A Polish shoe repair company from Wrocław, Pucybuty, repaired 15,000 used pairs of shoes and donated them to homeless charities over the past year, reports news website Onet.
Since launching a year ago, the campaign to clean, repair and donate shoes has gained traction. “First, we started bringing our shoes that we no longer needed. Later, we expanded the campaign to include our families and our friends,” Anna Bartoszek, an employee, told Onet last year.
Shoes are brought in by people, or sent by courier or post. They are then cleaned and renovated in a process which can take up to a few days and is done by staff after their normal working hours.
Finally, the shoes are sent to charities, including to the refuge of Saint Brother Albert. As the number of children’s shoes grows, the firm plans to donate them to orphanages. “Our aid action is still ongoing because shoes are constantly coming to us from all over Poland,” said Magdalena Marciniak, another employee.
The campaign has raised the company’s profile with customers across Poland, according to Onet. “There are a lot of people from outside of Wrocław who send us shoes to repair, repaint or sew on a pattern,” explained Bartoszek. A recent Facebook post also revealed that Pucybuty has started to receive donations from over the world.
The company has also been involved with fundraising for more personal causes. “Last year, we helped a woman who held a fair to raise funds for her daughter’s treatment. We repaired, cleaned and gave her some 20 pairs of shoes. They were all sold,” said Marciniak.
On Facebook, they also thanked other companies who had helped turn the campaign into a nationwide action, “Shoes for the Needy”, such as Shoeshine in Kraków, ButKompany in Gdańsk, and PimpMyShoes in Poznań.
As part of a wider Zero Waste event, Pucybuty will host a workshop on shoe renovation for residents of Wrocław in early February, similar to its smaller-scale workshops last year. The company also plans to expand some of its activities to other cities.
“We want to make people aware not to waste things and buy new shoes, because you can still get a lot out of old ones,” says Marciniak.
Main image credit: Pucybuty
