Worked at a large sports equipment retailer.
Various suppliers had different deals with us surrounding the returns policy with 'faulty' footwear.
With some footwear suppliers, they would ask us to cut the tongues out of the shoes/boots and simply return those tongues as proof of the stock being destroyed. (Hated this awfully wasteful approach, but it was less shipping and they didnt do repairs, generally cheaper brands with higher volumes of returns).
Others would have you send the entire pair of shoes/boots back to them with the truck that arrives for the next delivery so they can restore and resell, generally the mid or high end ones.
One supplier had neither policy and just wrote off the stock immediately without question, even for the smallest of faults, they had very infrequent returns and were known for their quality in industry.
I dealt with this supplier directly on an ~£400 pair of Hiking boots, where the only issue was the insole being a half size too small for the boot so it slid around inside the shoe. They wrote it off and asked us to dispose of the boots, end of exchange.
We would have a table in the staff room of such stock and a charity donation box, first come first serve with minimum donation suggestions of 1, 5 or 10 pounds. Usually you're seeing things like a fleece with a dodgy zip or boots with cracks that compromise the waterproofing etc.
A 400 quid pair of boots in perfect condition was a bit unprecedented and my manager just shrugged his shoulders and said '20 quid?' so that's what I donated, and spent another 20 on some decent inserts. I was on min wage at the time so couldn't afford a higher contribution.
15 years later and they're still holding up to this day, I'll likely never need another pair of Hiking boots in my life at this rate. Now I know the true value of higher end Hiking boots I'd probly pay standard price for something that lasts this long and remains this comfortable if they do break and I need to replace them.
I don't want to bait out the companies involved but as a general rule for hikers, do not cheap out on boots, the expensive ones pay for themselves over time and are night and day in terms of comfort and post hike feet condition lol. I'd never have thought to spend that much and would think anything over 100 quid is overkill, but I'm never going to get Hiking boots that are entry level anymore after this.
Absolute steal.
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