Thank heavens "The Birdbox" Challenge is now officially dead and gone and a much safer alternative is taking its place on Social media. It’s called the Vans Challenge and it involves participants taking off their brand label trainers and chucking them across the room to see which way up they land.

As noted by Esquire (who headlined their article with the scientific term “Sneaker Aerodynamics,” The viral challenge began when one person, @Ibelievthehype, posted footage of her Vans being thrown onto the floor. She pointed out that no matter how you throw your Vans, the trainers always end facing up.

Someone also went on to point out that should your Vans not land correctly, you will then know they are fake.

How the Vans Challenge happened

That particular tweet has received 95,409 retweets and 256,828 likes at the time of writing and is increasing exponentially as hundreds of other Twitter members follow suit.

The tweet officially started the Vans Challenge, which reveals people throwing their trainers to the floor to see which way they land. Some even throw them from balconies to test the theory. One particular user @BryceMckenney1 even threw seven pairs consecutively to test the theory and all of them landed the right way up.

@iris_adi’s Vans landed a little differently and appear to be pirouetting before finally landing the right side up.

It was Twitter user @curlyhead_kayy that pointed out should your trainers not land right side up, sorry, they are fake.

Funnily enough, the Metro’s article says they tried the challenge and it didn’t always work. Maybe they had fake Vans without even knowing it?

How to participate in the latest challenge

The challenge is pretty easy and all you need is a pair of Vans trainers – the style doesn’t matter as apparently it works no matter what. You also need a camera or phone that records video.

With shoes in hand, start recording as you throw them into the air and reveal which way they land. For maximum impact, throw several pairs of shoes at once if you have them.

The challenge is becoming so viral, even little ones are participating, as can be seen from a video posted by @sarahisoris

Naturally, there is always a joker who pretends to take the challenge the wrong way, as can be seen from this gem posted by @Jimmy2Thicc.

An interesting thing about Vans trainers was pointed out by Twitter user @Prince_0fPersia.

He showed that the trainers don’t even have to be thrown to end up the right way.
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