YORK-headquartered shoe retailer Pavers has donated more than 1,000 pairs of children’s shoes, worth close to £14,000, to charity.

The donation to Shoe Aid came following Pavers’ acquisition of Jones Bootmaker in 2018, which brought with it a large quantity of children’s footwear.

Jones Bootmaker has been firmly re-established with newly designed shoe collections, however, with it not being the businesses plans to expand into selling children’s footwear, Pavers chose to donate the styles to charity.

Shoe Aid is dedicated to reducing shoe poverty and waste by collecting and redistributing unused and unwanted footwear across the UK and worldwide.

Stuart Paver, managing director of Pavers, which is based at Northminster Business Park, said: “We are delighted to supply Shoe Aid with over a thousand pairs of new, high-quality, branded children’s shoes. Shoe Aid does a great job in distributing footwear to those in need around the UK. We bought the footwear as part of the acquisition of Jones Bootmaker, but they do not fit into our plans to rejuvenate this much-loved brand.

“Donations like this help to avoid unnecessary waste, whilst also benefitting those in need. I believe Shoe Aid will do a great job in distributing these to families that are unable to afford to buy shoes for their children.”

Founded by Lee Todd in 2010, Shoe Aid works with major retail and commercial footwear suppliers throughout the UK and worldwide, accepting donations through collection points in many supermarkets and from football clubs and schools.

Shoe Aid receives direct requests for shoes from charities, schools and other organisations, which are then fulfilled by donations just like this.

Since its founding, Shoe Aid has distributed close to one million shoes worldwide. The charity has also educated in excess of 25,000 pupils in more than 100 schools on the importance of recycling and repurposing footwear.

Mr Todd said: “In the UK alone, there are upwards of four million children living in poverty and nearly 400,000 people homeless. Our mission is to give footwear to these people and reduce the two million shoes that are thrown away to landfill every week. Thank you to Pavers for this incredible donation, which will help support the many in need”.

As well as acquiring Jones Bootmaker in 2018, Pavers also announced the purchase of online shoe retailer Herring Shoes and the launch of The Pavers Foundation, an initiative enabling charitable giving by the business and its staff.