A TikToker took aim at a Vans store she says cut up dozens of pairs of sneakers and threw them in the trash

• A TikTok user said cutting up and throwing out new Vans sneakers was “disgusting.”
• Sophia Schiaroli posted a video showing dozens of Vans shoes thrown out with trash. 
• The TikToker said the slashed sneakers could’ve been donated to those in need. 

A TikTok user accused Vans of slashing new sneakers so they couldn’t be worn and dumping them in the trash outside a store in Philadelphia. 

Sophia Schiaroli posted a TikTok video this week calling out the shoe retailer that’s been viewed more than 2.7 million times.

“With the homeless population in the city this is absolutely disgusting,” she said.

The video included still images of the sneakers with holes cut in them that were apparently put next to bags of trash on the street. The caption read: “Do better Vans this is disgusting.” 

When she returned to the store later, Schiaroli said the shoes were “all cleaned up” and “gone.”  

Vans told Complex magazine in a statement that it investigated the incident at its Walnut Street store in Philadelphia and found the sneakers were “deemed unsafe to donate due to organic growth caused by external and environmental factors.” It added: “That said, we are actively revisiting our retail protocols to ensure that products are properly recycled.”

The company didn’t respond to a request for comment from Insider.

In a follow-up TikTok posted this week, Schiaroli said she got comments on her previous video from other users saying that the retailer might have thrown them out due to mould or features that made them unsuitable for donation. If that was the case, Schiaroli questioned why they’d not been safely disposed of.

Vans has previously been criticized for throwing out sneakers. A YouTube video posted in 2015, showed two trash cans filled with new shoes that were cut up and left outside a Philadelphia store.

“This store here is very wasteful and we’re putting them on blast,” the vlogger said. “They just threw out a bunch of brand new sneakers. We saw a homeless guy here and he was really upset because he could have used them.” 

TikTok users have been hitting out at retailers for throwing away products. Some have gone “dumpster diving” near luxury retail stores to look for products that could still be used. It’s a practice sometimes used by companies in a bid to control inventory and create “artificial scarcity” to maintain prices. 

One dumpster diver, Anna Sacks, told The New York Times: “Corporations don’t want people to see the overproduction, the wastefulness, the lack of donation.” The TikToker added: “To change behavior, it’s important to expose the wastefulness.”