Do Vans Sneakers Always Land Facing Up? The Internet Wants to Know

Whether it's a cat or buttered toast, people are obsessed with throwing things in the air to see if they land a certain way. The latest challenge of this kind doesn't involve abusing animals or wasting food, but it may scuff up your favorite pair of sneakers. Mashable reports that people taking the "Vans Challenge" are tossing their Vans shoes on the ground to answer the question—do Vans always land facing up?

Based on many of the #VansChallenge videos that have gone viral, the answer appears to be "most of the time." The clips below show shoe after shoe landing on the floor, with each one ending up rubber sole-side-down and laces-up. Even when a shoe initially lands upside down or on its side, it often corrects itself by rolling into the "right" position. The challenge has been applied to many varieties of Vans, including laced sneakers and the classic checkered slip-ons.

But much like cats don't always land on their feet, the Vans trick doesn't work 100 percent of the time. Many videos have been uploaded that "debunk" the challenge, with one person claiming that off-brand Vans aren't subject to the same sneaker sorcery.

Some scientific research is still required to determine whether Vans really do tend to land face-up or if these videos just show coincidences. A study of that kind isn't unheard of: After a series of 10,000 trials, one study found that toast lands butter-side-down 62 percent of the time.

[h/t Mashable]