Old trainers do not always belong in a garbage bin. In a workshop east of Paris, a French non-profit is betting that many of them still have miles left.
SneakCœurZ collects used sports shoes, sorts them and decides which pairs can be resold, redistributed or rejected. The group says the aim is to cut waste in a sector under growing pressure over pollution, while getting wearable shoes back onto people’s feet.
Hundreds of used sneakers arrive every week at its workshop in the French capital. Staff starts with a basic question: Can the shoe be saved?
For director general and co-founder Mohamed Boukhatem, the answer is often yes, and he wants the group to handle far more pairs.
“Over the next three years, the goal is to triple or even quadruple these volumes and move to an industrial scale,” says Boukhatem to the Associated Press. “Today, there is no project of this scale in the sneaker sector. We are the only ones able to industrialise both the processes and the collection of sneakers for reuse.”
The non-profit says it resold 2,000 out of 30,000 pairs of used trainers collected last year. It also says it redistributed more than 7,000 pairs to people in need and helped create 19 jobs.
Its work points to a broader waste problem in France, where shoe sales remain high and collection rates lag behind.
Refashion, France’s government-approved eco-organization for clothing, household linen and footwear, says 259 million pairs of shoes were sold in the country in 2024. It says only about a third of used textiles and footwear are separately collected. Much of the rest is left in cupboards or thrown away with household waste.
At SneakCœurZ’s workshop in Champs-sur-Marne, workers inspect each pair to see if it can go back into circulation. Shoes that pass are cleaned from the sole upward, disinfected inside and, in some cases, whitened under UV light.
Workshop manager Paul Defawes Abadie says cosmetic problems are rarely the reason a pair fails.
“The structural elements of the shoe are what determine whether we can refurbish it or not,” according to workshop manager Paul Defawes Abadie.
“A damaged Velcro strap isn’t a deal breaker. A lace isn’t a deal breaker. Dirt is never a deal breaker,” he says. “What really matters is the wear of the structural materials, especially the outsole.”
The group is working in a country that has already started to respond to waste in fashion and footwear with new rules and financial support.
France’s 2020 anti-waste law requires unsold non-food goods to be reused, donated or recycled instead of being destroyed. In November 2023, authorities introduced a state-backed repair bonus for clothing and shoes.
Lawmakers are also still working on a bill aimed at reducing the textile industry’s environmental impact.
The pressure for action is tied to the scale of the sector’s footprint. According to the United Nations, the fashion and textiles sector accounts for up to 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. The European Parliament has said textiles were the third-largest source of water degradation and land use in the European Union in 2020.
That leaves groups like SneakCœurZ trying to build a business around reuse in one of France’s biggest consumer markets.
Sports shoes have long since moved beyond gyms and playing fields. They are now worn by young, middle-aged and older people across daily life, making them one of the most common types of footwear and, when discarded, a growing part of the waste stream.
SneakCœurZ wants to turn that stream into a supply. Last year, it resold 2,000 pairs, redistributed more than 7,000 to people in need and says it is now aiming to triple or quadruple volumes over the next three years.
