In China, a pair of no-brand second-hand shoes is bought for about 2 yuan, while branded shoes go for 2 to 10 yuan depending on tier. After sorting, packing, ocean shipping, and customs clearance, they retail for about 70 yuan in Nairobi's Gikomba market in Kenya (East Africa's largest second-hand goods hub). A second-hand shoe and bag trading company founded in 2013 in Huadu District, Guangzhou, has a 3,000-square-meter factory, employs more than 20 sorters, and ships 10 to 20 containers to Africa and Southeast Asia each month, with each container holding about 10,000 pairs of shoes worth 15,000 to 20,000 yuan.

Key Points

  • Domestic second-hand shoe collection is priced by tier: international name brands 10 yuan, well-known domestic brands 5 yuan, no-brand 2 yuan; street collectors buy by weight at 0.5 to 1 yuan per jin, costing 1,000 to 2,000 yuan per ton, and can resell to specialized companies for 3,000 to 5,000 yuan.
  • A trading company in Gaoshanzhuang, Huadu District, Guangzhou, sends 10 to 20 containers to Africa and Southeast Asia each month, with about 10,000 pairs per container worth 15,000 to 20,000 yuan.
  • A pair of second-hand shoes retails for 100 shillings (about 70 yuan) in Gikomba market. Local GDP per capita is under US$5,000, and second-hand shoes are a mainstream consumption choice.

The Ledger from Tricycle to Container
The path of Xiao Zhang, a collector born in the 1990s, represents the upstream of the industry: riding a tricycle through streets and alleys, buying goods with a loudspeaker, paying 2 to 5 yuan per pair for branded shoes, mostly pricing ordinary shoes by weight at 0.5 to 1 yuan per jin, with a considerable portion simply picked up for free. She has done the math: collecting a ton of second-hand shoes costs 1,000 to 2,000 yuan, and selling to a specialized recycling company brings 3,000 to 5,000 yuan per ton, yielding a gross margin of 1,000 to 3,000 yuan per ton. Collecting a dozen or so tons a month can bring a very decent income.

The midstream is sorting and export. A trading company in Gaoshanzhuang, Huadu District, Guangzhou, has specialized in second-hand shoe and bag collection, sorting, and sales since 2013. Its 3,000-square-meter factory has more than 20 skilled workers handling raw material selection, classification, packing, container loading, customs declaration, ocean shipping, and even customs clearance at destination ports, screening and packing according to importers' requirements in each country. Every month, 10 to 20 containers are typically shipped to Africa and Southeast Asia.

The downstream is in Africa. Gikomba market in northeastern Nairobi, Kenya's capital, stretches about 4 kilometers and is Kenya's largest open-air market and East Africa's largest second-hand goods sales and distribution hub, jokingly called East Africa's "Fifth Avenue." In most local countries, GDP per capita is under US$5,000 and daily output is under US$15. Backward manufacturing keeps new shoe prices high, making second-hand shoes a daily necessity. Better-quality shoes first flow into local farmers' markets at 5 to 30 yuan per pair, then are marked up again at final retail. From 2 yuan collection to 70 yuan retail, every layer—sorting, cleaning, packing, ocean shipping, customs clearance, wholesale—incurs costs and adds markup.

Why Old Shoes Are the Fatter Link in Second-Hand Clothing Recycling
Second-hand shoe recycling is a branch of second-hand clothing recycling, but shoes are a more profitable source. Leather shoes, high heels, slippers, and casual sneakers can enter export channels as long as they are in fairly good condition. There are few players in the industry and demand far exceeds supply, described as "a market without a price." The barrier to entry is low, and one person can complete the entire process, so some people go directly to Africa and Southeast Asia to open wholesale stalls and sell their own goods.

Even if shoes are very worn, as long as the soles are not separated or broken, they can still be profitable through material recycling—shoes consist of three parts: upper, sole, and lining. Uppers are collectively called leather, divided into natural leather and synthetic leather; soles include rubber, plastic, genuine leather, foam, TPR, and composite soles; linings are divided into genuine leather and synthetic leather. Leather and rubber are both recyclable, and sorting them increases value. But material recycling has a hard flaw: industry insiders say most shoes inevitably lose material after decomposition and cannot be 100% utilized; after rubber soles of sneakers are pelletized into recycled rubber, performance cannot return to virgin levels, so virgin rubber must be blended in, with limits on the ratio—too much recycled content weakens the strength of the new rubber.

Donation Boxes, Charity Law, and the Carbon Reduction Ledger
Another destination for old shoes is donation boxes. Some boxes are placed by government departments and charitable organizations, with dedicated staff collecting, sorting, disinfecting, packaging, warehousing, and delivering to recipients; others are placed by vendors and companies themselves, and some even use charity or environmental protection as a cover for the recycling business, with cases of boxes being pried open and clothing and shoes stolen. Jiang Zhongqiu, head of Shenzhen's "Yi Jiu Qing Shen" Environmental Protection Promotion Center, said he has encountered many incidents of old clothing boxes being stolen. The Charity Law of the People's Republic of China, effective since September 1, 2016, explicitly requires charitable organizations to obtain public fundraising qualifications before conducting public fundraising.

In terms of environmental value, the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) concluded that every kilogram of used clothing used can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 3.6 kilograms and save 6,000 liters of water. The China National Textile and Apparel Council estimates that if China's waste textiles were fully recycled, the chemical fibers and natural fibers produced each year would be equivalent to saving 24 million tons of crude oil, about 5% of China's total annual oil imports. The "China Renewable Resource Recycling Industry Development Report (2020)," compiled by the Ministry of Commerce, shows that total second-hand textile recycling reached 1.8 billion yuan, up 13.2% year on year.

From a trade perspective, second-hand shoe export is a chain with a complete division of labor—collection, sorting, packing, ocean shipping, customs clearance, wholesale, and retail in China, with each link earning a margin and each link supplying mid- and low-end footwear consumption in Africa and Southeast Asia.

Source: Old shoes bought for 2 yuan a pair in China can be worth 70 yuan when resold in African markets? Someone earns 300,000 yuan a year in this niche trade · Originally published on 2026-09-29