Your shoes have a limited lifespan. I’ve read that a good pair of running shoes will last between 300-500 miles. Another indication is how your feeling after a run: knee pain, ankle pain, feeling like your cushioning is gone, uneven wear on the sockliner, lack of stiffness in the crucial area of your shoe (balls of the feet) are all indications that your running shoes are past their prime. If you wear Orthotics or use a Spenco insole, you might extend your shoes a few more miles, but, not a lot. Depending on your mileage, I think that works out to 3-4 pairs a year! I generally wear my shoes until they are falling off my feet (possibly to my own detriment), but, at the end of the year that’s still a lot of shoes to donate or recycle.

Recently, I’ve come across two programs for recycling running shoes that I wanted to share with you. Shoe4Africa is a charitable donation that provides running shoes to school children.

You can ship your gently used running shoes with at least 100 miles left in them to this address:

Shoe4Africa

c/o Monicah Kiplagat

PO Box 6943

Eldoret, Kenya

There is also Nike reuse a shoe program that will recycle any athletic brand shoe and use the material for playing surfaces such as tracks, basketball and tennis courts. There are nationwide recycling centers to drop off your old shoes or you can mail them to this address:

Nike Recycling Center
c/o Reuse-A-Shoe
26755 SW 95th Ave.
Wilsonville, OR 97070

So, if you think there are 100 miles left in your running shoes, I’d send them to Africa. Less than 100 miles, they can go to Oregon.

Readers, if you know of any other programs for shoes, please post a comment!