Why is toms called toms

There, he noticed the children were often shoeless, which made them vulnerable to foot diseases. The initiative aimed to provide shoes to needy populations through the purchase of a pair. In the 12 years that have followed, the brand has provided over 60 million pairs to shoeless children. See Also. And with more passport stamps for Mycoskie, the Texas-native discovered even more ways to give back were being unveiled to him.

In the brand expanded to eyewear. The story goes that Mycoskie wanted to help all the kids he saw without shoes. While he was there, a shoe design caught his eye. The Alpargata. Comfortable and affordable, the Alpargata is an everyday shoe for many Argentinians. A local shoe maker helped make an updated version for TOMS and came up with a buy one, give one model.

Soon, the shoe was everywhere. Russ Winer: It got some publicity and just grew very rapidly. It had a huge amount of demand at the beginning. Hollywood stars started wearing the shoes and there's all this buzz around the shoe and they grew into what it is today. Narrator: TOMS slip on canvas shoes, became synonymous with the brand turning into what marketing pros call a hero product.

Russ Winer: A hero product is a product that is the archetypal brand, all right, for a company, the one that's the most successful that people think of when you think of the company. So, for example, like Nike, it could be Air Jordans, for Porsche, it might be the Narrator: It's like how when you see Hermes, you think of the Birkin bag or associate Heinz with Ketchup.

Paired with its charitable giving model, TOMS seemed unstoppable. Russ Winer: TOMS branding and marketing was very effective because it was one of the first companies that used this buy one, give one kind of philosophy to try to appeal to not only consumers that liked good looking shoes, but also were interested in companies that had some kind of corporate social responsibility angle.

Narrator: People saw it's logo and immediately thought of it's shoes and its charity work for kids. But it turns out, having a hero product can backfire. The hero product can become stale at some point if it's not rejuvenated.

So, competitors did and they sold them for much cheaper. Skechers even named it's version BOBS and donated two pairs of shoes for every pair sold. All this made consumers question whether TOMS was even worth the price. So, just as quickly as it had become a staple, TOMS became a fad.

As fate would have it, after thirty-one days of racing around the world, we lost the million-dollar prize by just four minutes; it's taken me a while to be able to put those words together without weeping.

When I returned to Argentina, my main mission was to lose myself in its culture. I spent my days learning the national dance the tango , playing the national sport polo , and, of course, drinking the national wine Malbec. I also got used to wearing the national shoe: the alpargata , a soft, casual canvas shoe worn by almost everyone in the country. I saw this incredibly versatile shoe everywhere: in the cities, on the farms, and in the nightclubs. An idea began to form in the back of my mind: Maybe the alpargata would have some market appeal in the United States.

But as with many half-formed ideas that came to me, I tabled it for the moment. My time in Argentina was supposed to be about fun, not work. She explained that many kids lacked shoes, even in relatively well-developed countries like Argentina, an absence that didn't just complicate every aspect of their lives -- including essentials like attending school and getting water from the local well -- but also exposed them to a wide range of diseases.

Her organization collected shoes from donors and gave them to kids in need -- but ironically the donations that supplied the organization were also its Achilles' heel. Their complete dependence on donations meant that they had little control over their supply of shoes. And even when donations did come in sufficient quantities, they were often not in the correct sizes, which meant that many of the children were left barefoot even after the shoe drop-offs.

It was heartbreaking. I spent a few days traveling from village to village with the woman and her group, and a few more traveling on my own, witnessing the intense pockets of poverty just outside the bustling capital.

It dramatically heightened my awareness. Yes, I knew somewhere in the back of my mind that poor children around the world often went barefoot, but now, for the first time, I saw the real effects of being shoeless: the blisters, the sores, the infections. Call to Action My first thought was to start my own shoe-based charity, but instead of soliciting shoe donations, I would ask friends and family to donate money to buy the right type of shoes for these children on a regular basis.

I have a large family and lots of friends, but it wasn't hard to see that my personal contacts could dry up sooner or later. And then what? These kids needed more than occasional shoe donations from strangers. Then I began to look for solutions in the world I already knew: business and entrepreneurship. An idea hit me: Why not create a for-profit business to help provide shoes for these children?

Why not come up with a solution that guaranteed a constant flow of shoes, not just whenever kind people were able to make a donation? In other words, maybe the solution was in entrepreneurship, not charity. I felt excited and energized and shared those feelings with Alejo, my Argentinian polo teacher and friend: "I'm going to start a shoe company that makes a new kind of alpargata. And for every pair I sell, I'm going to give a pair of new shoes to a child in need.

Another breakthrough came during a Dallas Cowboys game. I was introduced to a man named Joe Ford, who told me that his son, Scott, was also using business to improve lives, but through the coffee trade in Rwanda. Joe explained the importance of water in the coffee supply chain. When beans are processed with clean as opposed to dirty water, they are transformed from a commodity to a specialty and can be sold at dramatically higher prices.

It was also buying direct from growers, helping to break up unfair industry price controls, and offering low-interest loans as an alternative to those from predatory lenders.

Best of all, Westrock was a profitable business that sold fantastic coffee. Like most entrepreneurs, I get a high from starting things and doing the unexpected. No one doubted our shoe business anymore, but few people would imagine that we could also sell coffee. And the expansion could pave the way for a new TOMS retail experience, something I had long wanted to try. The vision—and the challenge—pumped new life into me.

I told our senior executives about my idea. I was still living in Austin, but the more I discussed my plans with Heather an early TOMS employee who knew the business—and me—better than most people , the more she realized it was time for my sabbatical to end. Coming back was great, but I quickly made some of the classic mistakes that founders do upon rejoining their companies.

That made some of my coworkers anxious. To date we have provided more than , weeks of clean drinking water to people in need around the world. But most important, I believe, it gave our employees permission to think bigger, to challenge the status quo, and to reconnect with the mission of the business.

It also got me thinking bigger. I realized that my ultimate aim was to create the most influential, inspirational company in the world, which would be possible only with more help. We clearly defined my role and responsibilities and agreed to hire a world-class CEO. Over the past year Jim has brought great stability and strategic thinking to the business. We now also sell bags, to fund safe births for mothers and babies in need, and backpacks, to support anti-bullying programs.

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