Zahacy wins West 49 shoe design contest

Mandy Gardner
For the South Peace News

It took around 20 minutes for West 49 representative Jerry Filice to convince Ryan Zahacy that he’d won the Globe Design a Shoe competition. But, after a somewhat awkward telephone conversation Zahacy finally came to grips with it. Why the disbelief? “I never win anything”, says the 21-year-old High Prairie resident. “I (just) figured the Globe design a shoe contest would take care of my free time, and sounded like fun.” Zahacy found out about the competition online at the West 49 website where he’d ventured to look for a bargain. Instead, he decided to take a look at the contest page. West 49 is a Canadian retailer that is this year celebrating its 12th year in business. The online and retail locations all across Canada sell a myriad of clothing and accessories that are related to the intertwined skateboarding, snowboarding and surfing subcultures: Vans and Globe shoes, Quicksilver, Circa and DC clothing, skateboards, hats, jewelry, snowboards and West 49’s own branded products can be found on the shelves of your local stores or online. The store has gained incredible popularity in Canada because its products have come to be synonymous with skate and snowboarding, two sports with epidemic qualities in this country. Together with the skate brand Globe, West 49 opened the Design a Shoe competition to residents of Canada over 13 years on Nov. 14, 2006. The judging panel was comprised of none other than the Globe skate team plus the West 49 marketing team. In a ceremony that took place at a West 49 Edmonton location, Zahacy got kitted out with a free branded T-shirt, 12 pairs of shoes with his winning design and various Globe clothes. West 49 started marketing the shoes in stores across Canada this week. “Picture 30 kids, all “emo” (emotive) staring at me like hungry wolves ... just waiting for me to offer them a pair,” says Zahacy. Having escaped with all his prizes intact, Zahacy says he will continue skateboarding and drawing like he has been for years. He adds, however, this is “only because (I’m) not cool enough to scooter or rollerblade”. Ryan is the son of Chris and Dennis Zahacy of High Prairie. He graduated in 2003 from E.W. Pratt High School and now lives and works in Edmonton. You can check out West 49 online at www.west49.com.

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