Schuh turns post-consumer waste into shop fixtures

British footwear retailer Schuh has partnered with Conscious Creative Unit and waste design studio Are You Mad to transform its post-consumer waste materials, such as donated footwear, returns bags and pallet wrap, into usable and creative objects for its shop fixtures.

The objects created include unique donation bins for Schuh’s ‘Sell Your Soles’ footwear takeback initiative and one-of-a-kind shoe risers for product displays.

Greg Traill, head of brand partnerships at Schuh, said in a statement: “The footwear industry faces significant challenges when it comes to waste, but we’re committed to being transparent and proactive on our journey to becoming a more conscious retailer.

“We’re on a mission to inspire our customers to make more responsible choices, and this partnership with Are You Mad is a valuable opportunity for us to raise awareness of the importance of re-using. Our goal is to give as much footwear as possible a second life.”

London-based Are You Mad is a waste design studio, agency and consultancy that specialises in transforming discarded materials into objects, furniture and shop fits. For the project with Schuh, the design studio’s in-house team of ‘Certified Wastemen’ meticulously dissected and deconstructed over 600 pre-loved shoes by hand in their East London studio, preparing the materials for their next life.

Once deconstructed, the materials were handed over to British sustainable footwear designer Helen Kirkum, who stitched the deconstructed pre-loved shoes to create striking panels with unique combinations of colours, textures, and patterns, which were later used to craft each of the donation bins. The panels were then constructed into ten bins by hand by British furniture artist and designer Charlie Boyden.

For the shoe display risers, Are You Mad enlisted the expertise of Weez & Merl, a Brighton and Hove-based studio specialising in creating one-off objects using waste LDPE (low-density polyethylene) plastic. Using LDPE plastic derived from Schuh’s pallet wraps and returns bags, the team melted, moulded and hand-crafted unique blocks to produce each riser. Each riser has its own distinct marbled pattern with no two risers being the same.

Commenting on the project, James Suckling, co-founder of Are You Mad, added: “When Schuh approached us to help bring their ‘Sell Your Soles’ initiative to life, what stood out was their honesty about the challenges of footwear recycling.

“It’s a complex process, but together, we’re creating a solution that gets people excited about recycling their old shoes, and rethinking the journey of their clothing, footwear, and waste. This is just the beginning of our partnership, and we’re excited to continue working with schuh in 2025 and beyond.”

Schuh launched its ‘Sell Your Soles’ initiative in October 2019 in partnership with textile reuse experts Recyclatex, allowing customers to donate their unwanted pairs of shoes to Schuh stores, regardless of where they were initially purchased, in return for a 5 pounds / 5 euros off voucher. The scheme runs in all 124 Schuh stores across the UK and Ireland and for every tonne of shoes collected, Recyclatex donate a sum of money to Schuh. The money made from our partnership with Recyclatex is then donated to the World Land Trust.

Since its inception, Schuh has donated 267 tonnes of end-of-life footwear to Recyclatex, which in turn has allowed the World Land Trust to plant over 27,374 trees via their Plant a Tree programme.