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Good for the sole

SolesUnited hopes to shoe the world by recycling old Crocs.

“We plan to essentially shoe the world,” says Ron Snyder, CEO of Crocs, makers of the ubiquitous colourful resin clogs. His goal: to recycle old, worn-down Crocs and turn them into new shoes that can be distributed among feet in need. The company started donating shoes a little more than a year ago, when the brand’s materials scientists figured out a way to recycle their super-comfy proprietary Croslite material. At that time, the Croslite that was given away were the scraps left over from the manufacturing process. Snyder wanted to take it a step further and use material from discarded Crocs. Enter the non-profit recycled footwear-donation program, SolesUnited. Donated shoes are sorted, cleaned, ground and manufactured into brand new lightweight clogs that are shipped to Africa and the Dominican Republic; Snyder hopes to reach more countries this year. The program is unique in that Snyder and Co. are giving away new shoes instead of old. If you’re a Crocs-lover with used models to spare, check out solesunited.com to find out how you can help brighten the lives of those in need with these snazzy shoes.