The industry’s foundation teams up with Wolverine Worldwide, Inc. to kick off critical, national fundraising effort
WALTHAM, MA March 23, 2020 — In response to rapidly increasing industry need for emergency financial aid, and the necessity to raise enough funds to meet the demand for thousands of footwear families affected by the pandemic, Two Ten Footwear Foundation announced today the launch of the COVID-19 Share Your Shoes Campaign. The industry-wide effort will call upon footwear brands and businesses to actively contribute to what is anticipated to be an unprecedented time of hardship for the U.S. footwear workforce.
To encourage other footwear brands to participate in the campaign, Wolverine Worldwide, Inc. (WWW), is helping to launch the COVID-19 Share Your Shoes Campaign with Hush Puppies, the company’s largest international brand, leading the effort. Greg Tunney, Global President for Hush Puppies and recent Two Ten Board Chair and current Board member, spearheaded the effort – first by pledging shoes, and then by encouraging his brand president colleagues across the WWW portfolio to also participate.
“We are a family, and we need to do everything we can to help each other,” said Tunney. “As calls to Two Ten for emergency financial assistance are already ramping up at an astonishing record rate, we need to raise funds quickly in order to keep pace. The COVID-19 Share Your Shoes Campaign is the greatest opportunity we have to do this, and Wolverine is hopeful that by stepping up we will inspire other US footwear companies and brands to get involved as well.”
Unlike any other product donation effort, the COVID-19 Share Your Shoes Campaign will take ALL excess inventory, including new, worn, defective, damaged, and returned, as well as samples and singles, and give the proceeds directly to footwear employees and their families who urgently need financial help now.
Shawn Osborne, Two Ten Footwear Foundation CEO and President, said, “COVID-19 Share Your Shoes Campaign will leverage our knowledge and experience with converting donated footwear into funds that are distributed to footwear employees. We have processes in place to pick up inventory anywhere in the U.S. at no cost to the product donor, and will manage everything directly with each company contact. Our logistics partners will ensure that shoes will be distributed according to the donor’s requirements, and the proceeds will help ensure that our footwear workers receive the emergency financial support they desperately need during this unprecedented time.”
Anyone interested in donating footwear inventory to the Two Ten COVID-19 Share Your Shoes campaign are encouraged to visit https://twoten.org/giving/product- donations/
About the Two Ten Footwear Foundation:
Founded in 1939 at 210 Lincoln Street in Boston, Massachusetts, the Two Ten Footwear Foundation is the national charitable foundation of the U.S. footwear industry. Two Ten provides emergency financial assistance, natural disaster recovery, educational scholarships, counseling services and professional development programs that improve the lives and careers of the country’s 330,000 footwear employees and their families.
The only industry-centric foundation in the country, Two Ten brings the footwear community together to support each other during times of crisis and ensure a bright future for the industry’s workforce. For more information, please visit twoten.org.
