Middletown Wins 'Local Flavor' Designer Shoes Contest

Middletown High School South was awarded more than $10,000 towards its art program after winning the Journeys Local Attitude Award at the Vans Custom Culture event in New York City Wednesday night.

Inspired by Hurricane Sandy, student artists designed Vans sneakers with an image of the Jet Star roller coaster submerged in the Atlantic Ocean on the toe, a broken boardwalk on the tongue and the beach around the sides.

The high school was selected as one of the top 50 of 1,500 schools in the country to compete in the Vans Custom Culture Contest, an art contest sponsored by Vans Inc.

Middletown High School South’s AP Studio Art Class, including Taylor Franzreb, Carissa Gray, Meghan Heidelberg, Amy Mader, Jacqueline Marron, Nina Mitarotondo, Kate Spence and Will Stallmeyer as well as Art 1 student Jesse Price submitted four shoe designs. Each pair of shoes represented one of the four required themes: Action Sports, Art, Music and Local Flavor.

The public was able to vote for the best shoe design throughout April and May. The competition was then narrowed down to five finalists, including Middletown High School South, and given a travel budget to travel to New York City for the Final Event where surprise celebrity judges decided the winner.

The winner, Lakeridge High School in Lake Oswego, Oregon, received a $50,000 grand prize for their art program, while the four runners up were awarded $4,000. As winner of the “Local Flavor” category, Journeys will also donate $10,000 to the high school.

Facebook supporters encouraged Vans to actually make Middletown High School South's design.

"You need to sell these and donate the proceeds back to Hurricane Sandy relief!" Linda Marciano Snyder said.

"Those shoes can be global," Kaleb Dickson said.

"I would wear the heck out of those," Sandra Liddy Papp said.