Second Life Soles

Gold Country Run + Sport is pleased to partner with Second Life Soles to donate and recycle shoes that you may be ready to depart with. Just bring in these shoes (regardless of whether you make a purchase at GCRS) and we will work with you to give back to our Community.

Second Life Soles (“SLS”) is a non-profit whose mission is to collect new and used shoes to provide for those in need and to recycle those shoes who have come to the end of their useful life.

Based in Sacramento, the idea behind Second Life Soles started in 2012 with a school shoe drive to provide shoes to the needy coming to the Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services. As SLS continued the shoe drive over the years, they began to learn more about the great need for shoes in many communities. They also learned about the tremendous number of shoes that end up in landfills.

According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, American throw “away” over 300 million pairs of shoes each year. These shoes end up in landfills, where they can take 30 to 40 years to decompose. SLS is also focused on collecting those athletic shoes no longer wearable and bring them to a large Shoe manufacturer who uses the materials in other products from football fields to furniture.

Second Life Soles has collected more than 3,000 shoes in the past year alone and most have been in a condition to be re-used and are provided to Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services, Loaves and Fishes and Bayside Church.