Vinny's Vans

Vinny's Vans
Posted on 04/09/2021
Vinny Corradi

UPDATE:
ABC27 Newscast, 4/15/21
CBS21 Newscast, 4/15/21

Vinny CorradiVincent Corradi, Class of 2022, has always loved art, and he recently discovered a way to turn his creative talent into a profit. Vinny has been selling his custom designed shoes through his Instagram account. As a Blue Raider wrestler, he was particularly thrilled to be contacted by wrestlers from Cornell University, Penn State University, University of Wyoming, and Ohio State to create custom wrestling shoes for them. His designs are colorful, trendy and eye-catching and he earns a little money doing what he loves.

Vinny’s kicks also caught the attention of one of his father’s friends who informed them about a Vans design competition for high schoolers. The annual contest, known as 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 arts education budgets. Vans believes everyone should be empowered to express themselves creatively and should be given the tools to do so. Custom Culture High School is a national high school customization competition using blank Vans shoes to be customized around the specific themes, Hometown Pride and Head in the Clouds.” (customculture.vans.com) The grand prize is $50,000 for the school’s art department and the four runner-up schools will each receive $15,000. PennLive explained the contest in detail HERE.

Vinny was intrigued and MAHS Art Teacher, Mrs. Liz Strite, was more than happy to help her talented student become a participant. Mrs. Strite started the application process, and since the contest recommends that several students take part in the process, Mrs. Strite gathered a small group of students to collaborate on the themes to provide ideas for Vinny’s designs. Vinny went to work and completed a drawing for the Head in the Clouds theme. When Vinny’s design was ready, he submitted it online and crossed his fingers. It wasn’t long before the MAHS art class heard that their student designer, Vinny Corradi, had been chosen as one of the 250 student artists to advance to the next round!

Vans boxesVinny and Mrs. Strite excitedly awaited the arrival of five pairs of white, blank Vans canvas shoes. Vinny now has five weeks to fully customize two pairs of shoes, one per theme. After submissions are received by the April 16th deadline, the Vans designers will select 50 pairs to advance to the final round. The 50 finalists will be announced on April 26, then the top five winners are determined by public voting through May 7.

We hope to bring you further news of the progress of Vinny’s Vans as well as information about how to participate in the public voting process.




To prevent Vinny’s artwork from being viewed by other competitors, all of Vinny’s designs for this contest are intentionally being kept confidential at this time. Below are some examples of Vinny’s designs for the collegiate wrestlers.

Wrestling shoe wrestling shoe
wrestler shoes wrestler shoe
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