AMERICAN GIVING | Strengthening communities through generosity
28 February 2008
American Company Donates Shoes to Barefoot Children
TOMS Shoes makes traditional Argentine design fashionable
Washington –- An American entrepreneur and shoemaker whose designs are popular among fashion-conscious Americans and Europeans is giving his products to poor, barefoot children in Argentina and South Africa.
Blake Mycoskie, who visited Argentina several years ago as a contestant on the American television program The Amazing Race, was struck by the poverty he saw there, especially the number of shoeless children.
As a result, in 2006 he joined with Argentine polo player Alejo Nitti to found TOMS Shoes. The company's designs for men and women are inspired by traditional Argentine canvas-and-rope-sole slip-on shoes known as alpargatas or espadrilles.
TOMS' mission is to match every pair of shoes purchased by customers in shops in Los Angeles, New York, London or on the company's Web site with a pair donated to a child in need.
"TOMS Shoes is based on a corporate culture of strong social responsibility. It is great to see how voluntary work brings U.S. and Argentine citizens together, generating not only benefits for those most in need, but also greater mutual understanding," U.S. Ambassador to Argentina Anthony Wayne said in a press release.
In October 2006, TOMS donated 10,000 pairs of shoes to children in the Buenos Aires area and in Misiones province in Argentina. Wayne, Mycoskie, Nitti, actress Margaret Grace Denig and several volunteers, including staff of the international auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, delivered the alpargatas to disadvantaged children.
"It is important to strengthen and increase this kind of joint effort. TOMS Shoes has informed me that they are planning to donate shoes on a monthly basis in the future. To achieve this goal, they will recruit Argentine volunteers and U.S. citizens living in Argentina or coming for tourism," Wayne said.
TOMS has partnered with the American pop music group Hanson to promote the concept of donating shoes to children in need. And in 2007, TOMS donated 50,000 shoes to children in Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth and Durban, South Africa.
The company received the 2007 People's Design Award from the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York for fostering a business model based on "socially responsible and innovative entrepreneurship."
