The Bet on Refurbished Luxury Shoes

Almost everyone has seen their grandparents take their shoes to the cobbler for resoling. Shoes weren't bought as often as they are today. Even Marilyn Monroe wore her mules until they fell apart – the pair in question was seen in a museum! The instinct was to make things last. Today, we understand that wearing second-hand items is good for the planet. But have we truly grasped that they can also be repaired? It seems to me that repairing a computer was more common than repairing shoes, but fortunately, the mantra "Repair rather than discard" is becoming increasingly prevalent.

On a large scale, repairing shoes is quite complicated. A shoe is made up of dozens of different materials, glued, sewn, and sealed together. How can they be separated? As for repair, it seems that cobblers have become rare, so repairing on a large scale is a real challenge. As for the repair itself, one always wonders if it's worth the effort...

When it comes to recycling, companies like CETIA in Hendaye seem to have decided to take on the challenge, and we support them! They unglue the soles, separate plastic from leather, identify fabric, metal eyelets, and send each piece into a distinct recycling circuit. They call it dismantling: https://cetia.tech/nos-equipements-chaussure/#demantelement_chaussure

At My Pretty French Shoes, we decided to recycle luxury shoes so that those that were gathering dust in forgotten closets could be worn again and brought back into the spotlight, as they deserve. So we repaired them, pampered them, nourished them! Of course, we also had some unpleasant surprises with impromptu sole or heel detachments (!) but the quality of these shoes from major French and Italian luxury houses fortunately allowed for some last-minute rescues! We have some lovely models to show you, feel free to take a look!