An influencer places an AirTag in sneakers donated to the Red Cross: he could not have imagined their final destination
A German TikToker was stunned to find out where his donated sneakers ended up: “How can it be...?”
Using an Apple AirTag, a German social-media influencer tracked a clothes donation all the way to its destination - and was taken aback by the result of his experiment.
“Let’s see where they turn up”
In a viral TikTok video, the content creator Moe.Ha placed Apple’s tracking device - which allows users to locate items using the tech giant’s Find My app - inside the sole of an old pair of Asics sneakers.
He then deposited the footwear in a streetside Red Cross clothes donation box, telling the camera: “Let’s see where they turn up.”
Where did the sneakers go to?
From their departure point in the German town Starnberg, Moe.Ha tracked the shoes for the following five days. They travelled to Munich, then passed through Austria, Slovenia and Croatia, before ending up in a thrift shop in Cazin, a city in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“I couldn’t believe it - and there was only one thing for it,” Moe.ha declared. He got on a plane and flew to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Once at the Cazin thrift store, the influencer found his donated sneakers on sale for 20 BAM (about $12), and bought them back.
@moe.haa Wir haben Schuhe mit einem AIRTAG gespendet… und schau, wo sie gelandet sind! 👟🧐#A#AirTagS#SchuhspendeR#RotesKreuzT#TrackingMissionB#BosnienS#SpendenreiseT#TikTokDokuS#SocialExperimentG#GuteTatW#WeltreiseDerSchuhe#CapCut
♬ original sound - Moe.Ha
“How can it be...?”
When Moe.ha asked a clerk how the shoes had landed in the second-hand store, she told him that her boss is based in Germany and had brought them over from the country.
The influencer then appeared to ask whether his 20 BAM would be donated to a charitable cause, to which the clerk replied: “No.”
Speaking to the camera, he then said: “How can it be that you throw shoes into a Red Cross donation box in Germany and now they are being sold almost 800 kilometers [500 miles] away, with no mention of a donation to the Red Cross?”
On its German website, the organization provides the answer to this question.
DRK sells on donated clothes for “important funding”
Germany’s Red Cross, known as the Deutsches Rotes Kreuz (DRK), says the garments it receives in its 18,000 donation boxes nationwide “provide us with enough well-preserved clothing to supply 1.2 million disadvantaged people annually”.
But the DRK adds that only about 10% of donated wearable clothing goes “directly to people in need”. The rest is sold on to partner companies - and the proceeds from these transactions are put towards charitable initiatives, the DRK stresses.
Wearable items sold on by the DRK “are exported and sold by the companies as second-hand goods in various countries”, the organization explains. Export destinations are located in “Africa, Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia”, the DRK adds.
“By selling surpluses, we generate free funds for social projects,” the DRK says.
“Every year, we are able to support volunteer projects, for example in disaster relief, the Youth Red Cross, or elderly care. This income is an important source of funding for our work.”
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