the “sole” man

I personally do not own a pair of shoes from ‘Toms Shoes’. But I am seriously considering picking up a pair or two. The company was founded by Blake Mycoskie in 2006 as a way to provide footwear to poor children in Argentina, following a trip there where he discovered that many were lacking adequate foot coverage, thus suffering injury and disease. Inspired by the traditional Argentine shoe – called the alpargata – ‘Toms Shoes’ look pretty much like canvas slippers, only made out of quality materials so that they are comfortable and long lasting. Well how does this help the little Argentine children you ask since they can not afford a pair of shoes to begin with? Blake is able to make enough margin on each pair sold in the US, that he can donate another pair to a lucky child abroad. Within six months of opening his business in 2006, he had donated 10,000 pairs of shoes. These days ‘Toms Shoes’ are sold in stores the likes of Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s, as well as online. To date, Blake’s company has donated over 63,000 pairs of shoes to children in need in both Argentina and South Africa.