Shoes4U aims to provide shoes made from recycled materials like tires and plastic bags to impoverished areas worldwide. Over 78% of discarded tires in the US end up in landfills rather than being recycled. Plastic bags also frequently pollute landfills and streets. By cutting and assembling rubber and plastic straps, Shoes4U can make basic shoes to prevent disease and allow people to be mobile. References include sources on recycling, tropical diseases prevented by shoes, and other organizations providing footwear to Africa.

1. Shoes4U
• Dedicated to sending
shoes made of
recycled materials to
poor areas around the
world!

2. Materials
•Approximately 242 million tires are discarded annually in
the United States. Fewer than 7 percent are recycled, 11
percent are burned for fuel, and 5 percent are exported.
The remaining 78 percent are sent to landfills, stockpiled,
or illegally dumped.
• Millions of plastic grocery bags are thrown away into
landfills, or just tossed into the streets.

3. Reason
• We want to use these
materials to provide
shoes for poor people
around the world that
have traverse rough
terrain in order to fulfill
their daily tasks.
• Shoes will prevent
diseases and allow the
people to be able to walk
for a longer time than
they would with out
shoes.

4. Build-Up
• Cut a 5” x 11” rectangle of rubber.
• Cut about ½” slits horizontally on the side of the shoe about
5” away from the toe.
• Braid 3 plastic grocery bags together to form the strap,
weave them through the horizontal slits and pull until tight, tie
loose ends and cut off excess material
• Cut slits vertically on the side of the shoes for flexibility, about
5 on the front and 3 on the back (relative to the strap).
• Cut off portions of the rubber base to fit your own foot.
• (See video for more in-depth explanation)

5. Why tires?
• We thought of both recycled tires
and plastic bottles, because they
were easy to access and were very
practical for making shoes.
• Whenever we tried to make shoes
out of bottles, they would not flatten
right or they would not fit and they
ended up being very uncomfortable.
• The bottle would also create noise
while walking on it.
• When we started working with the
tire, it was nice and flat while walking
on it, however the tire we used was
rounded and had no flat spots and
tended to rub up against our toes,
but the tire was still the best option.

6. Bibliography
• "The Biocycle Guide to Maximum Recycling." The Biocycle Guide to
Maximum Recycling. Ed. The Staff of Biocycle, Journal of Waste
Recycling. Emmaus, PA: JG, 1993. 212-15. Print.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "CDC - Schistosomiasis."
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2 Nov. 2010. Web. 03
Feb. 2011. <http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/schistosomiasis/>.
• Gale Group, Inc. "Podoconiosis - Definition of Podoconiosis in the Medical
Dictionary - by the Free Online Medical Dictionary, Thesaurus and
Encyclopedia." Medical Dictionary.
• Shoes4Schools. "Why It Is Extremely Important to Get Shoes To Africa… «
Shoes4schools’s Blog." Shoes4Schools’s Blog. Web. 03 Feb. 2011.
<http://shoes4schools.wordpress.com/2008/12/28/why-it-is-extremely-
important-to-get-shoes-to-africa/>.
• "YES, Inc. - Shoes for Africa." YES Inc | Shoes for Africa | Humanitarian
Relief Organization. Web. 03 Feb. 2011.
<http://www.yesshoesinc.org/shoes_africa.htm>.