TOM'S Shoes - Styles of Today

Tonight, I attended the last Art & Lecture series at Eastern for the semester, and I have to admit it was my first visit to one of the guest lecturers in my entire college career. Because it was a required visit for my class, I figured I would be peeling my eyes open to stay awake. Instead, I was compelled by the speaker, and his words, and motivation, to the point where I wanted to somehow get involved.

The Art & Lecture series brought in Blake Mycoskie, a young founder of the TOM'S Shoes organization. After a trip to Argentina, Blake found an ultimate joy that overcame his life as he simply placed several pairs of shoes on several kids in need. He came up with a brilliant idea to found an organization that not only brought in revenue for himself, but gave back to the people who needed it most. His idea was to sell sturdy, comfortable shoes in the US, and for every pair sold, he would give a child in need their own pair to match. Although reluctant of the success he would find, Blake started off creating a mere 240 pairs of shoes, handcrafted from his friends in Argentina. After hearing the cause, and the "one for one" contribution, sales boomed, and Blake could barely produce enough shoes to support sales. Before he knew it, Mycoskie was being contacted by some of the biggest names in shoes sales that were interested in selling his product, and at this point has sold 1 million pairs of shoes to date, helping children in 26 different countries across the globe.

Although, they started out with three one color designs, TOM'S Shoes, has such then featured limited editions through celebrities and other organizations, and even now come out with different lines for each season. Below is a picture of this year's Spring line. TOM'S Shoes is a great organization. Click here to see more information about the cause and order a pair for yourself!