Final Paper

TOMS Movement

Abstract

Picture that you have been walking for miles on rough terrain to get water from a well.  You are barefoot. Intense pain trembles through your body as your feet begin to give out. Blisters and blood begin to cover your feet due to your walk. These blisters you have could develop severe infection due to the ground that is unclean and filled with bacteria.  The illnesses caused by the bacteria on the ground could have you sick for weeks or even cause your death.  This is what Blake Mycoskie noticed when he was traveling abroad in Argentina.  This is why he developed a company called TOMS to prevent children from becoming ill from infection.

Particular entrepreneurs, such as Blake Mycoskie, have taken the idea of purchasing goods to help benefit those living in poverty.  These entrepreneurs have changed the idea of buying merchandise. These entrepreneurs go about the process of helping those in need in different formats. In this paper, I will investigate and report on the different ways that the company TOMS has given and continues to give to those in need. The TOMS movement donates shoes, books, food, eye surgery and glasses by a process called “One for One”. If a customer buys a pair of shoes or another product, the company donates a pair of shoes or another product to a person in need. I will also present the idea of those who are against the idea of TOMS.  Those who are opposed to TOMS state that if TOMS truly wanted to help people they would donate solely food and water not shoes. This paper will focus on how the TOMS company truly benefits those in need by providing them with health benefits and educational benefits.

Literature Review

“Start Something That Matters” by Blake Mycoskie

            The book “Start Something That Matters” was written by the founder of TOMS.  Blake Mycoskie may be known for his television appearance on the CBS reality program The Amazing Race but he is better known now as the founder of TOMS.  In 2006, Blake took some time off of his job as an online driver education program manager to travel to Argentina for vacation.  While he was at a local café there he met a woman who worked in a shoe drive company.  The woman told him that many kids lacked shoes even in well developed countries.  Due to lack of shoes, these children could be exposed to diseases.  After traveling around the area, Blake could not help but notice children with blisters, sores and infections.  He wanted to help these children.  He knew taking money donations would only get him so far.  He wanted to raise money to get the children the shoes and have those shoes be the right size for the children.

Blake decided to make a for profit business to help provide shoes for these children.  He believed that this solution would guarantee a constant flow of shoes rather than depending on people’s donations.  Blake developed the idea of, “sell a pair of shoes today; give a pair of shoes tomorrow.” Blake thought of the idea of “Shoes for Tomorrow” which became “Tomorrow’s Shoes” then later was shortened to just TOMS. This of course is the companies name. Blake had no connection to the shoe business but while he was in Argentina he discussed his ideas with his polo teacher.  His polo teacher helped him find local artists to locally manufacture the shoes.  Blake wanted the shoes to look like alpargata which are the common everyday canvas material shoes in Argentina.

After working with local artisans, Blake brought back 250 samples of the Argentina inspired shoes back with him to Los Angeles.  Blake invited some of his best female friends to dinner when he returned home.  With his female friends, he shared the store and the girls suggested what stores Blake should try and have sell TOMS.  The women ended up insisting on buying a pair of shoes, which gave Blake hope that others would like them too.  Blake went to American Rag to see if they would be willing to sell TOMS in their stores.  He met with the shoe buyer and she was interested in the product.  TOMS had its first retail customer.

With TOMS being able to be bought at stores, Booth Moore, a fashion writer for the Los Angeles Times heard about the story of TOMS and loved the shoes.  Booth insisted on having the first publicized interview with Blake.  She interviewed Blake and wrote an article about the shoes.  Not long after, TOMS was featured on the headlines of the Los Angeles Times with Booth Moore’s article. By the end of the day that the article was published in the paper, TOMS had received 2,200 orders.

Blake did not have any real employees when he first started off TOMS.  He required the help of family and friends when he decided to set the first goal to be 10,000 shoes sold.  When 10,000 shoes were sold, he was going to go to Argentina to distribute the shoes.  This is what he did, Blake and a group of family and friends went to Argentina.  While they were there, they sized the children’s feet and distributed 10,000 shoes to those in need. Blake sold his driver-education business to be able to have more funds for TOMS.  With these funds, he was able to hire more people who understood the shoe business.  With more experienced people on board, the company could scale up operations to produce more shoes.

TOMS Web Site- http://www.toms.com/our-movement

The website is the first place that goes in depth with the situation of many children in developing areas growing up barefoot.  The website states that these children in these areas are in areas where diseases can be transferred by the soil.  These diseases enter through their bare feet.  Some people in developing areas do not realize that wearing shoes can prevent these disease and the long term physical and cognitive harm these disease cause. Shoes also prevent feet from getting cuts and sores, even though these injuries can be pretty painless, they can lead to infection through the cuts.  Aside from health, the web site states that many children cannot attend school barefoot because shoes are a required part of their uniform.  Without shoes, these children cannot receive an education and not realize their full potential without education. 

