Dalisha Pinto standing with a group of firefighters at a giveaway, with tables of donated sneakers behind them.

About

An illustrated portrait of Dalisha Pinto smiling with an armful of donated sneakers, in front of the painted rainbow steps in Bridgeport.

Founder

Dalisha Pinto, who goes by Dali, started the foundation in Bridgeport, the city she is from. She is an entrepreneur, a personal shopper and stylist, and the owner of Sinners Love Sneakers, a sneaker concierge service. She makes sneaker content, and she started the drive in 2022 as a response to people in her own community needing sneakers.

Dalisha Pinto with a family at a giveaway, the children holding drawstring bags.

Mission

Get sneakers to kids and families who need them, without red tape and without making anyone ask twice. Sneakers go straight to families, to shelters, and to recovery facilities in Bridgeport.

The goal is to keep growing without losing that. More distribution events through the year, stronger partnerships with schools, businesses and shelters, and a system that gets the right sizes into the right hands. Nobody should get turned away because we did not have their size.

WTNH News 8, December 2024

In the news

WTNH News 8 covered Dali's Holiday Sneaker Drive in Bridgeport. The segment is from the 2024 drive, so it is a look at a previous year rather than this one.