While many athletes throw away their old cleats after outgrowing or retiring them, two sophomores have put them to better use. Drew Chun and Mercer Whitty created a shoe donation program in Marin where they collect gently used cleats and distribute them to kids in need.
cleats that were donated to them by the Give A Cleat
Foundation. (Photo courtesy of Give a Cleat foundation)
The organization started locally, distributing cleats in Marin, but over time they have reached beyond the United States to Kenya, South Africa and the Dominican Republic. Chun and Whitty hope to continue to expand to other countries in the future.
“What inspired us to start this is that we have been playing sports our whole lives and we have noticed that after we are done with our cleats, they usually end up in the trash. We thought we could give them to others who might need them throughout the world,” Whitty said.
Chun and Whitty have partnered with For My Brothers Film, a group that has produced a documentary about a South African soccer player making a difference in his village and Global Baseball Adventures, an organization that gives the opportunity for baseball and softball players to go to different countries around the world. Together with these organizations, Chun and Whitty have successfully delivered about 300 pairs of cleats.
They have set up drop-off bins at Cafe Verde and F45 Training, where locals can easily donate the cleats. They then collect and store the cleats until they are ready to be shipped around the globe.
“One of the challenges we have faced is that some locations don’t allow us to place our bins on their property, but we have overcome this by finding places that support our mission and focusing on them,” Chun said.
The pair realized over time that after they retired a pair of cleats, instead of throwing them away they could give them to others in need. From there, they decided that they could also motivate many more to do the same.
Chun outlined the foundation’s objectives and future plans.
“Some of our goals are to empower the youth throughout the nation, donate thousands of pairs of cleats, and by the time we are seniors we want to fund a trip to one of our destinations and hand deliver the cleats ourselves,” Chun said.
They hope to expand their drop-off bin locations as well as the countries that they deliver to.
“Eventually we would like to become a self-sufficient nonprofit organization,” Whitty said.
