Tuesday, August 17, 2010

How to donate athletic shoes

I usually wear my athletic shoes until they transform into something closer to slippers than sneakers. For my birthday last week I received a brand new pair of Nikes, and they feel great! There are actually a lot of options for donating used tennis shoes, and I'm going to take my three-year old pair to a Nike store so they can get reused as part of the Reuse-a-Shoe program. I like the idea of the shoes being turned into useful playing surfaces like tracks and tennis courts.


For more ways to get those used athletic shoes our of your closet and far from a landfill, check out the site RecycledRunners.com. They have a directory of places to drop of your shoes for donation and recycling.

Creative Commons photo posted to flickr by DaveCrosby

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

4 comments:

  1. Any Jack Rabbit store will also take any brand running shoe and donate them. That's what I did last time I replaced my sneakers, though I haven't done so in 4 years - guess I haven't been doing enough running!

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  2. Great tip, Lena! I used to buy new sneaks every year, but that was when they were all I wore. Now it takes me about three years to wear out a pair.

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  3. What a neat idea! I usually wear my shoes into the ground, so this would be a good way for me to recycle them. Thanks for the post!

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  4. You're welcome, Lacey, thanks for reading! Even after we use things up, it's nice to know they can have a second life.

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