News from Trinity University

What’s That on Your Shoe? Trinity Student Wins Nationwide Contest Designing Converse Sneakers

Trinity University first-year student Claire Ramirez shows off a picture of her winning entry in the Punk Your Chucks

shoe design contest sponsored by Converse.

SAN ANTONIO – Trinity University first-year student Claire Ramirez loves contests. She also loves to draw and she loves shoes, especially Chuck Taylors, the classic canvas basketball sneakers with the All Star logo made by Converse. So when she heard about a contest to design a custom pair of the iconic shoe, she couldn’t resist. Now she is the winner of the Punk Your Chucks contest sponsored by Converse and Journeys, a national shoe store chain, and will receive $1,000, 12 new pairs of Converse sneakers, and a full page advertisement in Teen Vogue. Most importantly, sneakers sporting her winning design will go on sale in May.

“This is the coolest thing ever because I love shoes,” said Claire, who is from San Antonio. “And I love getting my art out there. Now a bunch of people are going to have my art on their feet.”

Claire first learned of the contest last summer while shopping at a local Journeys store. She happened to be wearing a pair of sneakers covered with pictures she and her friends drew on the shoes. “And one of the guys who works there came up to me and said ‘Those are really cool. Are you entering the Converse contest?’”

The salesman then told her about the Punk Your Chucks sneaker design contest and that the deadline was coming up in about a month.

Claire went home and, looking for inspiration, found it in a photo on her dresser. The picture was of the legs of Claire and one of her male friends. She is wearing pink argyle socks and he is wearing a pair of Converse sneakers.

She downloaded a template for designing the sneakers from the Web and created her entry using colored pencils.

Early last fall, about three months after she mailed her creation, Converse contacted her to say her design was selected from hundreds of entrees by contestants of all ages.

In February, a photographer came to Trinity to do a photo shoot for the Teen Vogue ad. It was then that Claire was able to see her work on an actual pair of Converse Chucks. “It was the only pair made and they were my size,” she remembered. “I really wanted to keep them but they had to take them back to Converse.”

Soon she will have her own pair as well as several more to give to friends and family. And she might be walking down the street and see someone wearing her creation.

“I would be so excited! I would sign them right then and there!” said Claire.

Claire can be seen in the May issue of Teen Vogue, which will go on sale in mid-April. Her winning design will be available at Journeys stores across the country beginning in May.