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One day I wore my TOMS shoes to work, and Faran noticed.

She said to me, “Look at you in TOMS!  They have a press event coming up that I don’t think I’m going to be able to go to…” As my eyes lit up like Christmas trees, it was understood that I would gladly go in her place.

For those of you with your head stuck in the ground, TOMS shoes is a shoe company that donates a pair of sweet kicks to a kid in need every time you purchase a pair for yourself. I’m the proud owner of a couple pairs, and insist that they are the most comfortable shoes (especially for interning: you ARE on your feet all day long) and you won’t believe how many compliments you will receive on them.

This morning, I got up an hour earlier than usual and headed out for my *appointment*. In a conference room near Union Square, high enough to catch a great skyline view of the city, a large table was outlined by TOMS’ Fall 2008 line. I did my best to disguise my intern status and took a bunch of pictures for you guys to see! But the best part was getting a chance to talk with Blake Mycoskie- founder/designer/chief-shoe-dropper of TOMS.

ME: Was there a specific experience or kid that made you realize you wanted to start this line?
Blake Mycoskie: I went to Argentina on a vacation to play polo- I had a tech company at the time and wanted to take a break, and on the way to one of the games we passed a really impoverished neighborhood. Seeing that inspired me to create TOMS and I ended up staying in Argentina for 3 months learning how to make shoes. We made the first TOMS shoe in May of 2006.
ME: What’s the greatest reaction you’ve had from a child when you gave them shoes?
BM: On my first shoe drop in Argentina, the kids ran up to me and grabbed me and the shoes and headed to the soccer field. We played for an hour! The fields were so dirty and littered with glass that they hadn’t been able to play on them without shoes. Here I thought I would be giving them shoes so they could walk to school and they were just happy to be able to play soccer. It was the most exciting moment of my life.
ME: You’ve expanded your shoe drops into Africa now, right?
BM: Yeah, we just did our first shoe drop in South Africa. We dropped 50,000 shoes.
ME: Do you always do them in 10,000 or 50,000 increments?
BM: It started like that, but now we donate shoes all the time. Up to date we’ve donated 60,000 shoes and we hope to do 200,000 in 2008.
ME: You have the new TOMS boot here, do you plan to expand into even more styles?
BM: Yeah! The boot is a totally new construction and we also have the “Stitchout,” which was launched last month. Its modeled after the more industrial shoe worn by heavy workers in Argentina whereas the traditional shoe (the alapargata) is worn day to day, around the house, in town…
ME: Tell me more about the TOMS college tour.
BM: We have two tours out all the time where we do screenings of our documentary films and we also do Style Your Sole where you take a white pair of TOMS and decorate them however you want!
click here for a list of tour dates:
MySpace: TOMS College Tour

Suede, Corduroy, Canvas, how do you choose?

Plaids + Summertime = PERFECT

Houndstooth, too.

Ok, seriously? Tiny TOMS? Adorable.

TOMS for every occasion, even the 2008 election. Available this summer!

Blake is an author, too. Check out No Polo Widow for the story (and inspiration for the new TOMS boot!).

The new wrap boot from TOMS. Blake especially likes them with tights
Thanks for creating my favorite shoes, Blake!

Now that I’ve convinced you of their wonderfulness, go buy your own!
TOMS Shoes

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 at 1:23 pm and is filed under I'm The Intern. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.