High school students from across the United States are invited to join the second annual Vans Custom Culture program: a sneaker customization design contest. Students will submit Vans shoe designs for a chance to win $50,000 towards their high school art program and one of five schools chosen to attend and display their work at a museum event in New York City this spring. Last year, 326 schools nationally took part in Vans Custom Culture, with art students from Rio Rancho High School of Rio Rancho, New Mexico taking top honors. Registration begins on February 11th, so get inspired and make sure your class gets involved.

The Vans Custom Culture contest begins registration on Friday, February 11, 2011, and will accept entries from up to 20 schools per state. High school students from art programs in five regions, including Northeast, Southeast, Northwest, Southwest and California, will have a chance to collectively tap into their creativity to craft designs for four pairs of Vans shoes, to be submitted for judgment. All registration and submissions will take place via the Vans Custom Culture Web site at vans.com/customculture. An online gallery will exhibit the complete collection of submissions for the world to see.

After the initial judging panel selects the top 50 submissions, Vans will open the voting to consumers through an online platform, thereby narrowing down the competition to the top school in each region.

Winning schools from each region will receive a trip to New York City in June, and will participate in the final event gala held at a world-famous art museum. A Vans panel of industry experts will deliberate to select the winner of the 2011 Vans Custom Culture program and the winning school will be announced at the gala.