Did you know that 300 million pairs of sneakers wind up in a landfill every year? To make matters even worse, more than 600 million people in the world don’t own a pair of shoes. So that leaves the question—what should you do with your used running shoes? More broadly, if you own a running store or are the director of a marathon or road race, how can you lead efforts to keep sneakers out of landfills?
Short answer: Donate them to the reuse sneaker movement or even partner with a provider to become an athletic shoe drop-off location. Your pre-loved athletic shoes can do a world of good for those in need AND allow you to raise funds to support a good cause in your community. Sound too good to be true? Follow this guide, and we’ll cover all the questions you might have, including:
You can donate or repurpose your athletic shoes using several different channels, but Sneakers4Good can guide you through the process with step-by-step resources and offer a knowledgeable, around-the-clock customer service team.
Plus, we’ve helped communities donate over 15 million pairs of athletic shoes worldwide to the sneaker reuse movement and raised more than $16 million. Ready to get started? Let’s dive in!
Getting started is incredibly easy for any run store retailer, road race, marathon, gym, run or cross-country club, or pickleball or tennis facility. Here’s the simple process:
Contact Sneakers4Good for a dedicated Sneaker Recycling Kit
Collect gently worn, used and new athletic shoes from your community
Ship the sneakers in a pre-paid shipping bags
Receive a check issued for athletic shoes
Sneakers4Good will provide a prepaid shipping bag for you to fill with your collected sneakers. Roughly 10-15 sneakers will fit in each bag, but make sure the sneakers have their laces tied together or are rubber-banded together before going into the bag. This will ensure that pairs of athletic shoes stay together.
With Sneakers4Good, there is absolutely no charge to you when you receive this bag or when you ship it.
Most people have garages and closet floors filled with their used running shoes. Whether they grew out of the last pair or wanted to upgrade to the newest model, the sneakers are no longer valuable to them. But they can be useful to you!
Encourage your community to turn over their gently worn, new and used running shoes. Likely, they’re ready to clear up space in their home and would be willing to help a good cause in keeping them out of landfills.
Once you have collected running shoes from your community, all you have to do is take your bag to the nearest UPS store. You can easily ship the bag, free of charge, and the sneakers will go to the Sneakers4Good warehouse to be repurposed.
Once you ship out your collected sneakers, you will receive a check from Sneakers4Good. The amount of money you earn depends on how many athletic shoes you gather—the more sneakers you collect, the more money you receive. After, you can choose to donate these funds to your local nonprofits to increase the impact of your efforts!
Now that you know how easy it is to get started with repurposing your sneakers, you might find yourself in one of two camps—either ready to collect athletic shoes or a bit hesitant to get started.
If you find yourself in the first camp, you can jump to our sneaker collection section. If you identify with the second camp, let’s explore why Sneakers4Good is the best provider to partner with to encourage people to donate running shoes for repurposing.
With Sneakers4Good, you can rest assured that your gently worn, new or used sneakers will be recycled to support sustainable initiatives through our micro-enterprise model.
Micro-enterprises are small businesses, typically owned and operated by families of 1-2 people in developing countries. Due to the systemic poverty in these nations, working-age adults must create their own job opportunities. Through our sneaker recycling program, we support over 4,000 families in developing economies. Check out our video to learn more:
Sneakers4Good has dedicated services that stand out from other sneaker recycling programs. Sneakers4Good’s key advantages include:
Other sneaker recycling programs can omit key marketing resources, charge upfront fees, or resell your sneakers or the parts and materials on eBay and other companies. Our team empowers you to make a genuine local and global impact with the market leader.
Aside from leveraging dedicated marketing resources like Sneakers4Good’s flyers and press releases, you can enhance your efforts with a dedicated shoe collection event.
When you are thinking about what kind of event to organize, consider events with an underlying theme of physical activity or exercise. These events are likely to bring in members of your community who appreciate the value of a good running shoe.
Consider events such as:
Walkathons are the perfect community event to bring people together for a sports activity. Since they do not require many technical or athletic skills, this event will attract a wide range of community members with all levels of activity. Your sports club, run store retailer, or gym can encourage teams under your brand to participate in them or create your own with other partners!
If you’re directing a walkathon, make sure you plan your event for a mild, temperate season so that more people will feel inclined to join you. It doesn’t hurt to have an indoor location on standby if you need to escape inclement weather. No matter what happens, you want to encourage people to stay at your event and enjoy themselves.
When you send your invitations and promote your event, you can encourage people to donate running shoes or even the athletic shoes they walked in that day to the sneaker reuse movement!
Many 5K or 10K charity runs offer the opportunity for participants to do something for a cause when they register. To set your road race apart and choose a unique way of making a sustainable impact, request that participants donate an extra pair of running shoes at registration.
Additionally, many people come to 5K or 10K runs to spectate or cheer on their friends and loved ones. That opens up another group of people who you can encourage to donate their athletic shoes to the reuse movement.
fundraising campaign?
For some people, the idea of running a race is their nightmare, but introduce the concept of an obstacle course, and they are sold. This idea incorporates an element of fun and excitement that draws in more of a crowd.
