SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
The soccer players - or footballers - on the elite British soccer team Arsenal hung up their jerseys after their championship season to go play in the World Cup.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
The players' socks, though? Well, they were sent to an equestrian sanctuary.
JUDE PALMER: There was a little bit of a double-take moment where we were like, Arsenal what to send us what?
DETROW: Jude Palmer with the Redwings Horse Sanctuary in Norfolk, England, says the sustainability manager at Arsenal offered to donate dozens of pairs of socks worn in games.
PALMER: It's such a lovely thing. The donkeys love them. We love them. And now people are loving seeing donkeys in socks, and I can't blame them, really. (Laughter).
SUMMERS: Soccer players wear footless socks over their shin guards to hold them in place. And after a bit of wear and tear, they can become too loose for soccer.
DETROW: But on the bulky, hairy legs of horses and donkeys, they fit.
PALMER: And yeah, they are just like a long sleeve. So they've got no foot. They would end at the kind of ankle on a human. So yeah, for pulling them on donkey legs - spot on, really.
DETROW: The donation of more than 40 pairs of socks out of the blue - or I guess out of the red - was more than a happy coincidence. It was on brand.
PALMER: Arsenal famously are a very red team. Here at Redwings, red is our color. So we were like, they're red. You know, match made in heaven.
SUMMERS: The docks for donkeys and horses are more than a four-legged fashion statement. They protect their legs.
DETROW: The soccer socks can act as a compression sleeve and hold bandages in place and protect them from flies.
PALMER: In the summer, we can get sort of really annoying flies that can bite them on their legs, and their legs have kind of the quite sensitive skin. So for several of our donkeys already, we've been using either bandages or kind of other similar things to just protect their legs from biting flies. And obviously, these socks do that perfectly.
SUMMERS: The acts of compassion at Redwings is often a first for these animals.
PALMER: The horses and donkeys that we see at Redwings come to us from kind of a real variety of scenarios. We see some who've come in who have been incredibly malnourished, so they'll be emaciated, very weak, and need sort of very careful support to get them back to kind of a healthy weight and being, you know, happy and comfortable.
SUMMERS: Since 1984, the Redwings sanctuary has come to the aid of more than 5,000 horses and donkeys.
DETROW: So the giant box of red socks was welcomed by the people who work with the animals on a daily basis.
SUMMERS: It is also a sustainability win for Arsenal, which found a new use for old gear.
PALMER: Obviously, it's good for the donkeys, good for us, good for the planet as well, keeping them out of landfill and giving them a - yeah - a second life, albeit who would have thought it on donkeys? (Laughter).
SUMMERS: And yes, if you're wondering, Palmer says the used socks arrived laundered.
PALMER: No stinky socks, thankfully, or we may have had a different reaction from being quite so happy as we were. (Laughter).
DETROW: How they smell after a donkey wears them is no doubt another story.
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