PLAY FOR KEEPS

PLAY FOR KEEPS transforms secondhand football cleats into sneakers, celebrating West African repair culture, sustainability, and craftsmanship

Long description

PLAY FOR KEEPS reimagines football cleats beyond the pitch, using sport to explore repairability and longevity in footwear design. Sportswear today prioritizes aesthetics over durability, making cleats disposable with little chance for reuse.

This initiative addresses this issue by collecting and transforming secondhand cleats from Kantamanto Market and local dealers into everyday sneakers with durable soles, extending their lifespan and sustainably promoting repair.

It also highlights and revitalizes Ghana and West Africa’s deep-rooted shoe repair tradition—a craft that is gradually fading in the face of mass production and fast fashion. By integrating the expertise of local shoemakers, PLAY FOR KEEPS not only preserves this tradition but breathes new life into it, proving that repairability and craftsmanship should be central to design, not relics of the past