People of all ages are interested in the challenges offered by an obstacle course. You can set up activities, such as:
Your community will love the challenge of running an obstacle course, which will bring out an enthusiastic and eager audience. Capitalize on their enthusiasm and encourage them to donate their gently worn, used and new sneakers at your event.
Partner with a local school in your community and collect athletic shoes from students and faculty. Any parent can attest to the fact that their children grow out of their sneakers at a seemingly unbelievable rate.
So many schools have athletic programs that would be the perfect opportunity to collect sneakers. You can set up a collection booth outside the school gym and collect gently worn, used and new running shoes that they would be more than happy to donate for a good cause.
You can also coordinate with the school to set up collections in students’ homerooms or the administrative office so that you can include the entire school. Students will be able to donate the athletic shoes they have outgrown or sneakers they no longer wear with ease.
Have you ever wanted to dance for 24 hours straight? Probably not, but some people find this event to be the perfect mix of entertaining and challenging.
To host this event, you will need an indoor facility to accommodate the dancers and a speaker system to rock the roof off of the building. You can also sell refreshments and charge a fee for song requests to boost your revenue.
Let people come out and show off their slick dance moves with their friends, and encourage them to bring their gently worn, used and new athletic shoes so that someone else can have some new sneakers to boogie in if they’d like.
Who remembers their elementary school field days as the best day of the year? It’s okay, you can admit it. So, why don’t we hold them anymore for older kids and adults?
You can fill this gap in your community and enable community members to be transported to the carefree days of their childhood by playing outdoor games with their friends.
Games you can play include:
These games will get community members to actively participate in community events with a smile on their faces. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to reach such a wide range of ages—and shoe sizes—with a community field day as entire families come out to participate. Of course, you can also sell concessions, branded merchandise, and tickets for games to maximize your revenue.
March Madness isn’t just for professional basketball players now. Host a weekend-long competition in the style of March Madness to encourage community members to participate.
Instruct interested community members to form teams of two, three, or five. Then, you can hold tournament-style games all day or weekend to hurry the elimination process. Make sure you sell tickets for each game, concessions, and merchandise to raise money.
Events such as this bring to the forefront the sporty individuals in your community. The team members are likely avid sports fans and recreational athletes who would have gently worn, used and new sneakers at the ready for donations.
If you have ever slogged through the mud in your running shoes, you may know the dread you feel at the prospect of washing all the dirt off your sneakers. You can benefit from the runners’ intense desire to get rid of their dirty athletic shoes—by encouraging them to repurpose those athletic shoes!
Your organization can host a fun, unique event and easily encourage individuals to donate athletic shoes to your event. With a little care, the donated shoes will be cleaned and ready to be repurposed.
You’ve seen how donating running shoes can help others in communities of need, but how can running an athletic shoe donation drive further your cause? Here are a few ways running retailers, communities, individuals and more can benefit:
Running retailers and gyms especially can benefit from hosting an athletic sneaker collection event. With Sneakers4Good’s trade-in and trade-up program, retailers can give back to the community and promote corporate social responsibility. Here’s how it works:
When your store partners with Sneakers4Good, you can be confident that you are promoting sustainable habits while making choices that benefit your local and global community.
According to a recent study, 77% of consumers are motivated to purchase from companies committed to making the world a better place. By running a sneaker recycling campaign, your business or corporation can take action and showcase your commitment to CSR.
You can do this by collecting athletic shoes from your professional community and using the funds to support a nonprofit cause of your choice. By doing so, you will promote:
Running a sneaker donation event will differentiate your company from others while promoting social good in your community and office spaces.
You can use sneaker collection events to rally your community together, collect athletic shoes, and make a meaningful impact. For instance, your athletic shoe event could support initiatives such as:
Because an athletic shoe donation drive goes beyond just collecting shoes and invites the community to get involved, it’s the perfect opportunity to support your local causes in a sustainable manner.
School funding may not always be reliable. That’s why you must be open to new fundraising opportunities such as a sneaker collection drive. And, since kids already outgrow shoes so quickly, this is a reliable option for schools looking to raise money quickly.
Use events like field days, classroom competitions, and 5Ks to get families involved and spread the word. You can also set up collection boxes in classrooms to remind students to bring in their gently worn, new and used sneakers the next school day. With increased funding, you’ll be able to improve afterschool programs, athletic programs, and learning environments as a whole.
Sometimes you need money to support more personal causes. For times like these, an athletic shoe donation drive is a great way to gather support from others as you’re not directly asking for a donation. Instead, you’re asking if they’d be willing to part with their gently used sneakers! For instance, you might use your collected sneakers to account for:
Whatever your goals are, the funds from a shoe donation drive can help bridge the gap and get you up and running without asking others to go too far out of their way.
Donating running shoes can have positive ripple effects on your local community, the environment, and global communities. Plus, you can put the funds you collect toward causes that are near and dear to your heart.
That’s why you should skip the landfill and partner with an athletic shoe recycling provider like Sneakers4Good to jumpstart your sneaker drive process. If you’d like to learn more, check out these additional resources:
Partner with Sneakers4Good to recycle gently worn, used and new running shoes.
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