Talking bout the revolution

The Revolution Begins: TOMS shoes

The key to a brilliant idea is to be different. Its the whole “think outside the box” thing. In corporate America it helps if your not only outside the box, but you create a bigger, better, more expensive box that you can then sell to the traditional people still inside the box, resulting in a massive accumulation of wealth. You end up with yachts, mansions, bling, the whole nine yards. But WAIT A MINUTE!? What about an idea that could better the lives of people around the world? The kind of thing that gets you some points with the Big Guy up in the sky, or gives you a little extra incentive in the nine to five grind. THIS IS THE REVOLUTION. Its an evolution, if you will, of the way we think about the world. Its not my world, but ours, as a society, working together with one another to make it a little easier for everyone.

TOMS shoes built their revolution on a simple idea: one for one, “with every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need.”

TOMS came to fruition in 2006, when American traveler Blake Mycoskie befriended some local Argentinian children who did not have shoes to cover their feet. Shoes are important for health reasons and wearing shoes puts you are at a much lower risk of acquiring a nasty parasite, disease, or infection. Also, in some poor countries owning shoes is a sign of wealth and prestige because so many people are just trying to scrape by and shoes are not a necessity that they can afford.

Not only did our boy Blake here come up with this innovative business plan to start a for-profit company that gives away shoes (borderline insane), but he also had the balls (for lack of a better word) to do it. It wasn’t just an idea, or a passing thought that he could have easy dismissed or forgotten.  He dedicated himself, put in the long hours, bought the farm, sold the ranch, risked it all, and it worked.

Like a true traveler, founder of TOMS shoes Blake Mycoskie (center) looks like he could use a shower, shave, and a few more buttons on his David Hasselhoff shirt

Today, four years after the initial idea was hatched, TOMS has supplied more than one million barefoot children across the world with a new pair of shoes, giving  most of them luxury that they never had before. Hopefully, TOMS will be one of the first dominoes to fall, colliding with traditional ways of thinking, challenging us to think about what we buy, toppling greed and selfishness, inspiring new ways of thinking, one for one, shoes for kids, causing a ripple effect, changing the way we think about our place in the world, and ultimately when the dust clears, we will stand together, and the world will be a better place. A REVOLUTION. We can only hope.

*A shout out goes to Jill Vonnahme who first introduced me to TOMS shoes

*you can check out more about TOMS on the web at www.toms.com