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Nancy Youssef, our Chief Business Development Officer & Executive International Vice President, pens an open letter to brands reintroducing Soles4Souls: what it is today, how it’s evolved and why we’re now Europe’s one-stop solution for circularity with social impact.
“It’s twenty years since the launch of Soles4Souls.
And in that time, we’ve watched the rise of social media, the fall of Blockbuster – and the fashion industry’s relationship with surplus stock dramatically change.
When we started out, many brands still treated excess footwear and clothing as unwanted, unavoidable by-products. Businesses would clear out entire stockrooms and warehouses of unsold, returned or imperfect items through private sales, cut-price liquidation or even disposal.
Over time, expectations began to shift. Consumers and regulators started asking more questions about what happens to products beyond the point of sale. More businesses pledged to reduce their environmental impact, compelled in large part by customer attitudes towards sustainability and closed-loop living.
But now, strict new regulations have arrived. And in 2026, circularity is no longer a values-driven option. It’s an operational requirement.
Regulation has redrawn the map
From this summer, the EU’s Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) prohibits large companies from destroying unsold apparel, clothing accessories and footwear. It effectively forces them to prioritise resale, donation and recycling, and even affects businesses headquartered outside the EU if they sell to EU consumers.
It’s also changing how Soles4Souls supports our brand partners.
Soles4Souls’s efforts to bridge social impact and sustainability are established worldwide. We equip entrepreneurs in low-income countries with donated shoes and clothing to sell. We provide new shoes and clothing to people facing hardship. And we give new athletic shoes to children experiencing homelessness.
Over two decades, we’ve gotten 116+ million pairs of shoes and pieces of clothing to people in 139 countries. That support has reached people like Merary, a widowed single mum in Honduras who opened her own store through our 4Opportunity programme, changing the lives of her family and community.
Yet now that legislation is evolving, Soles4Souls is evolving, too. Alongside extending the lives of products for communities in need, we’re building circularity infrastructure that helps businesses do the same – while recovering value from their surplus stock.
Solutions4Good drives circularity with social impact
Footwear and apparel brands today face huge pressure to reduce waste, recover value,
protect their reputation and meet circularity and compliance targets. We’re here to help.
Through Solutions4Good, Soles4Souls provides brands with responsible pathways for product sorting, reconditioning, recommerce, repurposing and reuse. We help brands like yours turn unsold, excess and used footwear and clothing into new value, from resale to globally aligned donations, while also providing responsible end-of-life pathways.
Our recent acquisition of Erren Recondition, a specialist product restoration company, only strengthens this offer. By combining our global network and expertise with Erren’s decades of reconditioning leadership, we’re building a platform that keeps products in use longer while delivering measurable environmental and social outcomes for brands worldwide.
From compliance to circular value
A brand partnership with Soles4Souls helps you build a system in which your products, customers and people all come together. The key principle is that every product follows a structured pathway, bringing you from basic compliance to toward greater product value and impact.
Alongside all the financial and environmental benefits of circularity, I’ve seen the real impact these products have on people first hand. I once met a 12-year-old boy who desperately wanted to play basketball, but whose mother couldn’t afford a proper pair of shoes.
Using overstock donated by one of our brand partners, we found him a suitable pair of sneakers. When we handed them over, he was over the moon, with tears rolling down his cheeks. We later received a letter telling us he’d made the local basketball team. Whether or not he becomes the next Lebron James doesn’t matter – the involvement of our partners truly helped to change someone’s life.
The brands that will lead on circularity are the ones building partnerships now, before the pressure peaks. Soles4Souls can be your partner across your products’ full lifecycles, helping you meet operational demands while creating measurable social impact.
If you’re ready to build a practical circularity system, we’d love to talk. ”
To get involved, contact corporate@soles4souls.org
