The Re-Shoes LIFE project wants to provide an alternative, circular and sustainable solution for footwear end-of-life management. The European Platform for Sport Innovation (EPSI) will organize the Re-Shoes project launch event as part of the EPSI Annual Conference 2023 on 6 June 2023 at 10:00 - 11:15 (local AZOST time zone, which is 12:00 - 13:15 CEST) in the Azores (Portugal).

This hybrid event will be held at the University of the Azores - Ponta Delgada Campus, Rua da Mãe de Deus, 9500-321 Ponta Delgada, Portugal. Online participation is also possible.

The project aims to implement a new circular economy business model based on the collection, sorting and recycling of post-consumer outdoor shoes from which to obtain secondary raw materials to be used for manufacturing a new generation of high-quality recycled shoes.

The solutions presented in the project have the ambition to bring virtuous recycling practices beyond the state of the art within the footwear industry, as they are aimed at developing an end-of-life management of shoes that maintains the value within the production cycle. In this scenario, end-of-life footwear is used as a source from which to derive again new materials to be used directly in the production of new recycled shoes, instead of using them for purposes and products of lower quality, probably in different sectors than the one of origin.

EPSI is a non-for-profit European association (ASBL) located in Brussels. It is a membership-based networking organisation of universities, research institutes, clusters, associations, federations, industries and SMEs which focuses on innovation in the area of physical activity/sport, related to leisure, transport, education, tourism, environment, construction and health in Europe.

In line with its vision of Leading Sport Innovation Globally, EPSI strives for a more innovation-friendly environment to stimulate businesses development with a focus on the quadruple helix: public authorities, businesses, academia and end consumers. EPSI has been created with the aim to implement activities among its members to respond to regional, national and European industrial and societal challenges. This leads to projects with the aim of finalizing and deploying innovation and contributing to the dissemination of new knowledge, products and services into society. To this end, the platform focuses on physical activity related to sport, leisure and health.

Furthermore, EPSI is currently the coordinator of Big4Sports and an active partner in other five projects, for a total amount of six ongoing projects co-founded by the European Commission, five within the Erasmus+ Sport programme and one within Interreg Europe, INNO4SPORTS - Sport for Growth and Healthy & Vital Communities.