Saving Shoes From Landfills
About a year ago, Kent Basson, started OddShoeFinder.com, which allows users to buy and sell their mismatched pairs of shoes. It is aimed at people such as polio survivors who must buy a different pair of shoes for each foot due to severely mismatched feet. A few months after starting the site, he was
contacted by several people about accepting large batches of new name brand single shoes.
He started the site after his sister had an injury (due largely to neuropathy from diabetes) that resulted in her having to wear two different sized shoes. He saw that her options were few unless she wanted to spend a lot of money,or go to Nordstrom. She still lives in their hometown in Alabama, which is far from a Nordstrom.
Kent ended up with over 11,000 shoes that were otherwise heading for a landfill. “We sorted and posted all the shoes we could as mismatched pairs. Rather than buying two pairs of shoes at retail prices, users of the site can buy a pair of shoes that was headed to the landfill for $10-20/pair.”
“We also found a use for boots for which we did not find matches. Construction workers wear boots in two different brands and styles when they pour concrete so that they don’t ruin their good boots,” Kent said.
A lot of perfectly able people also need mismatched shoes. It is far more common than ever imagined, although most people just buy the larger pair and deal with it unless the difference is extreme. People born with clubfoot are also likely to need mismatched shoes.
He has also rescued quite a few matching pairs from among the thousands, so people who don’t have the problem of mismatched feet also use the site. He has 3000 skates (inline and ice) and cleats arriving next week, so the hope is that lots of people without serious disabilities will use the site as well.
This is not only a great way to save shoes from ending up in a landfill, but also makes filling this need alot easier, and far more affordable. What a great way to go green and save some green too!