A charity event where the cause is also the thing that makes the shoes worth buying
The VIP Power Hour is a pre-sale for the people who already have the money to buy the shoes.

The story
Shoes for a Cure launches a five-day charity shoe sale in New York, featuring 10,000 donated pairs from top brands, with events including a VIP Power Hour and a Manolo Blahnik shopping event. The initiative has raised over $65 million for breast cancer research since 1994.
Source: wwd.com
Our reading
The VIP Power Hour starts with a ribbon-cutting and a speech, but the real work is done before the sale even begins. The people who will later shop for shoes get to hear about the cause, as if the cause is what makes the shoes valuable. It’s a kind of pre-sale, but for the people who already have the money to buy the shoes.
There’s a dinner at a luxury boutique, where the same people who will later shop for shoes get to eat and talk about the cause. The event is called a charity sale, but it’s also a social gathering where the people who can afford the shoes are reminded that they are helping a good cause. The shoes are donated, but the event is still a kind of performance, where the act of buying is replaced by the act of being seen.
The charity is called Shoes for a Cure, and it’s been around since 1994. It’s raised over $65 million, which is a lot of money, but it’s also a lot of shoes. The people who run it are the same people who wear the shoes, and the people who wear the shoes are the same people who can afford to buy them. It’s a circle, and the shoes are just the thing that keeps it going.