Blake Mycoskie, Founder of TOMS Shoes and Visionary

Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS Shoes, visited Santa Barbara today, and I had the fortune of hearing him tell his entrepreneurial story at the Arlington Theatre.  His story is as simple as his business concept. While Blake was on vacation in Argentina, he accompanied some new-found friends to a "shoe-drop" where he saw Argentinean children walking barefoot on streets strewn with garbage and broken glass, and learned that these kids without shoes were not allowed to attend public school because of the strict dress code.  No shoes, no education.

He inspired me as much as Yvon Chouinard did, founder of Patagonia, when he visited the Scheinfeld Center a few years back.  Blake's concept is decidedly different yet simple.  One for One.  That's it.  For every pair of shoes sold, one is given to someone in need.  How this concept would work as a profitable business model, he never discussed.  But I got the distinct impression that neither did he care.  He knew he had a brilliant concept, he was passionate about it, he had people super excited around him, and so he went for it...the money to be worked out later.  As it turns out, the money apparently did work out.  He's given away 2,000,000 pairs of shoes so far, and each pair retails for roughly $45. While he is mum on annual sales, you can do a little math of your own!

I've said before that I have yet to meet a student without a cause, or one without a philanthropic business idea.  It might behoove our students to look to Blake for inspiration, because he believes giving goes hand in hand with for-profit business.  And his One for One concept doesn't stop with shoes.  His next effort:  TOMS Eyewear.  With every pair of TOMS glasses purchased, TOMS will help give sight to a person in need.  Talk about a visionary.