Shoes with stories

A perfect example comes this week from Lisbon. The shoe-repair group “Bota Minuto” has launched a campaign to collect used shoes. “Bota Minuto” has an affiliated outlet in Tavira’s “Gran Plaza” shopping centre.The idea developed because “so many people leave their shoes for repair, and don’t come back – despite our pre-payment system! We decided to send the shoes to social welfare institutions,” Bota Minuto’s Duarte Ramos told Lusa news agency.

It sounds very strange that even with a pre-payment system so many people never come back to claim their old boots, high heels and sundry footwear...The nightmare of any self-respecting shoe repairer, to be sure! Although he was unspecific as to the number of shoes “forgotten” by their owners, and how many were voluntarily handed in - victims of disuse, Ramos told how “in 2010, our campaign managed to collect 9000 pairs. The year before, we collected 6.000”. In other words, it’s a growing market – which in terms of economics, is very good. Are there any overriding reasons for this mass-abandonment of footwear, one wonders? Accumulated sweat, for example?

The collection campaign, which has been running (excuse the pun) since 2008, coincides with the post-Christmas period – a time, we’re told when “wardrobes fill with new items, and people throw out what they no longer use”. Hmmm. I have a friend who had to throw out all the shoes she had – but it had nothing to do with the post-Christmas period of plenty - rather a nasty attack of mildew due to shoddy building work…

Nonetheless, the whole idea is brilliant and could be expanded to take in other sectors. For example, laundries with items left behind for more than five years (that haven’t been eaten by moths or gone out of fashion – ah, and if they have, there’s always the Costume Museum in São Brás that may be able to use them!); businesses that repair computers, or televisions – in the end, any place where things may have been left and subsequently forgotten.

Of course, when it comes to money, the state would probably be happy to keep anything left it its possession...The whole campaign reminds me of an experience I had with the old Grundig TV I bought back in 1996. It died a few months back…if only it could have gone to some social welfare cause first! But I think the man who repaired it sold it to someone for a charitable €68.

Ah, and this year’s social welfare campaign promises to answer a few of the more existential musings on collected footwear. Using the slogan “shoes with stories”, people who take part are invited to post the stories of their footwear on social networking channels.

There’s an enigmatic Chinese saying that says “I, who complained of having no shoes, came upon a man who had no feet” …