By Hanna Josefsson
Blake Mycoskie wanted to help poor, shoeless children to avoid infections and diseases. In 2006,
he started to sell fabric-shoes made in Argentina. For every pair of
shoes he sold, he gave a new pair to a child in need. Until today, Tomorrow´s shoes, have given 35 million pair of shoes in around seventy countries and the
shoes are famous all around the world. They collaborate with a lot of
humanitarian organizations, and the assortment of shoes has expanded fast and
today they sell more than just shoes.
In 2006, the idea was born to create, Tomorrow´s shoes, Toms. The American Blake Mycoskie was on a volunteer trip in
Argentina and one day he visited a village. It was then he found out that the
children had no shoes to protect their feet. He was told that the shoeless
children were prevented from going to school and quite a lot go them were hit by dangerous infections. Wanting to help, Blake started to sell the Argentine fabric-shoes, Alpargatas in North America. His
idea was to match every pair of shoes sold with a new pair 
to a child in need.
to a child in need.
His Argentine friend, Alejo wanted to
help him and together they contacted José, an Argentine
who was able to help them to produce the shoes. The concept was to modernize
and manufacture the Alpargatas in a good quality. Blake
Mycoskie would attract all people regardless age, culture or
gender. The shoes started to sell in a shoe-shop in California that believed in the Toms concept. A fashion-writer at L.A Times contacted
Blake Mycoskie the same year and wrote an article about him and Toms, which became a success. That day more than 2000 ordered a pair of Toms and
the company started to grow. The vision became to create a defensible
profit-driven company that was not dependent of donations.
When 10.000 of shoes were bought, Toms distributed for
the first time the same number of pairs. So Blake Mycoskie went down to the village in Argentina where he saw the shoeless
children for the first time. He distributed shoes to the children with the help of his family and collaborator.
One day without shoes
In 2007, TOMS created ”one day without shoes” and people
all over the world joined the day and got involved. The purpose of this day was
to raise global awareness of the fact that a pair of shoes can be of great
importance. Wearing shoes increases one´s dignity and
self-confidence, and it prevents deceases, as
Podoconiosis, but above all it increases the chances
to get an education. A high quality education might be crucial for the future,
children stay away from child labour and acquire knowledge for the future. By
giving away school uniforms, including shoes, the attendance increased by 62%.
The selection expanded
During the first five years when Blake Mycoskie was traveling distributing shoes, Mycoskie saw other vital
necessities in the poor community. It was then the idea to sell sunglasses
started growing. The summer 2011, TOMS introduced spectacles in their
assortment. Toms wishes were to be able to help partially sighted to repair
their eye sight. In the current situation, 250.000 pair of
sunglasses have been sold, which means that the same number of people have had
their sight repaired.
Criticism created jobs
TOMS have received a lot of criticism, and some people say that Toms have to work harder to be able to prevent
poverty. Blake Mycoskie accepted the criticism and realized that the next step
is to create more jobs. In 2013, their goal became something more than just
helping people to repair their sight and giving away shoes to poor children. They started to contribute and support the job-opportunities
in the regions where their business already was established via local production of the shoes. Every third of the distributed shoes
will be produced by local workers. Today there are factories in six countries: Italy, Argentina, China, Ethiopia, India and Kenya. Kenya have already produced two million shoes to help the needing local population.
”One for one”
The leading business idea by Toms is the ”one for one”-concept and they wish to be able to start a new ”one for one”-concept every year. They started with
the concept last year by launching Toms Rosting CO. Toms went world wide to
pick out the best Fair Trade coffee farmers who wanted to produce coffee beans for them. At the same time as the coffee farmers are guaranteed great prices for their craft, they help their
local neighborhoods.
Toms provide one week of safe water to a human in need
with every bag of Toms coffee purchased. According to World Health Organization
a human requires 20 liters of water per day. This means that a purchased bag of
coffee contribute with giving 140 liters of water to a human in need during a whole week. In addition, the humans live in same
region as the coffee beans were plantation.
Not without cooperation partners
From the start, Toms did not have any knowledge composite of shoes, medical treatment for partially sighted
or how to create a well to get safe water. Their cooperation partners have
therefore been the basis for Toms to create all this. Some of their hundreds of
partners are ”FEED” ”Seva foundation” and”Water for people”.
Sources
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220350 30-01-2015
It´s interesting.
ReplyDeleteThis article is very interesting and nice. I think Blake Mycoskie is good and helpful person :)
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