Hopewear, a social enterprise, is aimed at delivering comfortable shoes to elders with low income as they got inspirationfrom witnessing many elders who still needed to work but could not find a healthy shoe because it was expensive and limited.  

 

“Jub”  Valaiporn Chroensak, the founder of Hopewear, say; “ it is very difficult for elders who have an bunion problem to find a proper shoe. Many of them decide to walk barefoot to aviod any health problem and unexpected accident. In addition, a healthy shoe in the market is also too expensive for them to buy. With these reasons, Hopewear wants to make a cheap healthy shoe for elders and will partly use our income to givefree shoes for poor elders.”

 

To celebrate Mother’s Day, Hopewear plans to create the “Healthy Shoe for Moms” project as a gift for elders by designing a sandal, Free Shape version, which elders can adjust a belt to fit their feet. 

 

To design this version, Hopewear is fully focused on high quality of materials by making a sole shoe from natural rubber – so that elders will not slip -, middle insole from hard foam EVA to reduce impact, and insole from EVA sponge, which is soft. In addition, a belt will be made from the same material as it is made for a diver suit. 

 

All of these shoes will be delivered to a group of 20 Leaurak elders in Dryway beach, Ban Sa Pa, Phuket, who has suffered fromexpellingfrom the area that they have lived over 100 years, and 40 Ka Reing elders in a valley, Ban Huay Pong Aon, Mok Jum Pang, Mae Hong Son.