Sustainable Manufacturing and Recycling Technologies (SMART) is a research and development centre, located at Loughborough University, formed in 2004. Its remit is to advance technologies related to sustainable manufacture and to promote effective end-of-life product retirement strategies in the wake of European legislation and corporate social responsibility. Professor Shahin Rahimifard leads the Centre for Smart (Sustainable Manufacturing & Reuse/Recycling Technologies) at Loughborough University. He has spent the past 10 years studying the footwear industry. “The assumption is that if there are 330m pairs [of shoes] sold in the UK per year, most will eventually go to landfill, even if some of them are stockpiled in wardrobes for years.” He believes the footwear sector is in its infancy compared with the car and electronics industries.