Chacott is recycling pointe shoes to renewable fuels

Chacott, a Japanese dance wear retailer and the owner of Freed of London, is running a sustainability programme to recycle used pointe shoes for renewable fuels until 31st July 2025.

Chacott's website says customers can bring in up to ten pairs of used pointe shoes to its selected stores in Japan, regardless its house brand or other brands. They receive a voucher of 500 Japanese yen (about €2.90/US$3.35) per pair, which can be used to purchase new pointe shoes, a voucher per new pair, until the end of August.

The collected used pointe shoes will be given a memorial ceremony by a Buddhist priest at Chacott's Ueda manufacturing plant and processed into renewable fuels by a third party company.

Pointe shoes do not last that long in general. Even though they last quite long for me because I like zombie shoes, there are old pointe shoes piling up in my atelier. And it is just difficult for me to chuck them away. I can only imagine how it is like for pre-professionals and professionals. I hope more dance wear and shoe brands will follow Chacott.

My personal note: Such a memorial ceremony for products may sound strange internationally but it is not unusual in Japan. We Japanese do it when we dispose of items, which, for example, we or family members have used for a long time to show our appreciation.

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Updated on 22nd July 2025 to add more details.