“Start Something That Matters” and TOMS Web Site

            The resources of Blake Mycoskie’s book “Start Something That Matters” and the TOMS web site corresponds with one another by stating the function of TOMS.  In Blake’s book he goes more in detail of how he felt about the experience and the sets out the phases that put TOMS into play.  Blake goes about the steps it took to put his dream into action.  On the website, they focus on the affect that TOMS has on people to display to those interested in buying the product.

TOMS Giving Report

            On the TOMS web site, a customer or researcher can access a pamphlet called a “Giving Report.”  The pamphlet breaks down the idea of TOMS and explains what the company does.   The “Giving Report” was designed to answer questions that have been asked about the TOMS products.  In the “Giving Report” they start off by answering a very direct question of why donate shoes to people in need.  They respond by saying that the value of shoes is critical for physical health.  Along with the web site they state that shoes are mandatory for attendance at some schools and there are soil-based diseases in many areas. 

            The “Giving Report” expresses how children growing up barefoot walk long distances to clean water, subsistence farming, their families are living on less than a dollar a day and that they are on dangerous terrain.  These conditions make them vulnerable to injury and infection.  These infections include hookworm which causes anemia which stunts physical and mental development and on occasion can cause heart failure.  The second disease mentioned is podoconiosis which causes swelling of the feet and legs due to prolonged exposure to certain types of soils.  The third common disease mentioned are jiggers cause severe itching and hives from bites from small mite-like organisms around the feet and ankles.  The last common disease that the “Giving Report” list is tetanus which is a potentially fatal infection caused by bacteria entering the body through cuts or openings, which cause painful muscle spasms and locked jaw.  These diseases or injuries are too expensive for the people to afford to prevent from happening or treat when it does happen.  

            The report continues to say that shoes provide a better tomorrow for children.  When children are healthy they can become better educated.  The children have a chance of higher educated have a better chance of improving the future of their entire community. 

            The report goes on to say how TOMS works by having an approach of give sustainable, give responsibly.  TOMS has worked to be “shoe-giving partners” with humanitarian organizations worldwide to have a deep experience and a long term presence in the areas where they serve.  TOMS partners help recognize communities that are in need of shoes due to economic, health and educational needs.  The partners also do not want local businesses to be negatively affected by donated products taking away from business.

            TOMS realizes that children grow out of their shoes quickly.  TOMS decided to aim to give repeatedly whenever possible to areas.  To give new shoes to an area allowed TOMS to learn more about the needs of the community sot that they could continue to improve the way they give.

            The pamphlet closes by stating that the shoes TOMS give to children are made to order.  These shoes are commonly black unisex canvas slip-ons with a sturdy sole and come in the size needed for the children. As of 2010, these shoes were given in 23 countries including the United States.  As of September 2010, in these 23 countries, TOMS has given away a million shoes to children in need. 

“Giving Report” compared to other sources

            The “Giving Report” was in the format to educate people about the company of TOMS.  These three resources are closely related due to being created by the producers of TOMS.  Each of the sources focus on a particular audience for example the “Givers Report” is designed for people who are new to the product or others who want to expand their knowledge about the product.  The web site’s audience would be for customers to get the quick facts about the product.  The book is for those who are inspired or want to learn more about the process of creating TOMS.

“The Lowly Alpargata Steps Forward”

“The Lowly Alpargata Steps Forward” is an early article from the New York Times written by Jennifer Irwan that describes the shoes of TOMS in a particular way that none of the other resources stated as:

The men recreated the alpargata — the canvas shoe that is as Argentine as the tango,

prime beef and dulce de leche — as the centerpiece of their company, TOMS Shoes.

"From a design standpoint, you take the best of the Havaiana and the espadrille, put them

together and that is what TOMS is," Mycoskie said.

It is interesting for a consumer to read that the product is tremendously native to the land of Argentina.

“The Way I Work: Blake Mycoskie of TOMS Shoes”

            “The Way I Work: Blake Mycoskie of TOMS Shoes” is an article written by Tamara Schweitzer from a magazine called Inc. which specializes in reporting news about businesses.  This fascinating article stated such facts that Blake Mycoskie, the founder of TOMS dropped out of college his sophomore year and his everyday routine to donate shoes to people in need.

“Consumers Are Drawn to Products with a Charitable Connection”

            “Consumers Are Drawn to Products with a Charitable Connection” is an article written by Christie Garton for the USA Today.  This article spoke about how customers enjoy buying the product and where they could buy them.  The article also included a description of how TOMS began.

