Fashion Footwear Charitable Foundation (FFCF) returns this month for its second annual Shoes for a Cure (SFAC) charity shoe sale. The five-day charity shopping event will benefit First Step Breast Cancer Research. The sale is part of the footwear industry’s 30th year of fundraising, with more than $60M raised. It will take place Wednesday, October 23 through Sunday, October 27 at NYC’s Iconic Chelsea Market.
FFCF President Sandi Mines chairs the event, which has grown into the footwear industry’s largest to eradicate breast cancer. “Having spent the majority of my career in the footwear industry, it is both an honor and an inspiration to spearhead the relaunch of Shoes for a Cure in its current incarnation, as a five-day charity shoe sale held at Chelsea Market,” she offers. “We have rallied more than 50 leading brands and retailers to work together toward the important mission of raising money for first-step breast cancer research. Knowing this is the 30th anniversary is humbling. Every passing year highlights the importance of our shared mission, as we continue to step closer to finding a cure for this deadly disease.”
Partners include, Birkenstock, HOKA, New Balance, Marc Fisher Footwear, Michael Kors, Steve Madden, Rack Room, and Wolverine Worldwide. Key supporters of Shoes for a Cure will gather at Saks Fifth Avenue’s Le Chalet at L’Avenue on the evening of Tuesday, October 22 to kick off the initiative. SFAC partner Emily Rockefeller will be in attendance.
“2024 has us aiming even higher, as we bring together more brands and retailers to expand our reach,” Mines confirms. “The Fashion Footwear Charitable Foundation has recently brought on three new board members: Sandra Colon of Birkenstock, Brenda Christmon of Rack Room Shoes, and Nabil Aliffi of Neiman Marcus. Additionally, SFAC has partnered with the Miami Design District and more than 20 luxury brand partners that are helping us shine a light on the important mission of breast cancer research.”
The sale fuels FFCF’s mission of transforming the industry’s footwear donations into dollars for first-step funding at leading breast cancer research organizations. Shoes for a Cure will once again partner with Dr. Lisa Newman, internationally renowned breast surgeon and researcher. “I am inspired by our 2024 recipient, Dr. Lisa Newman, who was also our 2023 recipient and has literally spent her entire career trying to cure the deadly disease of breast cancer,” Mines says.
“Shoes for a Cure partnership brings together the beauty, strength, and energy that characterizes women,” Newman adds. “These attributes are leveraged in a unique but powerful way to support research aimed at eliminating a disease that currently afflicts 13% of all women in the United States.”
Dr. Newman goes on to share her current research investigates “the genetic causes of triple negative breast cancer. This biologically aggressive form of the disease contributes substantially to the 40% higher breast cancer mortality rates that we see in African American compared to White American women.”
The charitable initiative began as a tent sale in Central Park in 1994, as an inspired call-to-action of the Fashion Footwear Association of New York (FFANY) and Co-Founders Jodi and Jerome Fisher, to join the generosity of the shoe industry with compassionate customers, to raise funds to find a cure for breast cancer. “Breast cancer affects millions of people,” Mines adds. “Through Shoes for a Cure, we can join hands as an industry and make a tangible difference. Every purchase made through Shoes for a Cure directly contributes to the advancement of groundbreaking research, enabling researchers and scientists to push boundaries, seek innovative solutions, and ultimately bringing us closer to a world without breast cancer.”
