Michigan sports complex's "shoe wall" aims to get kids out on the basketball court
The "take a shoe and leave a shoe" phrase is common in the Shoebox Sports complex in Fenton, Michigan, where owners say the goal is to get every kid out on the court.
The complex is still under construction, but its shoe wall is already up and running.
"Kids go through shoes like crazy, you know they grow super fast and they grow out of them quickly," said Nick Brown, an operating partner at the complex.
Brown says kids often wear a pair of sports shoes for a season — maybe six weeks — and then grow out of them by next season. Second graders through high schoolers, girls and boys, can check out the wall and donate their shoes.
"So we decided to bring those shoes up here and we put them on the wall," he said. "... A lot of kids we've had come in bring their old shoes in, and they're like, 'Hey, I like these shoes that are on the wall. Can I swap them out?' So we let them swap them out, too."
One local high school basketball player in the Fenton area with a very specific shoe size has already lucked out with the shoe wall.
"He's 7 feet tall, wears a size 18-19 in certain shoes, one of our coaches and trainers here. Coach Gabe donated a pair of his size 18 shoes, and they just happened to fit Jaden, so he just grabbed them off the wall," said Brown.
For the moment, the shoe wall is specific to basketball shoes, but Brown said he hopes to see more sports represented in the future. Even if a kid doesn't have a pair to leave, Brown said that's OK.
"It's expensive to play sports, youth sports, the prices just keep going up for everything, so that's one reason we've started the wall is we really wanted a way to help take that financial burden off the parents," he said.
