Shoe expands five sizes, helps kids in developing countries

A group of people from the Portland and Boise areas are collaborating to create a groundbreaking solution to a timeless problem: Providing growing children in developing countries with shoes that fit. But now there's a new solution: The Shoe That Grows.

The idea came to Kenton Lee while he was living and working in Nairobi, Kenya. He was surrounded by children who often didn't have shoes, let alone any that fit.

When he saw a young girl with the ends of her shoes cut off to let her toes stick out he knew he had to do something.

“So right there, spur of the moment, I thought, ‘Wouldn't it be nice if there was a pair of shoes that could adjust and expand their size? A pair of shoes that could grow?'” Lee told Fox 12's Kelsey Watts. The Nampa, ID, native pitched the idea to several companies, but was turned down time after time. He'd almost given up hope when a meeting with a colleague led to a man in Portland who knew a man in France, who recommended a guy in Vancouver.

That guy was Gary Pitman, a man who spent most of his career at Nike and Adidas turning design sketches into engineered products before founding his own company called Proof of Concept.

“[Kenton] just called and said, ‘Hey, I have this concept and idea, here's what I'd like to do,'” Pitman recalled.

That's how a partnership with a “sole” was born.