By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
While most high school seniors are still contemplating their career choices, Thomas More Prep-Marian senior Brandon Karlin not only has a goal in mind but his entry into the Global Vans Custom Culture contest is a step in the right direction, with $25,000 on the line and the opportunity to have the company produce the winning entry.
The annual global contest brought in over 100,000 entries with the first round of public voting running until Oct. 13.
“The $25,000 would be a great start to go to a good college and do what I want to do,” Karlin said. “Getting my shoe published by Vans would obviously spark an interest by some companies to see that I’m interested in shoe design and that I can do it.”
“I have gotten way more votes than I expected to get,” he said. “I was only expecting to get 100 total.”
On Monday, his top entry had received over 1,600 votes.
“I think that is incredibly huge and I’m really thankful for everyone that is supporting me through it,” Karlin said.
“From the results of the public vote, the three regional Vans teams will select the top 10 finalists from the Gallery of Submissions based on vote count, creativity, originality and overall execution,” Vans said in a release announcing the start of the voting portion of the contest. “Once the top 10 from each region are selected, they will receive a pair of Era shoes to create a new design onto Vans’ classic canvas. Once designs are complete, they will enter the next round of public vote to determine the grand prize winner in each region.”
While winning the contest could be life-changing for Karlin, he said even entering the contest is valuable.
“When I found out, I thought it was something really cool and I should go for it since it would give me some experience in what I want to do,” Karlin said.
While Karlin hopes the contest will help achieve his future career aspirations, his interest in shoe design is nothing new.
“Over the past couple of years, I have been really interested in shoes,” he said.
He had already been busy sketching designs and had a couple of designs that would be good for the contest and sees designing shoes as an extension of his art, which he has done since a small child.
“I drew what I loved,” Karlin said. “Then, about the seventh grade, I took an interest in shoes.
“Most middle school boys are into shoes at some point, so when I started liking them I thought it was really cool how the designers made them and I decided I want to make a cool shoe that people could wear and middle school boys could love,” he said.
Designing shoes is a skill Karlin said is self-taught, but he has had encouragement along the way —- sometimes from unexpected places.
“My English teacher, actually had me do a project that wasn’t anything related to English. She wanted us to pick a project for fun that we wanted to do and I ended up designing online and 3D printing a shoe that I made,” he said.
He has also submitted entries to local art shows, but nothing on the scale of the Vans contest. He has been thankful for the support that has come in so far.
“When I entered this, (my friends and classmates) all supported me and they have been voting,” Karlin said. “I love all the people that have supported me and all my teachers and friends that have shared it on Facebook.”
Karlin’s entries can be found at custom-culture.vans.com/userprofile?handle=BrandonKarlin.
Voting only takes a few seconds, he said and can be completed on the page.
His top-performing entry can be directly viewed at custom-culture.vans.com/design?submission_id=293348 best performer.