Fashion is facing a well-documented waste crisis. Each year, an estimated 23 billion shoes are produced, and more than 300 million end up in landfills.
For 20 years, Soles4Souls has been working to change this statistic. The organization collects footwear and clothing donations and routes them toward reuse channels. Some new goods are earmarked for donation to help individuals facing a crisis or hardship—such as homelessness or natural disasters—while other items are shipped to low-income countries to create entrepreneurial opportunities for locals in fashion resale. In 2025, the nonprofit diverted 5.9 million shoes and 3 million garments from being trashed.
Its results to-date are noteworthy, but Soles4Souls saw an opportunity to expand its impact further with a new solution: repair and reconditioning. In the past, the disconnect between these two functions frequently left brands with a logistical dilemma: If products sent for repair couldn’t meet retail standards, shifting them to another channel often led to additional transportation or disposal. By combining commercial repair services with its donation infrastructure, Soles4Souls is creating a “one-stop shop” within its Solutions4Good circularity platform, making it easier for brands to get value out of merchandise—whether through retail, resale or donation.
“Sustainability is going to be more and more a component that we have to provide,” said Buddy Teaster, president and chief executive officer of Soles4Souls. “It may wax and wane, in how politically it’s viewed or what companies think about it, but it’s not going away. Our guess is companies are going to outsource a lot of that to somebody, and we think we have a place in that chain.”
To support this extension, Soles4Souls acquired Erren Recondition earlier this year. The Netherlands-based firm specializes in restoring goods, with services ranging from mold remediation and cleaning to repair and repackaging. Likening them to “magicians,” Teaster explained they can transform what looks like end-of-life fashion into usable items.
Erren Recondition’s Peter Erren and Teaster met in 2017. What attracted Soles4Souls to Erren was more than just expertise. “Peter really cares about sustainability and the other parts of our mission,” said Teaster. “That motivates him, and so that combination is what made a huge difference.”
Prior to the acquisition, Solutions4Good mainly focused on sorting and grading services. Now, it is expanding its offerings by bringing Erren Recondition’s capabilities Stateside. With Erren’s help, the organization is designing and setting up a roughly 300,000-square-foot workshop at Soles4Souls’ existing Alabama facility. Running this operation are two dedicated Solutions4Good hires, whom Erren is managing and training, with added oversight from the company’s longtime Alabama facility head Michael Brown.
Scaling the reconditioning business in the U.S. will take time, but Soles4Souls expects to have tasks such as mold remediation, laundering, odor reduction and pressing up and running in the near term. It has already completed a few projects for customers.
As with Soles4Souls donations, brands determine where merchandise goes following repair. Some goods might meet A stock requirements and return to a retail shelf. New merchandise in good condition is also eligible for donation. Brands may also allocate product to Soles4Souls’ 4Opportunity entrepreneur program. Regardless of channel, the organization is focused on reducing transportation distances as much as possible; for instance, U.S. donations to 4Opportunity might go to entrepreneurs in Central America and the Caribbean.
As a last resort for goods that are not fit for other channels, Soles4Souls works with a waste energy producer near its Alabama facility to turn those goods into fuel, using them as a resource instead of landfilling product.
Although repair services are available from other U.S. companies, Teaster sees Soles4Souls’ broader mission as a differentiator. By working with Solutions4Good, brands receive information on the impact their goods are making, which allows them to tell that story.
Soles4Souls’ diversification into commercial services will also support the organization’s mission as it faces growing competition for secondhand product from channels like outlets and resale. The added revenues will allow it to reinvest in its mission, while the repair services will give the organization access to a wider pool of fashion items and serve more people. “It’s going to change the conversation we can have with brands,” said Teaster. “Hopefully we gain people’s trust, demonstrate that we can do the work, and then show how this relationship can expand to have a lot more impact than they would have imagined.”
Soles4Souls’ investment in reconditioning comes as the industry faces more criticism for the fate of unsold goods. Some brands have been the subjects of viral backlash for trashing their merchandise, and now, it is a legal issue as the European Union rolls out legislation forbidding the destruction of unsold goods.
Although some have changed their practices, Soles4Souls recently witnessed a company opting for destruction over donation. “There’s still going to be a big gap between habits and practices from a long time ago to the new legal framework,” said Teaster. “I would love for them to have donated to us, but the fact that it wasn’t donated to anybody, that nobody benefited from this stuff that was clearly not going to be used, breaks my heart. So, there’s a lot of work to be done.”
To learn more, visit soles4souls.org.
