I am cynic on this.
Its interesting that they claim to have actual demand while Goodwill has admitted that they are effectively just picking near new or new clothing from their incoming stream and disposing of the rest by packaging the large remainder into bulk loads that are sold by the pound to third world intermediaries.
I was involved at one time with a project to convert the tail end of the waste stream from the Southern California area into energy and I remember a big component of the waste stream sample we received was shoes and soles. Due to the high cost of landfills, everything remotely recyclable had been picked out of the waste stream but shoes and soles seemed to be of no value. They could run through the process but they usually had chlorinated components so the exhaust had to be treated for Dioxins and Furans (both very nasty stuff)
I talked to someone involved with disaster relief on the ground several years ago and one of the biggest PITA things that they waste their time on is well intentioned bulk shipments of donations to disaster areas. Rarely if ever do the collected products actually get used, most are eventually hauled to a dump where the "secondary economy" (AKA trash pickers) grab what then can. There are usually polite reminders in disaster solicitations is what they really need is cash as its rapidly deployable but they have to be careful about discouraging donations of products as it can ricochet on them. There have been several high profile cases of "charitable organizations" whose primary benefactors are the managers that collect or buy bulk castoffs and send them to disaster areas and list them as products of much higher value to "prove" that at least some of the money collected actually is spent outside the organization.
Here is one example https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/...mployees-describe-cult-like-experience/66461/
Okay I get that they will redistribute new shoes donated by partners. That is relatively easy. The boots being solicited from the public are presumably used in unknown condition. So second focus seems to apply “We help hard-working entrepreneurs build their own small businesses selling donated shoes.” Define "Help"?. Are they sending container loads of used shoes in questionable condition to some entrepreneur in the third world under the pretense that said entrepreneur will be able to sell them?. What happens to shoes and boots that are so worn out that they are unsalable?. Is the organization taking responsibility for proper disposal or do they leave it up to the third world entrepreneur to do so? Sounds to me like a recipe for improper disposal. I would speculate that the entrepreneur would receive a container and then sort it into saleable and unsaleable. His profit is in the saleable so its to his incentive to dispose of the unsaleable at the lowest possible cost. That disposal in the third world is typically in a burn pile to ensure that the discarded goods are unusable, otherwise another entrepreneur will dig through the discards and resell them.
Feel good is easy, actually following through is tough.
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