Share and Follow
PARIS – Every week, a workshop just outside of Paris receives hundreds of pre-owned sneakers. Here, workers diligently examine each pair, pondering a straightforward question: Is this shoe salvageable?
At the heart of this operation is SneakCœurZ, a nonprofit dedicated to evaluating these shoes to determine their fate. The organization decides whether they can be resold or donated, or if they must be discarded. Last year, SneakCœurZ collected a staggering 30,000 pairs of sneakers and successfully resold 2,000 of them, with ambitions to expand these efforts.
“Currently, no other initiative in the sneaker industry matches our scale,” states Mohamed Boukhatem, co-founder and director general of SneakCœurZ. “We are uniquely positioned to industrialize both the collection and repurposing of sneakers.”
The organization’s mission highlights a pressing waste issue in France, particularly in Paris, a city renowned as a global center for fashion and luxury.
The implications are significant, as the textile industry ranks among the most environmentally damaging sectors. According to the United Nations, fashion and textiles contribute up to 8% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. The European Parliament further notes that in 2020, textiles were the third-largest contributor to water pollution and land degradation within the EU.
Refashion, the French government-approved eco-organization for clothing, household linen and footwear, says 259 million pairs of shoes were sold in France in 2024.
It says only about a third of used textiles and footwear are separately collected, with much of the rest left in cupboards or thrown away with household waste.
At its workshop in Champs-sur-Marne, workers for SneakCœurZ inspect the used shoes and check which can be salvaged.
“The structural elements of the shoe are what determine whether we can refurbish it or not,” workshop manager Paul Defawes Abadie said.
“A damaged Velcro strap isn’t a deal breaker. A lace isn’t a deal breaker. Dirt is never a deal breaker,” he said. “What really matters is the wear of the structural materials, especially the outsole.”
Pairs that make the cut are cleaned from the sole upward, disinfected inside and, in some cases, whitened under UV light before being put back into circulation.
The nonprofit says it redistributed more than 7,000 pairs to people in need and helped create 19 jobs.
“Over the next three years, the goal is to triple or even quadruple these volumes and move to an industrial scale,” Boukhatem said.
France has tried to respond to the issue of fast-fashion waste with law as well as rhetoric.
Its 2020 anti-waste law requires unsold nonfood goods to be reused, donated or recycled instead of destroyed.
Authorities introduced a state-backed repair bonus for clothing and shoes in November 2023. Separately, lawmakers are still working on a bill aimed at reducing the textile industry’s environmental impact.
The bill passed the National Assembly in March 2024 and the Senate in June 2025, and the government said in February that it was still aiming for a joint parliamentary committee this spring.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.