Social entrepreneur Blake Mycoskie started his business to help shoe-less children and it has snowballed into a host of other giving projects, writes Syida Lizta Amirul Ihsan.
GREAT things happen when a business isn’t driven by profit alone. In 2006, Blake Mycoskie travelled to Argentina and he saw children without something as basic as shoes. He wanted to help and his solution was simple — create a for-profit business that is sustainable and not reliant on donations.
“When I returned home, I told all of my friends and family, and pretty much anyone who would listen, about my trip — how I went to Buenos Aires to relax and learn to play polo; how I discovered the alpargata, a shoe that had been worn by Argentine farmers and polo players for more than 100 years, how I went on a volunteer shoe drive where used shoes were being collected from wealthy families and given to children in the surrounding villages and how my goal was to create a for-profit business — not a charity — that would give 250 pairs of new shoes to the children I had met,” he says in an e-mail reply.
His vision soon turned into a business model for Toms. Under the banner called One for One, for every shoe sold, Toms will give a new pair to a child in need.
With US$5,000 (RM15,854) saved from his earlier ventures, Mycoskie set up shop in his apartment and produced a variation of the traditional Argentine shoe that he brought home from his trip — the rope-soled, canvas-topped alpargata.
“The Alpargata is a traditional shoe. It has been around for hundreds of years. Farmers have been wearing it primarily,” he says.
“In the last 10 to 20 years it has become a hip, cool thing for the young kids and people to wear, even just around the house. So it is not just farmers anymore but the reason why it started there is the farmers wanted something really comfortable, really lightweight that will also dry quickly.
“The nice thing about Toms is that even though it is a canvas shoe, if you get it wet — at the beach or the pool or anywhere — it will dry really, really quickly in the sun,” he says.
TOUGH TIME
Like all brave ventures, Mycoskie said he did not have a smooth beginning. There were scepticism about his business model and no experience in the apparel and footwear industry and large-scale giving and philanthropy.
“When you don’t know the rules, you feel freer to break them all,” he says. With the ability to think outside the box, Mycoskie embraced the learning experience.
“A few years after we began, we received some criticism about our production and instead of working on a way to spin the story, I felt it was more important to really look at the way we built our company and products and how we can improve our impact in ways beyond just the shoes we give.
“We are able to confidently tell our story in an authentic way thanks to the criticism of our community and the opportunity to respond in a thoughtful way from inside out,” he says.
Soon, the brand became popular with tastemakers in fashion, lifestyle, and entertainment and was featured in the Vogue October 2006 issue, where it named designer Karl Lagerfeld as an early fan. In its first five years of business, Toms provided millions of new shoes to children, with the help of humanitarian organisations.
Toms shoes became a powerful tool in helping to create opportunities for a better future. A basic need, shoes help protect children’s feet from cuts, infections and diseases and a pair can also enable a child to attend school.
“My vision for Toms and what our impact can be around the world is to allow customers to give back through all kinds of products,” he says.
SUSTAINABLE PARTNERSHIP
All the shoes are given through “giving partners” in over 60 countries. These partners integrate the shoe giving into their everyday work in the field, such as health checkups, distribution of medicine and vaccines and microfinance programmes. The brand establishes long-term relationships with these organisations so they can continue to provide new shoes to children as they grow.
In 2011, Mycoskie launched Toms Eyewear to help restore sight to a person in need. With more than 15 sight giving partners, Toms Eyewear currently helps restore sight by providing prescription glasses, medical treatment and/or sight-saving surgery in 13 countries worldwide.
To date, the brand has given over 10 million pairs of new shoes to children in need and helped to restore sight to over 200,000 people. “We identify global needs and create products to help address them. This simple idea is what makes us more than a company — we’re a movement that’s continually evolving,” he says.
“I’ve learnt that there is an incredible opportunity and responsibility between business and philanthropy. And marketing is only as strong as the infrastructure behind the messaging,”
A STEP FURTHER
The brand steps up to create and support jobs in regions where Toms give, so it is committed to producing one-third of all Giving Shoes in regions where the company gives them by 2015.
The shoes are currently produced in Argentina, China, Ethiopia, Haiti, India and Kenya. By diversifying the manufacturing in countries where Toms give, the entire giving process can be streamlined for efficiency while having a positive effect on local economies. The brand’s One for One business model has inspired entrepreneurs all over the world to start their own socially minded companies.
These new brands offer consumers different ways to give back with their purchases. To provide a platform for these companies to succeed and a destination for consumers to shop and give their purchases purpose, the brand launched The Marketplace in 2013, bringing over 30 socially conscious brands together on toms.com.
“I tell people: Just find a way to serve your local community and you’ll experience the joy. Once you get that bug, if it moves you, you’ll know it and you’ll start creating more opportunities in your life to do it,” he says.
This year, Mycoskie launched Toms Roasting Co, a direct-trade, premium coffee line that helps provide clean water to communities in need. With the roasting company, every bag of coffee purchased will provide 140 litres of clean water to someone in need. “I like to take chances and do things in an unconventional way. I get bored easily, so I’m always trying to push boundaries and think differently,” he says.
SMALL THINGS MATTER
Mycoskie says he is inspired by small, precious and often intangible matters. “I was extremely inspired talking to a group of families in Ethiopia during one giving trip. They were living with no plumbing, no electricity, in these mud huts and the people were the happiest people I’ve ever seen.
“It was a great reminder that family and friends are the most important thing in life ... material things don’t matter,” he says.
He is proud of where the company is now and is excited to venture into new ways to help the underprivileged. “We have been able to maintain a pretty good balance as a fashion brand as well as a cornerstone for doing good with business.
“It isn’t easy, but it feels good to know that Toms has been able to inspire similar missions within other business plans,” he says.
His passion to help others makes him big on simple pleasures. The most important thing for him, he says, is taking time away from work to focus on friends and family.
“I love reading, spending time with my wife and dogs. I also regularly take over our Los Angeles headquarters on the weekends and skateboard through the office to have fun and let off some steam.”
Do your bit
Help a child receive a pair of shoes by getting yourself a pair from Toms’ first Malaysian store located in Pavilion Kuala Lumpur.