19 May Skechers leaves footprint in Lubbock community
Skechers is a billion-dollar company with stores around the globe, but the company is leaving a footprint in Lubbock that has little to do with its shoe designs.
There will be 20,000 happy feet and 100,000 comfy toes in the Hub City after the footwear company donated 10,000 pairs of brand new shoes to kids in the Lubbock community.
Since the BOBS from Skechers program launched in 2011, more than 8 million pairs of new shoes have been donated, and the company will give away 50,000 more throughout the month of May, according to spokeswoman Lauren Dutko.
The new shoes will find feet to fill them across the country, but one-fifth will stay in the Lubbock Independent School District.
More than 700 students from two of the 21 schools considered to need the shoe donations the most were invited to Lubbock High School on Saturday to pick up the new kicks as well as add a personal touch by painting them.
And, for first-grader Mark Castro, “coloring” was the best part. When he finally put the marker down, his new shoes were far from the plain black shoes he was first handed — stars and make-believe lights brightened up the shoes.
“We are very excited that Skechers is doing this for all of the students,” Castro’s grandmother, Geneva Corona, said. “It looks like he had a lot of fun painting the shoes and getting free shoes.”
More than just a day of shoe painting and snow cones, the event is meant to meet a need in the community.
After representatives from the local Shoe Carnival store approached Skechers about bringing the BOBS program to Lubbock, the shoe company offered to donate 3,000 pairs to LISD.
LISD spokeswoman Nancy Sharp said there were thousands more students who could use a new pair of shoes.
“We talked about the need in our community, and they were so generous and instead provided 10,000 pairs of shoes,” she said.
The families who benefit from the BOBS program are the reason Shoe Carnival Manager Larry Wilfong got involved.
“It’s amazing for the kids that it helps out,” he said. “Our employees take a great deal of pride and joy in doing this kind of event.”
The new kicks will be distributed to the kids who need them most by the end of the school year, and LISD Superintendent Berhl Robertson hopes they will benefit the students even after the summer ends.
“When we start school it will still be warm, so these shoes they are getting will be good for them for the first semester,” he said.