People are throwing their Vans shoes in the air en masse, thanks to a viral Internet challenge. The challenge began when a Twitter user noticed that her Vans shoes always landed upright when she threw them onto the floor. She shared a video of her discovery, along with a caption that claimed, “it doesn’t matter how you throw your vans they will land facing up.”
The Internet wasted no time in testing out this theory, taking to their own closets to toss up their Vans, with most finding that her hypothesis was true. There’s a good reason why the Vans challenge works, however; since the sneakers started out as a brand for skaters, the heavy soles of the shoe are designed to help weigh feet down on the skateboard and cushion the impact of skating. This heavier sole design might explain why Vans always land top-side up.
See the best of the Vans challenge below.
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Write to Cady Lang at cady.lang@timemagazine.com