coverstory
TOMS Shoes
helps children
in need, two
shoes at a time
COUR TESY OF TOMS SHOES
By Will Fifield
f you ever try to visit TOMS Shoes headquarters, in Santa Monica, you
might have trouble finding the 6,000-square-foot building, because, like
the shoes the company sells, it’s unusual. Tucked in between several other
businesses, TOMS is more like a staging area than a corporate office. It has
no air conditioning and features a bare concrete floor, plain plywood cube
walls and stacked cardboard boxes—yet the place emanates enthusiasm.
Blake Mycoskie, 34, founder of TOMS Shoes, calls himself the company’s
chief shoe giver because his company is a social enterprise—“Giving is TOMS’
religion,” Mycoskie explains. The company exists to supply children in need,
all over the world, through what TOMS calls its “One for One” movement: For
every pair of shoes TOMS sells, the company gives a pair away to a needy child.
Mycoskie, a Costco member in Marina del Rey, California, has started a
string of successful businesses from scratch, beginning with EZ Laundry, a
door-to-door laundry service, while he was a 19-year-old student at Southern
Methodist University in Dallas. He’s also established an advertising agency, a
reality television network and a very successful online driver’s education
school for teens.
Mycoskie, who grew up the son of a doctor in Arlington, Texas, founded
TOMS Shoes in 2006 after a visit to Argentina, where he saw scores of barefoot
children with sores on their feet. Launching TOMS, whose name evolved from
24 ;e Costco Connection SEPTEMBER 2010
