Sweet Kicks from Belgrade High School.

Which shoes to choose? 45 hours, 35 felt pens, 16 hands, infinite head scratching, 1 complete do-over, 4 pair of shoes, 50 national semi-finalists, 1 from Belgrade.

An 8 person team of artists from Belgrade High School answered The Vans Custom Culture Challenge to re-design 4 pairs of Vans’ most popular shoes. The results demonstrate these kids got the kind of “sole” that Vans is looking for and qualifies them as national semi-finalists.

The all-girl, all star team of Adara Dugan, Aurora Boylan, Dejianna Wilkinson, Raechel Haverstick, Shayne Goulet, Ashlyn Cysewski, Ashlyn Olson and Katy Lindberg put their collective genius together to create shoes that had the people at Vans kicking up their heels.

A national public vote will determine which of the 50 teams will be one of 5 finalists to travel to New York City for the final event. In order to see these deserving young artists make it to New York City to represent school art programs, Belgrade High School, the great State of Montana and good design, go to www.vans.com/customculture/vote/ and vote Belgrade High School.

In its fourth year, the Vans Custom Culture art competition inspires high school students across the United States to embrace their creativity and draw attention to the importance of art as an integral part of a schools’ focus.

The first 1,500 U.S.-based public or private schools, that registered for Vans Custom Culture received four pairs of Vans shoes to make their own creations.

Each pair had to represent one of four themes: Art, Music, Action Sports (defined as boards and bikes, not bats and balls) and Local Flavor (inspired by where we live).

Photo submissions from the 1,500 schools were juried by designers at Vans and the number of schools was whittled to 50 semi-finalists. Belgrade High School is one of that rare 50. Go Panthers!