Paws for a Cause Design Scholarship
Scholarship Sponsored by Bobs from Skechers
Since its inception in 2015, Skechers has been a staunch advocate for animals in distress, generously donating over $13 million to aid and protect over two million shelter dogs and cats. Now in its third year, the Paws for a Cause scholarship program, a Skechers initiative, has been met with resounding success, earning recognition for its winners on platforms like CBS, Cosmopolitan, and various social media outlets, and featuring their designs in Skechers stores nationwide.
We are on the hunt for two college students with a flair for creativity and a passion for helping animals in need. If you have an innovative print idea and a compelling story about your interaction with a shelter animal, we are eager to hear from you.
Here's what the BOBS from Skechers Paws for a Cause Design Scholarship entails:
- A $10,000 college scholarship from the Skechers Foundation for the 2026/2027 academic year
- The opportunity to see your design come to life on BOBS from Skechers shoes in 2026
- Three individual virtual mentoring sessions with our Skechers corporate leadership and/or design team
- A $200 gift card for Skechers merchandise at Skechers retail stores or skechers.com
- A pair of BOBS from Skechers shoes
Entries must be submitted by September 30, 2025, and scholarship winners will be announced in October 2025.
Only one entry per category (one dog and one cat design) is allowed. Duplicate entries will be removed and will not be considered for judging.
SIMPLE TWO-STEP PROCESS
- Using the provided list of shoe/swatch templates and examples, create your most distinctive, attractive, emotional, and creative dog or cat mosaic pattern (or one design for each category) for the following style. Please submit a shoe image (in Vector.ai format) and a swatch (in Vector .ai format) at 300 DPI or higher, 100MB maximum file size per image. Mosaic patterns should be a 10 inch x 10 inch repeat print file.
Here are some design tips to consider:
- All-over designs/prints
- Multicolor prints with a neutral background
- "Stadium prints" to ensure the animals are large enough to be clearly visible (refer to our samples below)
- Multiple breeds of dogs and cats
And one thing to avoid:
- Dogs or cats depicted doing "human" activities (like playing sports, etc.)
Feel free to visit Skechers.com to view examples of our current collections, but we encourage you to let your creativity shine. (No AI!)
Go to Scholarship Application