Post by @conscious.app

Nike threw out bags of shoes slashed open so nobody could wear them. Here are brands that give theirs away instead. Softstar handcrafts shoes in Philomath, Oregon, in a wind and solar powered workshop. In January 2026 its owners handed the company to an employee-owned trust. This certified B Corp donates shoes to charities and schools. NAE makes vegan shoes in Portugal. Send back a used NAE pair for a voucher and it is cleaned and resold, with half the net proceeds going to a charity for victims of violence. Unsellable pairs are donated or recycled. KEEN is family owned with no outside investors. In 2020 it gave away 100,000 pairs of shoes and let the public nominate who received them. In 2025 its staff drove nearly 15,000 pairs to Los Angeles for fire crews and relief groups. The Shoe That Grows expands five sizes and lasts years, so a child stops outgrowing shoes every season. Buy one and one ships to a child in Kenya. Over 103,000 pairs went out last year, made in Mombasa. In 2017 a New Yorker found bags of shoes outside Nike's SoHo store, slashed so nobody could wear them. Nike said the product did not meet its standards to restock, recycle or donate. Destroying unsold stock is common in fashion. Europe's environment agency estimates 4 to 9 percent of textiles sold there are destroyed before anyone wears them. Since 19 July 2026 large EU companies cannot bin unsold footwear, with narrow exceptions. The US has no equivalent rule. Softstar, NAE, KEEN and The Shoe That Grows all give shoes away, and they publish the details. They are not the only brands doing it, but they are the exception rather than the rule. You have to go looking to find them. Support ethical companies. Use the Conscious Spend app to see how ethical almost any company is, and who really owns it.