My obsession with TOMS started last autumn when a friend recommended that ‘I must’ get a pair to walk round New York City and I haven’t looked back since my first pair of wine coloured canvas classics. Not only were they super comfy keeping my feet in one piece whilst pounding the streets of NYC and racking up my credit card, but they’re really stylish and the TOMS collections have a huge range of canvas shoes in a variety of colours and styles to suit everyone’s tastes.I recently bought a faded floral pair for summer which have already received a few admirers.
My obsession with the TOMS story doesn’t stop there with them just producing great comfy canvas shoes, it goes deeper than that – they’re doing something totally radical in the world of corporate responsibility. Their whole ethos is based around founder Blake Mycoskie goal ‘to show how together, we can create a better tomorrow by taking compassionate action today’. Following his trip to Argentina in 2006 whilst taking a break from playing polo to volunteer he noticed the kids walking around barefoot damaging the soles of their feet, so he decided to take back to the US the new shoe everyone was wearing in the cities – the Argentinian alpargata shoe.
Blake also made a commitment to match every pair of TOMS (which means ‘shoes for tomorrow’) purchased with a new pair given to a child in need – One for One. Since launching TOMS in 2006 they’ve given over 10 million shoes back to children, and now give shoes in 50+ countries as well as helping sight in 12+. It’s all pretty remarkable especially as they’ve only been going since 2006. Check out the TOMS website here – there is so much amazing good stuff they do… their videos are really inspirational and I’ve just spent the last hour watching them!
They also have some fun ideas and this current one is bonkers – but really works ‘The World’s first Human Powered Customizer’.Through Google Hang Out you can watch artist Tyler Ramsey living in a box and customising TOMS live. Check out the video below or follow them on Instagram here.
