HONG KONG, CHINA - 2019/05/08: A logo of an American multinational sport clothing brand Nike seen in Hong Kong. (Photo by Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Roomies, Nike is saying “aht aht” to anyone looking to dump their gently worn sneakers. Instead, the shoe and apparel giant wants to resell your kicks! The new company initiative is called Nike Refurbished, according to a Monday announcement.
The program flow is simple. Customers can bring in used sneakers within 60 days of their purchase date. Then, Nike experts throughly inspect the shoe and give it a grade. A ‘like new’ graded shoe is one worn once or twice before returning. A ‘gently worn’ graded shoe is one worn a few times within that 60-day limit. Lastly, a ‘cosmetically flawed’ graded shoe is one returned for manufacturing errors such as discoloring.
Each eligible, worn shoe is then cleaned, sanitized and displayed in a special section in participating stores.
While Nike plans to cash out from reselling worn shoes, customers who bring in kicks will not. In their Monday announcement, Nike makes no mention of an incentive for customers bringing in shoes. However, the prices of the refurbished shoes will be based on the shoe condition and type. Nike is accepting both women’s and men’s shoes.
At this time, the resale program will run in 15 stores — with plans of expansion already in the works. These stores are located across the United States including California, Florida, Nebraska, Georgia and Oregon.
Returned worn shoes that aren’t eligible to be refurbished will still get “a chance at a second life,” as Nike said. The company will lean on community partners to donate the ineligible shoes. If the shoes are truly at their end of use, Nike will recycle them using their own process.
“To drive real change, our climate goals can’t just be words on a page,” Nike’s Chief Sustainability Officer Noel Kinder said. “They have to move us into action. They have to shift how we think, plan, operate, and adapt. Most of all, they have to hold us accountable.”
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