Why I’m challenging Nike, Adidas, and Puma over single shoes- Stef Reid

Former Paralympic world champion Stef Reid has launched a public campaign urging major sportswear brands to let customers buy single shoes (or split-size pairs), arguing that current “pairs-only” policies are costly for amputees, wasteful for consumers, and at odds with companies’ stated inclusion and sustainability goals.

Reid says she was unable to purchase a single Nike Vaporfly, a “super shoe” that retails around £240, and was instead offered a discount on a full pair she would never use in full.

She contends that single-shoe and split-sizing options would benefit a broad range of people: amputees who only need one trainer; runners with different-sized feet; and anyone replacing just one worn-out shoe, reducing needless waste. In response to the attention sparked by her viral posts,

Nike pointed to its U.S. One Shoe Bank, a program that ships single shoes from its Memphis distribution centre, free of charge within the United States, and said it hopes to expand to more geographies. Reid has expanded her call to include Adidas and Puma, pressing the industry to normalise single-unit sales and split sizing, much like contact lenses are sold individually.

She frames the issue as the “last mile” of inclusion: brands already feature amputee mannequins and para-athletes in marketing, but retail policies still force many customers to pay for and discard an extra shoe. Other players have explored partial solutions.

Brooks, for example, has said it works with retailers that can provide single or mixed-size pairs with credits, yet there remains no mainstream, global pathway to order a single top-tier racing shoe from the largest brands.

Reid’s campaign now seeks concrete timelines and product-page options for single shoes and split sizes across performance models, arguing that the technology to build to size clearly exists and the change is a matter of policy, logistics, and will rather than engineering.

Sources: Reuters, The Guardian, ITV News