An engineering
entrepreneur develops a sandal, named as "The Shoe That Grows". The specialty of this shoes is that it
expands with a child in order to prevent them from growing out of them
so quickly. It's brilliant focused thinking for helping poor families in countries such as Kenya, where many families
can't afford to replace shoes every couple of months.
As we know children's feet grow very fast in age ranges of two and six, they
can go up a size every couple of months, and by the age of 10, most
children have completed between 80-90 percent of their foot growth. For this reason, there are around about 300 million children around the
world who don't have access to shoes, according to The Shoe That Grows website,
and many more who wear shoes that don't fit.
Kenton Lee, the inventor of this Shoe That Grows and the founder of
charity group Because International, was inspired after working in an
orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya.
"I'll never forget it," Lee told the Daily Mail. One day I was walking down a road with a group of kids from an orphanage where I was staying. Next to me there was a girl in a white dress. As I looked down her shoes were so small and as I looked around there were so many other kids with shoes that were too small for them."
The Shoe That Grows is manufactured by durable leather, a compressed rubber
sole, and metal buckles that allow the shoe expand in three places - the
front, sides and back. This means it can last the average child five
years.
Lee partnered with Gary Pitman, a
footwear designer who had formerly worked with Nike and Adidas, and the
team used 3D printers to model a range of different feet. The shoes are
currently available in two sizes: small, which is designed to last from
kindergarten age up until around Grade Four, and then the large, which
aims to take kids from Grade Five to Grade Nine.
Approximately 2,500 kids have received the shoes already. The team is doing best to keep the cost down, with each pair of shoes costing around US$30 on their own, or US$12 in a pack of 100.
Source: Dailymail
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