A TikTok AirTag experiment revealed what happens when you donate clothes to charity
Where do your donations go?
 ByÂ
Meera Navlakha
Meera is a journalist based between London and New York. Her work has been published in The New York Times, Vice, The Independent, Vogue India, W Magazine, and others. She was previously a Culture Reporter at Mashable.Â
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 on June 27, 2025
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Credit: Amazon/Mashable Photo Composite.
Ever wonder what happens when you donate clothes or old goods to charity? A TikTok creator decided to conduct an experiment to find out.
Creator @moe.haa decided to hide an AirTag in a pair of sneakers he donated to a Red Cross donation bin in Munich, Germany. He then tracked the journey through the Find My app.
Over the course of five days, the creator watched the sneakers cross borders and countries: going through Austria, Slovenia, and Croatia and eventually being placed in a second-hand store in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The journey spanned about 800km from its starting point.
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The TikTokker then made a road trip to the resale store, where he found the shoes and bought them back. He asked the store clerk how the shoes ended up there. It turns out, her boss brought them to the store from Germany, where he resides.
According to the German Red Cross website, they have 18,000 donation bins across Germany. The items placed there are sorted into two different recycling models. The first is the “clothing depot model,” when the items are sorted by the Red Cross and items are distributed to depots and thrift stores. The second is the “recycler model,” in which entire contents of the container are sold to a company. From the second, the proceeds support Red Cross’ overarching mission.
Thanks to the AirTag, the creator provided a little insight into how donations actually work. Your clothes may be traveling far, for a good cause.
This is the latest case of AirTags helping out in unusual ways. A London couple, for example, just tracked down their stolen Jaguar using a stashed AirTag inside the car.
Meera is a journalist based between London and New York. Her work has been published in The New York Times, Vice, The Independent, Vogue India, W Magazine, and others. She was previously a Culture Reporter at Mashable.Â
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