Sample Shoe Sizing

Sample odds are usually size:

• Children's size 12.5 UK 33 Euro
• Ladies size 4 or 5 UK 37 or 38 Euro
• Men's size 7 or 8 UK 41 or 42 Euro

Sample odd shoes change all the time from season to season, and year to year. Some of the iconic styles are changed ever so slightly from year to year. Heels get higher or lower, thicker, or none at all. Flats become platforms, wedges. Boots may be ankle, knee length or thigh. Fip flops and toe post might change to toe open front, or open front closed toe, or open side, ¾ heel, closed back, AND, colours change!

Black stays the same for school, so Kickers are always popular. Whatever is worn by pop stars is in fashion one week and out the next season. Samples are normally manufactured in pairs. Singles come about because at some point they’ve been separated - one has perhaps been sent to a sales rep, or a Technologist and Designer, or drawn upon to be changed on final manufactured design.

We Pair Odd Shoes

If we can get the footwear collected from as many sources as possible, there is a better chance of pairing them together again.

This is where we can help:

We have a contract with UK Mail and UPS International. We can collect one box of footwear, or 40 ft. containers at a time. We also have a 'collect a sack' system in place which will be billed to Africashoes - just fill the sack and we collect!

Bespoke

Whatever your company needs are, we can help.

We were asked to do a campaign for Timberland retails stores through the whole of Europe. This was an incentive for customers to bring in their old shoes into the shops, and receive 10% off a new pair of Timberland shoes. Recycling boxes were sent out to every Timberland store in Europe, including Timberland stores in Airports. The old footwear then had to be collected from the stores, sent back to Africashoes, and then Exported to Africa.

We have containers sitting at the Pentland centre in London where any samples or any footwear or apparel is stored until full and then collected. An agreed price per shoe is then donated - last year £10,300 was raised and donated to the charities Pentland support.

We have exported whole lines of footwear when the manufacturer hasn't passed quality checks, in order to put them to use rather than destroying them. If a stitch is out of place, or the print is misaligned or there are careless glue marks, whole orders can be cancelled.

Please click here to view Timberland case study

Footwear we can't collect

If there is not a chance of pairing footwear or if you have already processed them it is irresponsible to move them round the country just to skip them.
If they are all only lefts...
If they are all only rights...
If they have been slashed or made unusable in an attempt to de-brand...We have received footwear in the past where the sides have been cut with a knife, we have also received footwear where the tongue has been removed.

Africa Shoes offer a positive way to use shoes as they were designed for. Every company should recycle as much as possible, where they can. If it is a one off, the reason we can process the shoes is because it's ongoing, what you have one month may pair with what comes in the next month, or the next year.

We have storage which enables us to store any footwear we receive on a 3 year roll over. After that time it becomes redundant to keep and unfortunately eventually destroyed.

Some of these shoes have more air miles than many people would make in a life time of travel! They have been designed in the UK, made in the far east, shipped to Europe, distributed to brand hubs, sent to retail stores, bought or sent to retail customers, and come all the way back. It would be a waste if they end up in landfill at a cost to your company, instead of helping people who have no shoes or clothing to wear.