14
greenzine
BY CD WHITE
Riding the sole train
e
E
veryone’s seen at least one
lone shoe lying by the
highway, or perhaps lost in a
bag of donated clothes. Other
than a passing pause to won-
der what happened to its
mate, most of us wouldn’t give
it much agid1a9engid19fon. But for
Wayne Elsley, the television
news image of a single shoe
washed onto a beach agid14cer the
2004 tsunami in Southeast
Asia triggered a response that
has generated widespread at-
A large crowd waits in line for shoes.
tengid19fon to the fact that many
people on the planet sgid19fll lack
One short year later, Soles4Souls became an offi-
basic footwear.
cial reality.
zine featur
Elsey had worked in the footwear industry since he
"I was working full-gid19fme as President of another
was 15, working his way up to serve as President
company while I was also trying to give advice to
and CEO of several U. S. footwear companies. So
the Soles4Souls team and realized I had to make a
naturally, the lone shoe image caught him – and
choice," Elsey said. "I couldn't do both, and that's
got him thinking. Knowing the tsunami survivors
when I realized that the pure joy of working with
een
needed shoes, Elsey called execugid19fves in the
Soles4Souls …was more gragid19ffying than selling a
footwear industry for donagid19fons. Friends called
million pair of shoes for profit."
friends, and in the end a quarter of a million pairs
gr
were donated to the affected area. The premise is simple:
get shoes and give them away.
The next year brought another devastagid19fng event,
Hurricane Katrina, which spurred the same group
“All god’s chillun got shoes…” That line from the old
to gather over a million pairs of shoes to send into
song isn’t necessarily true. Even with American clos-
ruined communigid19fes. Surprised by the fast re-
ets burdened with seldom-worn shoes (esgid19fmated at
sponse and the success of the effort, Elsley consid-
about 1.5 billion pairs), and thrigid14c stores accepgid19fng
ered helping the hurgid19fng on a full gid19fme basis.
more used shoes than they can sell, there are sgid19fll
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