to do something that other groups haven’t thought about.”
The top five schools move on to a final event on June 8 where a panel of celebrity judges will make the ultimate pick. The runner-ups receive $4,000 for their school.
Since the contest started in 2010, Orange County schools have consistently landed spots in the Top 50 – this year there were five. Irvine’s University High School was the last to make the top five in 2013.
Contact the writer: aratzlaff@ocregister.com 714-796-7831
