Giving For Those Little Shoeless Feet

I found interesting story about TOMS and Mr. Blake Mycoskie. Blake is from Los Angeles, and is the Founder of TOMS (www.toms.com). TOMS represents “Shoes for a Better Tomorrow”, and not any Mr. Tom. Blake is an entrepreneur. Before starting TOMS company, he has started five ventures, one of those has been a very successful national campus laundry service. TOMS makes shoes and eyewear for young men, women, and children. But style and designs are not just two things for which TOMS exists.

With One for One movement, TOMS has really Started Something That Matters. Under One for One movement, for every pair of shoes purchased by the customers of TOMS, one pair of new shoes is given to a child, who is in a need to protect his or her feet but can’t afford to buy on his/her own. This simple looking shoelessness problem is the reason behind Anemia, Podoconiosis, Jiggers, Tetanus, and other soil-transmitted diseases, injuries, and infections in many developing countries such as Argentina. Shoes are a compulsory part of school uniform. When children don’t have shoes, they are not part of the education. In 2006, Blake Mycoskie saw the children growing up barefoot in Argentina. He saw the need. As of 2010, TOMS has shoes production units in 3 countries and needy children from 23 countries have benefitted from One for One. While Giving, TOMS take care of two factors while Giving: first - no child labor exists during making and distributing the shoes, and secondly - local and small shoes manufactures do not suffer economically. TOMS enters into partnerships all over the world, with the organizations working with a humanity approach.

As of September 2010, TOMS has helped with more than 1 million pairs of new shoes to the needy children all over the world. TOMS has received prestigious People’s Design Award from Smithsonian Institution’s the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and the Secretary of State’s 2009 Award for Corporate Excellence. Blake Mycoskie inspires to make Giving a part of everything we do and to make a better tomorrow. On TOMS appeals, all over the world, more than 250,000 people went without shoes in April 2010 to create awareness those millions of children who are growing barefoot in the world today and how people can change life of these children tomorrow by giving something today.

By Chaitanya Vyas

Faculty EDI