The deal between us.

1. Who we are and accepting these terms

Shoepal is operated by Jamie Tomlinson, trading as Shoepal, a sole trader based in the United Kingdom ("Shoepal", "we", "us"). These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a legal agreement between you and us governing your use of shoepal.uk, the Shoepal app, and related services (the "Service").

By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms, to our Privacy Policy, and to our Community Guidelines. If you don't agree, please don't use Shoepal.

2. Who can use Shoepal

You must be 18 or over to create a Shoepal account. By signing up you confirm that you are. You may set up profiles for a child in your care. Each one has its own pals, shoes and chats, but they're all managed by you under your account, and the child does not get their own login (see our Privacy Policy for how children's data is handled).

You agree to give accurate information when you sign up and to keep it up to date.

3. What Shoepal is — and what it isn't

Shoepal is a matching and messaging platform. We help you find a "pal" whose shoe sizes mirror yours, and we give you a way to chat with them. The idea is that each of you buys your own pair of shoes from a retailer of your choice, and then you swap the shoe you don't need for the one you do.

Importantly:

• We are a facilitator that introduces people. We are not a shop, and we do not sell, supply, or own any shoes.
• Any purchase you make is between you and the retailer you buy from. We are not a party to it and have no involvement in it.
• Any swap or arrangement between you and a pal is between the two of you. We are not a party to it, we don't hold the goods or any money for it, and we don't guarantee it will happen or go well.
• We don't guarantee you'll find a match, that a pal will respond, or anything about another user's conduct, honesty, or the condition of anything they send you.

You use the Service to meet and arrange things with other adults, and you do so using your own judgement. Our Community Guidelines set out how to do that safely and respectfully.

4. Your account

• You sign in with an email address and password, or with Google. Keep your login details secure and don't share your account. You're responsible for activity under your account.
• One account per person. Don't impersonate anyone or misrepresent who you are.
• Tell us promptly at hello [at] shoepal.uk if you think your account has been accessed without your permission.
• You can delete your account at any time in Settings → Delete account. This cancels any paid subscription straight away (see section 5).
• You can delete a profile other than your first. Its shoes go, and its chats are hidden from both people. What happens to the messages is in our Privacy Policy (section 11).

5. Subscriptions, billing, and cancellation

Browsing and matching are free. To send messages you need a subscription. If a pal messages you first you can read it without one, but you'll need one to reply. Founding Members get free chat access for their first year; after that, and for everyone else, a paid subscription applies.

• Plans. The current plans and prices are shown on our Pricing page. Prices include VAT where applicable.
• Payment. Payments are taken by our payment processor, Stripe. By subscribing you authorise us, via Stripe, to charge your chosen payment method.
• Renewal. Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each period at the then-current price, unless you cancel before the renewal date.
• Cancellation. You can cancel any time in Settings → Subscription. Your access continues until the end of the period you've already paid for; it doesn't renew after that.
• Deleting your account. Deleting your account cancels any paid subscription straight away, ends your access, and does not issue a refund for the time left, unless you're within your first 14 days. If you only want to stop paying, cancel instead. The statutory rights below still apply.
• Your first 14 days. If you cancel within 14 days of starting a paid subscription, you get that payment back in full. Nothing here affects your statutory rights as a consumer. After 14 days, payments aren't refundable for periods already started.
• If your account is on hold. While your account is on hold, we stop taking payments. We don't refund time you've already paid for. If we close your account for good, we cancel the subscription, with no refund for the time left unless you're within your first 14 days.
• Price changes. We may change prices; we'll give you reasonable notice before a change affects a renewal, and you can cancel if you don't want to continue.

6. Acceptable use

Our Community Guidelines form part of these Terms. In short, you agree not to:

• Harass, threaten, deceive, or harm other users.
• Post or send unlawful, abusive, hateful, or sexual content, or anything that endangers a child.
• Use Shoepal to spam, scam, advertise, or run a commercial reselling operation.
• Misuse the platform technically — scraping, automated access, attempts to break or bypass security, or interfering with other users.
• Use Shoepal for anything unlawful.

Breaking these rules can lead to your content being removed and your account being suspended or closed (see section 10).

7. Your content and our moderation

You keep ownership of the messages and information you put into Shoepal ("your content"), including your wishlist. You grant us a limited licence to host, store, and display your content as needed to run the Service for you and the pals you're talking to. That includes showing your wishlist to your pals and keeping a shoe you share in a chat as a card in that chat.

To keep the platform safe, every chat message is screened by an automated moderation tool before it's delivered, and we may review reports and act on them. We explain how moderation works in our Privacy Policy (section 15). We may remove content that breaches these Terms or the Community Guidelines.

How we deal with illegal content. Shoepal is one-to-one chat, with no public posts, and you can't upload photos or files.

Automated screening. We use OpenAI's Moderation API to check the text of every chat message before it's delivered, and the titles fetched for wishlist links and for links in chat to retailers we recognise. Links from other sites show only their address. Privacy section 15 explains how this works.

Terrorism content. Messages containing hate, threats or violence are blocked before delivery. If we find terrorism content, or someone tells us about it, we'll remove it swiftly, may close the account and may tell the police.

Child sexual abuse content. Messages that appear to be sexual content involving a child are blocked before delivery and kept in a restricted record. A person reviews each one, and we may report it to the Internet Watch Foundation or the National Crime Agency, and close the account.

