Every year, billions of pairs of shoes reach the end of their useful life and most end up in landfills. Footwear is among the most difficult consumer goods to recycle — a single shoe can contain up to 60 different materials bonded, stitched, and molded together. Growing awareness of this problem, combined with tightening regulation and mounting pressure on brands to account for their products' full lifecycle, has brought footwear recycling from a niche activity to an emerging industrial sector attracting serious investment and commercial attention.