Three articles compared to other sources

            The articles were much more summarized than the other sources that have been researched for this paper.  The information in “The Way I Work: Blake Mycoskie of TOMS Shoes” was more of a personal article about how Blake works and his schedule while “The Lowly Alpargata Steps Forward”  was based more on the shoe products.  “Consumers Are Drawn to Products with a Charitable Connection” article stated how supportive consumers views and ideas on the product. These articles compared to the other resources are complementing each other very well by basing the topic of the articles from the view that TOMS helps those in need.

Body of Paper- TOMS Movement

              When Blake Mycoskie started the company TOMS in 2006 (Mycoskie), he did not realize how popular his product would be to consumers.  Blake started a for profit company that he created to donate shoes to those who were in need.  While in Argentina he realized how many children go without shoes and risk contracting diseases due to sores and blisters. TOMS uses the idea of “sell a pair of shoes today; give a pair of shoes tomorrow” (Mycoskie).  Based on the fact that they donate shoes to children who are poor but not items such as food and water, several people and groups have become anti-TOMS.  Through my research on how TOMS was created, how the idea works, and how TOMS affects people, I will show how TOMS uses a productive business strategy to help those in need.

TOMS was created when Blake was traveling in Argentina for vacation.  While he was in Argentina, he met a woman in a café who ran a local shoe drive there.  Blake and the woman had a deep conversation about how the children in many areas, even well-developed areas in Argentina, do not have shoes.  What many people do not realize is the amount of diseases that can be caused by not having shoes on.  Many Americans do not have to experience being barefoot and walking for miles to get water from a well unlike children in such areas as Africa.  These children know pain.  These children do not have the resources to prevent or treat blisters and infection (“Giving”).

            To help these children prevent blisters and infection, Blake developed the business strategy of TOMS, which can easily be described as a constantly developing process.  When TOMS began, Blake did not know anything about shoes and was not known as a successful businessman due to dropping out of college his sophomore year (Schweitzer). Many critics jump on the fact that they believe that Blake is greatly uneducated to be trying to create such products to help others.  Blake replies to these statements by saying that most of his book smarts come from reading books written by other entrepreneurs and learning from personal experience (Schweitzer).  Blake has been and continues to experiment with new ideas for products and companies to have partnerships with.

            Blake wanted to provide these children with correctly sized shoes in a form of a for profit business so he would have a constant flow of shoes to donate (Mycoskie).  Blake decided to come up with a process that if one person bought a pair of shoes, a person in need would also receive a pair of shoes or “One for One.” Blake worked with local artisans and brought back 250 samples of shoes back to him to the United States (Irwan).  With these sample shoes, Blake began his business with friends and family members. He went around to such stores as American Rags and Urban Outfitters where he tried to have the shoes be sold in stores.  (Garton) These stores loved the shoes and the story of TOMS, these stores now became retail spots to buy TOMS.

With TOMS being able to be bought at stores, Booth Moore, a fashion writer for the Los Angeles Times heard about the story of TOMS and loved the shoes.  Booth insisted on having the first publicized interview with Blake.  She interviewed Blake and wrote an article about the shoes.  Not long after, TOMS was featured on the headlines of the Los Angeles Times with Booth Moore’s article. By the end of the day that the article was published in the paper, TOMS had received 2,200 orders (Mycoskie).

When Blake and his team sold 10,000 shoes, he returned to Argentina to distribute the shoes. While they were there, they sized the children’s feet and distributed the 10,000 shoes to those in need. Blake sold his previous online business to be able to have more funds for TOMS.  With these funds, he was able to hire more people who understood the shoe business.  With more experienced people on board, the company could scale up operations to produce more shoes and other products (Mycoskie).

 In 2010, Blake introduced the idea of “One for One” to include eye vision.  The TOMS website has sunglasses for sale for customers.  When a customer buys a pair of sunglasses an adults or children receives glasses or eye surgery.

Those who are against the TOMS movement ask that if Blake’s true interest is to help those in need, why does he not just have donations of food and water be given to the children in need. Blake personally had a statement addressing those who were against this movement.  In his book, “Start Something That Matters”, by saying that expert footwear industries were against TOMS saying that the combination of a for-profit company with a social mission would complicate and undermine both.  Blake replied to this idea by saying that TOMS are more than a product, they are part of a story, a mission and a movement anyone can join (Mycoskie). 

Blake describes the story of TOMS as a chance for these children to be healthy and better their education and futures.  It is common that a child is unable to go to school because of lack of shoes. The child is unable to go to school and get an education because the uniform calls for shoes to be worn.  If the child does not have shoes, they are unable to go to school which decreases the chance of them having a better future (“TOMS”).  Even Blake’s book “Start Something that Matters” contributed to those in need by having each book that was sold follow the process of “One for One” and having a school book donated to a child in need(“TOMS”).