Other illegal content. Other messages the screening flags stay covered until the person receiving them chooses to read them. Anyone can report a pal, and we may remove the content and put the account on hold.

Taking it down. A real person looks at reports as soon as we can, usually within 3 working days. Once we decide something is illegal or breaks these Terms, we remove it swiftly.

Complaints. To report a pal, use Report in the chat or on their profile. For anything else, including a complaint about how we meet our safety duties, email safety [at] shoepal.uk, and we aim to reply within 14 days. Appeals are in section 7 of the Community Guidelines.

Protecting children. Shoepal is for adults. You must be 18 or over to have an account. We ask you to confirm that when you sign up, but we don't check it. Because someone under 18 could still get in, these rules apply to everyone, on every part of Shoepal, and protection is the same at any age.

You must not send, link to or share:

• Pornography. You can't send photos or videos. Links show only their address unless they're to a retailer we recognise. Sexual messages stay covered until the person receiving them chooses to read them.
• Content encouraging or giving instructions for suicide. Messages giving instructions are blocked before delivery. Other messages the screening flags stay covered, with details of where to get support.
• Content encouraging or giving instructions for self-injury. We deal with this in the same way.
• Content encouraging eating disorders or giving instructions for them. Our screening isn't built to catch this, so we rely on reports.
• Abuse or hatred aimed at someone because of who they are. Hateful messages are blocked before delivery, and other abusive messages the screening flags stay covered.
• Bullying. Messages the screening flags as harassment stay covered, and threats are blocked.
• Content encouraging or showing serious violence, against people or animals, or giving instructions for it. Messages the screening flags are blocked before delivery.
• Content encouraging dangerous stunts or challenges, or taking harmful substances. Our screening may flag some of this, so we also rely on reports.
• Content shaming someone's body or physical features. Messages the screening flags as harassment stay covered, and we also rely on reports.
• Content promoting depression, hopelessness or despair. Messages the screening flags as self-harm stay covered, with details of where to get support, and we also rely on reports.

The screening won't catch everything, so please report anything you see. When we find any of this, from a report or any other way, we'll remove it swiftly and may put the account on hold.

Telling a pal you're struggling isn't against these rules. You can talk to Samaritans for free at any time on 116 123, or call NHS 111 for urgent help with your mental health.

8. Purchases and swaps between users

Because Shoepal only introduces people, the responsibility for any purchase or swap sits with the people involved:

• When you buy shoes, your contract is with the retailer. Your rights over that purchase (returns, faults, refunds) are against the retailer and under consumer law — not against Shoepal.
• When you swap a shoe with a pal, that arrangement is between you and the pal. Agree the details (postage, condition, timing) between yourselves. We don't hold goods or money, don't mediate disputes, and aren't liable if a swap doesn't happen or isn't what you expected.
• Take sensible precautions when arranging anything with someone you've met through Shoepal, and use the block and report tools if something feels wrong.
• Some retailer links may earn us a commission from the retailer. We say so next to those links. It doesn't change your contract with the retailer.

9. Our intellectual property

The Shoepal name, logo, design, text, and software are owned by us or our licensors and are protected by intellectual property law. You may use the Service as intended, but you may not copy, modify, distribute, or reverse-engineer it, or use our branding, without our permission.

10. Suspension and termination

You can stop using Shoepal and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or close your account, or remove content, if you breach these Terms or the Community Guidelines, if it's necessary to protect other users or comply with the law, or if we reasonably believe your use poses a risk. Where it's appropriate and lawful to do so, we'll tell you why. You can appeal the decision: see section 7 of the Community Guidelines. If we close your account for a serious breach, we may not refund subscription payments.

11. Availability and disclaimers

We work hard to keep Shoepal running well, but we provide the Service "as is" and "as available". We don't guarantee it will always be uninterrupted, error-free, or that it will lead to a successful match or swap. We may change, suspend, or withdraw features.

Nothing in these Terms limits liability that can't be limited by law — including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else where the law doesn't allow it. Your statutory rights as a consumer always apply.

12. Our liability

Subject to section 11, we are not responsible for:

• The conduct of other users, or anything that happens in a purchase or swap you arrange (see sections 3 and 8).
• Loss or damage that wasn't reasonably foreseeable, or that arises from your own breach of these Terms.
• Business losses — the Service is for personal, non-commercial use.

Where we are liable to you, our total liability connected to the Service is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the issue arose, or £100. None of this affects your non-excludable statutory rights.

13. Changes to these terms or the service

We may update these Terms from time to time — for example, when we add features or to reflect legal changes. For material changes we'll post the updated Terms with a new review date and, where significant, let you know in advance. If you keep using Shoepal after a change takes effect, you accept the updated Terms. The current version is always at shoepal.uk/terms.

14. Governing law and how to reach us

These Terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and disputes are subject to the courts of England and Wales — though if you live elsewhere in the UK you may have the right to bring a claim in your local courts. You can also use the UK's consumer dispute resolution options.

• Email: hello [at] shoepal.uk
• Post: Jamie Tomlinson, trading as Shoepal, The Bristol Office, 2nd Floor, 5 High Street, Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol, BS9 3BY

Last reviewed November 2026.