Oregon’s Lakeridge High School wins Vans Custom Culture Contest

A panel of celebrity judges, including fashion designers Whitney Port and Timo Weiland, actress Emma Roberts, pro skateboarder Steve Caballero and Yo Gabba Gabba! co-creator Christian Jacobs, picked Lakeridge High School of Lake Oswego, Ore., as the winner of the fourth annual Vans Custom Culture Contest at a June 11 event in New York City.

According to Vans, this year’s competition included 1,458 high schools from all 50 states, each submitting pairs of Vans customized around the following themes: art, music, action sports and local flavor.

Chosen from among five finalists, Lakeridge took home the top prize of a $50,000 donation to its arts program, while the four other schools -- Middletown High School South (in Middletown, N.J.), University High School (Irvine, Calif.), Eastern High School (Louisville, Ky.) and Friendswood High School (Friendswood, Texas) -- received art program donations of $4,000 each.

Middletown was also awarded an additional $10,000 grant courtesy of retail partner Journeys for its “local flavor” entry.

In addition, one or more of the winning school’s designs will be produced for sale to the public through Vans and Journeys stores (winning designs from the contest’s 2012 winner, Rio Rancho High School of Rio Rancho, N.M., which hit retail in March, are still available).

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