The nonprofit Because International partners with five missionary organizations who distribute the shoes to children in poor countries. To help, you can purchase a pair of shoes for $10 online. The shoes are put into a duffel bag. Once that duffel bag has 50 pairs of shoes in it, the group distributes them to the children.
If you are planning to travel to an area in need, you can purchase and deliver the shoes. The company is currently sold out but is getting more shoes in July.
With more than 25 years in the business, Gary Pitman knows shoes.
After 10 years at Nike, four at Adidas, and nine years running a footwear and product development company out of his Vancouver home, you could say Pitman is an expert in the industry.
His latest creation, however, has elevated him and his company, called Proof of Concept, to a higher profile. During just one week in April, Pitman conducted five media interviews, while fielding dozens of emails daily.
The nonprofit Because International partners with five missionary organizations who distribute the shoes to children in poor countries. To help, you can purchase a pair of shoes for $10 online. The shoes are put into a duffel bag. Once that duffel bag has 50 pairs of shoes in it, the group distributes them to the children.
If you are planning to travel to an area in need, you can purchase and deliver the shoes. The company is currently sold out but is getting more shoes in July.
The attention from local and national news outlets is over what is called “The Shoe That Grows,” an adjustable-size shoe designed by Pitman and his team for a nonprofit called Because International. The Idaho-based charity is providing the shoes to children in poor countries who can’t afford new shoes as they grow out of old ones.
“It’s been kinda crazy,” Pitman said of the sudden attention as he sits with his wife, Rhea, in his Vancouver home office, where career mementoes, including shoes he’s created and a figurine of sports broadcaster and former NBA star Charles Barkley, are displayed. “I don’t think any of us realized it would go like this.”
It all started two years ago when Kenton Lee, executive director of Because International, got Pitman’s name from someone in Italy. Lee had been on the search for someone to create his concept: an expandable shoe that grows with the child.
Lee credits Pitman and his team for turning his idea into a product. “We really wouldn’t be where we are today without Gary and Todd (Miller) and Vlad (Vladimir Chvorun) and without the team out there,” Lee said. “I don’t know a thing about shoes. I just had this idea, and had no idea about how to make it happen.”
Lee’s idea came to him on a visit to Nairobi, Kenya in 2007, when he noticed a little girl’s shoes were too small for her feet.
“We just really wanted to try to tackle this challenge of kids having shoes,” he said. He founded Because International in 2009, and Pitman made his first prototype of the shoe that grows five sizes in 2012. After sending 100 pairs overseas and having his grandchildren test them out, Pitman perfected his design with help from his team and suggestions from a factory in Asia.
The shoe has straps that can be easily adjusted as children grow. One shoe that expands for children at kindergarten through fourth grade ages is in production. Plans are in the works for a larger size as well.
Pitman, who has been using 3D printing since 1990, said he used the 3D printer for the rubber sole of the shoe and sent if off to the factory in Asia. He said the technology has made it easier to get back the product as designed.
“It’s improved the communication back and forth between factories,” he said.
The nonprofit worried where it would get the money for its latest order of 5,000 shoes, but an overwhelming response of support quelled that fear. Lee said he is getting 1,000 emails a day from people interested in helping out with distribution of the shoes. Missionary and religious organizations traveling to countries purchase the shoes to take with them and distribute them during their travels.
Pitman said that seeing videos and photos of children in need wearing the shoes almost brought him to tears. His company has donated time, charging only for shipping and materials.
“To be able to do something and to give back and make a difference in the world — you don’t get opportunities to do that often,” he said.
And this shoe is not the only project keeping Pitman busy. His company develops shoes for running company Altra, which creates gnome figurines of sports announcers, including Charles Barkley, who placed the shoes on their desks during March Madness broadcasts.
“(I have) a lot going on for a guy that’s semi-retired,” Pitman quipped.
