Ready or not, the back-to-school season has arrived. As teachers prepare their lesson plans and students flood the hallways, one footwear enthusiast is taking it upon himself to give back to his hometown through sneakers, which he says changed his life.

Darryl Glover, a noted shoe collector and Kobe Bryant fan, is holding the second annual Sole Scholars back-to-school giveaway on Saturday in his hometown of Pleasantville, New Jersey.

With a mission to empower K-12 students in underserved Title I school districts, Sole Scholars provides local children with supplies, motivational support, scholarships and a surefire confidence booster: sneakers. 

In 2024, Glover’s Sole Scholars nonprofit foundation held its first back-to-school event with 50 volunteers and was able to distribute 500 backpacks and 200 pairs of sneakers. This year, the foundation will double and triple those numbers, respectively, with 1000 backpacks and 600 sneakers. 

Along with the giveaways, Sole Scholars’ Champion Packs event will feature a basketball game, sneaker design coloring session and onsite blood pressure and blood sugar testing. 

“Sneakers are my career and my calling,” Glover tells Footwear News. “They saved me, and now I use them to change lives. I didn’t come from a big city. I was just a kid in love with sneakers. Sneakers gave me focus, community and ultimately a career. I didn’t want to be the person who left, succeeded and never looked back. I wanted kids here to see me and believe they can write a different story too.”

Donors and sponsors for this year’s event include DTLR, Foot Locker, L’Oréal USA, Reshoevn8r, Snipes, StockX and The Whitaker Group.

The 2025 Sole Scholars Pleasantville Champion Packs giveaway will take place Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET in the Mount Zion Baptist Church WinSan Center at 353 S New Road. Readers can find more information at solescholars.org.