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.

Over the next several months, Pitman went to work turning Lee's idea into a reality, starting with a 3D printer that created the foot form.

“These are all parts that were done in our prototyping center here in the Portland area,” Pitman added. The finished product is a shoe that expands in three ways. It has snaps on the side to adjust for width, a buckle to fit the heel properly and snaps on the top that allow the sole to expand.

“It was very emotional the first time I saw the kids running and playing in the shoes in the videos Kenton had taken and sent back to us. It was a great feeling,” Pitman recalled.

The shoes are also helping in a way you might not expect: In the fight against childhood disease. “I used to think shoes weren't a big deal. If kids didn't have shoes, they're just running around barefoot and they're happy and they're fine,” Lee said. “But when they're running around without shoes or with shoes that don't fit, they're getting cuts, they're getting scrapes, they're getting infections… when they get sick, they miss school, they can't help their families, a lot of their opportunities are lost.”

The first 100 pairs were sent to four schools in Kenya where children provided important feedback to improve the design. Last year, the first factory order for 1,000 pairs was placed.

Now? They're almost all gone.

Because International, the non-profit organization Lee founded that backs the shoes, is now ready to place its largest order yet: 5,000 pairs.

“How many times do you get to do something that changes the world?” Pitman asked. The shoes are already on the feet of children in Kenya, Vietnam and Nicaragua, and will be coming to new countries this summer as missions groups and churches travel to developing nations.

People can purchase a pair for $10 to send with an organization already traveling to such countries, or they can sponsor an entire bag of The Shoe That Grows.

“I want to keep going and going and going until every child has a pair of shoes,” Lee added.

By Kelsey Watts (with kind permission; Copyright 2015 KPTV-KPDX Broadcasting Corporation)

To learn more, visit www.theshoethatgrows.org.