If you’ve got kids, you know how quickly they grow out of their shoes. Buying new shoes can get expensive, and that’s problematic for families in third world countries who can’t afford to keep up with their child’s growing feet.
Kenton Lee noticed this problem while he was working at an orphanage in Kenya. Lee was helping a young girl when he realized he could see her toes. The girl had cut off the front of her shoes so she could still fit into her shoes, and Lee began to wonder if there was a way to develop a shoe that grew as the child grew.
“For years the idea of these growing shoes wouldn’t leave my mind,” he said. “I had no idea how important shoes were before I went to Kenya, but kids, especially in urban areas, can get infections from cuts and scrapes on their feet from going barefoot, and contract diseases that cause them to miss school.”
That idea led him to start the nonprofit group Because International, which focuses on helping people in extreme poverty. Once he had his nonprofit established, Lee pitched his expandable shoe idea to the likes of Nike, Crocs and Toms, but they weren’t interested in the idea. Eventually he connected with Proof of Concept, a shoe development company who agreed to help him with the design.
Designing the Growing Shoe
The idea was simple, but designing a shoe that expanded as a child aged wasn’t as easy. Eventually the shoe engineers came up with a product that features high quality leather on the top, durable rubber soles on the bottom, and an expansion system that features buckles, snaps and pegs, similar to that of a belt. Take a look at the gif below so see a timelapse of the expansive shoe.
Lee said the shoes are expected to last a minimum of five years, and they can expand five times as the child’s foot grows. Currently, the company has two pairs:
- A small size that fits preschoolers through 5th graders, on average.
- A large size that fits 5th graders through 9th graders, on average.
Lee said he’s considered making an even larger size, but just like high schoolers in America, a lot of teenagers want to wear a “cooler” shoe.
“We considered making even larger ones for teenagers,” Lee said, “but we were told that they didn’t want to wear ‘charity shoes,’ they wanted to wear something cooler.”
The shoes cost $10 a pair, and once they are purchased they are placed in a duffle bag that can fit 50 pairs. Once the bag is full, Because International ships the shoes to one of seven countries. For more information about the shoes, and to learn how you can donate a pair to a child in need, visit Lee’s site, The Shoe That Grows.
Related source: The Shoe That Grows, Buzzfeed
