Family-owned retailer, Pavers Shoes has donated over 1000 pairs of children’s shoes to Shoe Aid, a charity dedicated to reducing shoe poverty and waste by collecting and redistributing unused and unwanted footwear across the UK and World.
The donation came following Pavers Shoe’s acquisition of Jones Bootmaker in 2018, which brought with it a large quantity of children’s footwear. The acquisition of Jones promises to bring the brand back to its roots and build on the family run heritage that it was born from. The brand has been firmly re-established with newly designed
shoe collections, however, with it not being the businesses plans to expand into selling children’s footwear, Pavers chose to donate the branded styles to charity.
Stuart Paver, managing director of Pavers Shoes said: “We are delighted to supply shoe aid with over a thousand pairs of new high-quality branded children’s shoes. Shoe aid does a great job in distributing footwear to those in need around the UK”.
“We bought the footwear as part of the acquisition of Jones Bootmaker, but they do not fit into our plans to rejuvenate this much-loved brand. I believe Shoe Aid will do a great job in distributing these to families that are unable to afford to buy shoes for their children”.
Founded by Lee Todd in 2010, Shoe Aid works with major retail and commercial footwear suppliers throughout the UK and the world and accepts donations in many supermarkets, Premier League Clubs and schools. “Since its founding, Shoe Aid has distributed close to one million shoes worldwide. We are helping to avoid an environmental disaster for shoe manufacturers and distributors; in the same way super-markets are currently getting blamed for
food waste.”
Shoe Aid is tackling the problem, and has educated over 25,000 pupils in more than 100 schools on the importance of recycling and repurposing footwear. They are reducing the number of shoes being thrown away into landfill by increasing shoe donations through supporters of the charity with collection points. Direct requests from charities, schools and other organisations are fulfilled with donations received from manufacturers and shoe collection points.
Lee Todd, founder of Shoe Aid said, “In the UK alone, there are upwards of 4 million children living in poverty and nearly 400,000 people homeless. Our mission is to give free footwear to all of these people and to reduce the 2 million shoes that are thrown away to landfill every week”.
“Thank you to Pavers for this donation… it will make a huge difference and change lives! As well as acquiring Jones Bootmaker in 2018, Pavers Shoes also announced the purchase of online shoe retailer, Herring Shoes and the launch of The Pavers Foundation, an initiative enabling charitable giving by the business and its 1700 staff.
Pavers is one of the UK’s leading shoe retailers, with a focus on comfort, quality and affordability. The footwear retailer was founded by Catherine Paver in 1971, and remains family owned today. Headquartered in York, Pavers continues to diversify and in 2018 announced the acquisition of Jones Bootmaker and Herring Shoes, broadening its product offering and increasing it’s total number of stores to over 170. The business operates across a broad multi-channel network, selling its products in stores nationwide, pavers.co.uk, catalogues and TV (Sky channel 678).
Shoe Aid is a footwear charity founded in 2010. Shoe Aid collects and redistributes unused and unwanted footwear throughout the UK and World. It also works with Keep Britain Tidy; Eco Schools to educate children on the importance of recycling and re-using old, unwanted footwear.
They also work some of the major retail and commercial footwear suppliers and manufacturers in the UK reducing environmental waste crisis by redistributing footwear to those most in need. In 2018, Shoe Aid was invited to 10 Downing St to discuss what it does; they now have both the support of the Prime Minister and many MPs of all political parties. Since July 2010, Shoe Aid has distributed over half a million shoes worldwide.