TOMS defeats critics by the recent addition of providing school lunches to children who are in need to help fight world hunger.  With each pair of a particular style of TOMS, twelve school lunches and a pair of shoes are donated to a school in need.  Other critics of charity programs question why the companies do not help those in America.  This is not true for TOMS, TOMS donates shoes, eyewear, and food to those in America (“Giving”).

I have personally learned how much a process like TOMS can help a people through my brother Dan who was in the Peace Corps.  When Dan was in Ghana, Africa he would constantly send pictures to my family of the children.  Many of these children did not have shoes.  When I read the TOMS articles about the children developing blisters, at first I related them to when I have a blister from having a pair of heels on.  These are not the kind of blisters these children develop.  My brother would send pictures with children with their feet covered in dirt but you could still see large and abundant amounts of blisters covering their feet.  Children in these areas need shoes.  Many people would say that it hurts when you step on something sharp.  Of course it does hurt when you step on something sharp because the item is penetrating your skin, but imagine if you had to deal with this every day.

TOMS does not forget about those who they have helped in the past.  They realize that children grow out of their shoes quickly.  TOMS decided to aim to give repeatedly whenever possible to areas.  To give new shoes to an area allowed TOMS to learn more about the needs of the community sot that they could continue to improve the way they give (“Giving”).

I believe that it is hard to be against a company that provides such products to those in need.  In my research, I came across the story of a little boy named Alex from Zambia.  This is Alex’s story that his mother shared with a TOMS reporter. “Farming has never yielded enough for us to eat and sell,” Alex’s mother Mary reports. The family can not afford shoes and the pain from jiggers.  These jiggers cause severe itching and hives from bites from small mite-like organisms around the feet and ankles which kept Alex up at night. In Alex’s community 70% of children in are infested by intestinal worms and jiggers. After Alex received shoes that TOMS donated in Alex’s community, the sores and infection from jiggers on Alex’s feet healed and further infection will be prevented. The stigma associated with jiggers subsided and Alex was able to return to school (“Giving”, Mycoskie).

TOMS is a constantly developing company that helps those who are in need.  When there is a chance to help people in new ways such as providing school lunches, TOMS jumps on the opportunity to help those in need by its process of “One for One.”  TOMS was developed with the people in need in mind and the idea of using retail customers to help the process.  TOMS may not be fully contributing food and water to those in need, but the resources that they give to these people are unforgettable.  With shoes, these children can go to school and prevent blisters and infection on their feet. Schools are benefiting from TOMS by having school books and school lunches donated to them through TOMS donating strategy. With glasses and eye surgery, adults and children in need can see and learn from their surroundings from their newly improved sight.  The gift of sight is one of the greatest gifts TOMS could possibly give a child.  With these benefits for those who are in need, I believe that TOMS has developed a productive business strategy.

Annotated Bibliography

Garton, Christie. "Consumers Are Drawn to Products with a Charitable

Connection."USATODAY.COM. USA Today, 8 July 2011. Web. 7 Apr. 2012.

<http://yourlife.usatoday.com/mind-soul/doing-good/story/2011/07/Consumers-are-

drawn-to-products-with-a-charitable-connection/49467406/1>.

I used this website to get a better understanding of the company TOMS.  This article showed the view of a buying customer who would be interested in buying the shoe.  This helped shaped my article by giving information about TOMS costumers.

Irwin, Jennifer. "The Lowly Alpargata Steps Forward." The New York Times. 17 Jan. 2007. Web.

7 Apr. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/17/style/17iht-rtom.html?_r=1>.

This article was printed when TOMS was in their early stages of development.  I used this article to see how TOMS has expanded and changed in the years that they have been helping those in need.

Mycoskie, Blake. Start Something That Matters. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2011. Print.

This book was my primary source for this project.  It was filled with information about the products and other aspects.  This book was a great read and had many personal stories from Blake’s view since he was the author.

Schweitzer, Tamara. "The Way I Work: Blake Mycoskie of Toms Shoes." Inc.com. Inc, 1 June

2010. Web. 7 Apr. 2012. <http://www.inc.com/magazine/20100601/the-way-i-work-

blake-mycoskie-of-toms-shoes.html>.

This was a fascinating article that went through Blake Mycoskie’s everyday procedures.  This helped benefit my paper by filling in personal information about the creator of TOMS.

"TOMS SHOES." The Giving Report. TOMS. Web. 7 Apr. 2012. <http://www.toms.com/giving-report>.

The Giving Report was a captivating and well produced document to inform customers of their products with pictures and quick facts about the product.  I used the quick facts to make my paper more interesting.

"TOMS SHOES." TOMS Shoes & Eyewear Official Store. TOMS. Web. 7 Apr. 2012. <http://www.toms.com/>.

The TOMS web site helped me double check and provide information about the topic of TOMS.