29/09/2026
What a fantastic initiative well done team, The Sport Shop love this ❤️.
We are now ready to launch my favourite project yet 🙏
When we took over The Sport Shop two years ago, I had so many ideas and so many things I was excited to one day bring to life.
But the first year was a scramble to figure out how to even run a shop 🫣
The second year has been figuring out how to actually maintain running a shop without dropping too many balls at once🧐
And now, slowly I am finding pockets of time to start allowing some of these exciting ideas to come to life.
And this is one of them - something I’ve wanted to offer for a long time.
It’s not a ‘business’ idea…it’s more of a heart-led, passion project.
This project is designed to help, to give, and to make every child in our community feel a sense of belonging and know that theres a village looking after them.
That’s always felt important to me.
I want all our kids to know that they belong together in sport and in school.
And that footwear won’t ever be a barrier.
Whether it’s a shoe to wear to school, to PE, or boots for on a field, every child in our incredible community deserves to have what they need on their feet to know they belong in a team, in their class, with their peers.
And I also know that life can sometimes be tough. Life doesn’t dish out rainbows and unicorns to everyone all the time. Sometimes there is struggle, and it’s real, the struggle is real.
And that’s what Second Step is for. For when the struggle feels big, this is for the children in our community, to give them and their parents a little help so they know we see them and they matter.
Because every child matters. Always. And every child deserves the chance to play, run, join in and belong.
But I also know that good sport shoes aren’t always affordable…and at the same time, there are hundreds of perfectly good second-hand pairs sitting unused in wardrobes around our community, that toes have outgrown, or are no longer needed.
When customers come in to get the next size up in shoes, we see so many perfectly ok shoes that don’t have a home to go to, but are just outgrown.
So we’re doing something about it 🤩
We are launching:
▪️SECOND STEP - A COMMUNITY SHOE DONATION INITIATIVE by The Sport Shop▪️
➡️ What is it?
A shoe donation initiative where you can donate your outgrown running shoes, sports shoes and sports boots into The Sport Shop.
Instead of good quality shoes sitting unused in the cupboard, or ending up in landfill, we’re going to help give them their Second Step.
➡️ Then what?
Every pair donated will be inspected by us to make sure they’re still in good condition.
We’ll check that they still have plenty of tread, are structurally sound and have no significant rips, holes or damage inside or out.
Shoes that pass our quality check will then be cleaned, sanitised and deodorised, ready for their next owner.
We want every pair leaving us to be a pair that we would happily put on our own children’s feet.
➡️ Next?
We’ll create a private database of all the footwear we have available, adding new pairs as they come in.
This database will not be publicly available.
Access will be strictly limited to selected schools and approved community organisations throughout North Canterbury that we have personally connected with. This won’t be for anyone to walk in store and ask for.
➡️ How will children receive the shoes?
This is one of the most important parts of Second Step. 🧡
Teachers, principals and other approved people working within our community will be able to identify a child who could benefit from a pair of shoes.
They can privately check with us what’s available and request the appropriate size and type of footwear from us.
The child’s name is not to be provided to The Sport Shop.
There will be no applications for families to fill out, no requirement to prove financial hardship and no child will need to come into the store and ask for help.
The school or organisation simply requests the shoes, and we’ll organise the rest.
We want this to be completely discreet, respectful and dignified.
➡️ Who is this for?
It’s for local children who might otherwise go without appropriate footwear.
Maybe that’s a child playing rugby in boots two sizes too small, or cant play because they have no boots at all.
A student doing PE in worn-out shoes or bare feet.
A young netballer who doesn’t have suitable court shoes.
Or simply a family that’s having a tough time and replacing sports shoes isn’t possible right now.
If we’ve got a suitable pair sitting here, we’d rather see them on that child’s feet.
➡️ And this is where YOU come in!
Have a look in the wardrobe.
Check the garage.
Look through those old bags of shoes. 👀
If you’ve got running shoes, sports shoes or rugby/football boots that your children have outgrown — or you’ve replaced your own shoes while they still have plenty of life left — bring them into The Sport Shop.
All we ask is that they’re still in genuinely good, wearable condition, that you would still put them on your own kids feet if they fitted. And please do not be offended if we say they are just a bit too past it to join in the Second Step family of shoes.
Donations can be dropped into The Sport Shop from now.
Please share this around…the more people who know about Second Step, the more local kids we can help get moving, playing and joining in🧡
As our shoe database builds we will begin reaching out to our local schools. In the meantime, if you are a teacher, principal, or work within the community in an organisation that sees children needing new footwear but they don’t have the means to buy them, then reach out and let us know what you need and we can see what we have available.
➡️You’ll see a donation bin in store!
Please note: This is strictly a free initiative. It’s not a charity, no money will ever be involved, it’s just a simple way we can pass shoes on for their second step in someone else’s life.
Thanks in advance for supporting us with this, so we can bring a little joy into someone’s day🙏
Kerri and The Sport Shop team
