Recently, TOMS expanded its one-for-one platform to include sunglasses. For each pair of shades purchased, TOMS will help restore the sight of a child through prescription glasses, medical care or surgery. Mr. Mycoskie is also taking his prescription for success to print with his new book, "Start Something That Matters" (Random House). We caught up with the 35-year-old by phone as he dashed between meetings in New York.

I credit my grandmother for my sense of style. She was known for wearing bright, outgrageous things because it made people ahppy and she tought it made her more approachable. When you wear a brightly colored shirt or pants, it shows you don't take yourself too seriously and it puts everyone around you at ease.

I always have my journal with me. It was handmade by a guy at the San Telmo market in Beunos Aires. If you go there he can make you one. It's leather and bronze and I'm able to replace the paper when it runs out. It has a lion on the cover that I say is there to protect my thoughts.

Continue reading about Blake Mycoskie on the Wall Street Journal.

Because we’re all so invested in the TOMS movement, living and breathing One for One in our jobs and lives each week, and because you all have ownership in this movement like we do, we sometimes forget that TOMS was first just one guy’s vision.

Blake Mycoskie, TOMS Founder and Chief Shoe Giver, is a busy…and gracious, and fun, and passionate, and awesome…dude, and this year has been nothing less than incredible for him. Blake would not likely lay it out this way, at risk of sounding boasty, but 2011 for him was a year of landmark moments.

Here are some of the coolest ones (or at least we think so!):

Blake’s Top 10 of 2011



Traveling to Nepal with best friend/TOMS Eyewear Creative Director, John Whitledge, to be among the first to see what the Giving Side of TOMS Eyewear will look like on the ground.




Making it onto Fortune Magazine’s list of 40 under 40!




Giving Linus bikes to the entire TOMS family (maybe we’re biased in picking this one as one of his Top 10…we love our bikes!)




Crossing two items off his bucket list in February, when he played golf in the AT&T National Pro-Am, just one day after playing a practice round at Pebble Beach




Releasing his first book, Start Something that Matters, which tells the story of how TOMS came to be, and of the lessons learned from other inspiring organizations and businesses.




When Start Something that Matters hit #1 on the New York Times Best-Sellers list!!!




Traveling via vintage rail cars across the American Southwest on the Railroad Revival Tour with Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, and Old Crow Medicine Show. He even got to play a tambourine on stage with Ed Sharpe!




Being the keynote speaker at SXSW, where he announced that there would be a “next chapter” of One for One (now known as TOMS Eyewear!)




Spending Thanksgiving in Ethiopia with the “TOMS Ethiopia family” and his own family, too. Read the note he wrote during his Thanksgiving travels: http://toms.sh/tlQ0Zj  




Visiting Honduras for a Shoe Giving trip with Ashley Olsen, Mary-Kate Olsen and their team from The Row, so that they could understand the Giving Side of One for One before the launch of our collaborative TOMS + The Row Collection They even kept a blog of their Giving trip – check it out! http://toms2011honduras.tumblr.com/

Hey, TOMS fans near Cerritos, CA – what are you up to this Saturday, October 22^nd?

Blake Mycoskie, TOMS Founder and Chief Shoe Giver, will be at the Los Cerritos Center Nordstrom and we would love to see you!

RSVP for this event on Facebook. 

Get there early for the Style Your Sole event, beginning at noon. Have your TOMS transformed into a one-of-a-kind pair by a local artist!

Fun doesn’t stop there, folks. We’ll have beverages, desserts and a DJ. And customers who purchase a pair of TOMS can take their Nordstrom receipt to the Coolhaus truck outside and pick up an intensely delicious ice cream sandwich, for free!

Get excited, come hungry, and join us for a great time. More information in the Facebook event here. 

This Friday, TOMS founder and Chief Shoe Giver Blake Mycoskie will be making an appearance the Neiman Marcus in Dallas, TX to launch his book, “Start Something that Matters.”

Blake will be there to meet fans, sign books and have a Q & A with fans. The event kicks off at 5 PM and will be happening until 7, with hors d'oeuvres, a Style Your Sole for the kids, and…wait for it…. a photobooth!

You’ll find Blake in the Shoe Salon on the second level of the North Park Neiman Marcus. So come by and see him, check out the book, and be inspired to Start Something That Matters.

Hope to see you there! Check out the event on the TOMS Facebook page for more details...

Watch the trailer for ‘Start Something That Matters’, a new book by TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie.

"Why not stick to shoes?" a successful businessman asked me after hearing my announcement at SXSW. "You have such a great business and you are helping so many kids, why risk it by doing something else?" he added. Coming from a respected mentor, I had to pause and check my conviction. Luckily it was still there, for it was not a whim or spontaneous decision, but something I had been working toward for years.

TOMS started as a simple project to help get a small group of kids in Argentina new pairs of shoes in 2006. It was really just an idea without any case study or business model to rely on, and truth be told, I never imagined it would become what it is today. I simply wanted to help, and did not have the resources or the will to start a charity, nor did I believe being dependent on donors was the best way to insure the kids would continue to get the shoes they needed for school and their health. So I started a company with a One for One™ promise, and without any investors backing me, or the business community cheering me on, it was a risk -- one that could have ended in a pretty public failure. Thanks to you, that was not our fate, and looking back now, that initial act of faith was the best and most meaningful decision of my life.

Over the past five years at TOMS, we've overcome so many obstacles and challenges that risk means something different today. I would argue that whatever chance we might be taking in a business sense, it is a small one compared to dealing with my conscious in the quiet morning hours knowing that we could have helped so many more people in many more ways with our model and movement, but instead played it safe. Four years ago, when I realized that our One for One™ model could serve more needs than shoes, it struck me that it was our responsibility to do so, and a real urgency set in. I started gathering a TOMS team together to find out more about sight and how to give more in a new way, responsibly. I went straight to Godaddy.com and registered the eyewear domain. It was like starting all over again. And we have been working on preparing for this day ever since.

A lot had to happen in order for us to embark on this new way of giving, but most importantly, we needed our customers to become a community, to transform TOMS from a company to a movement, and to inspire one another to do more. And this is exactly what you have done, through big actions and small. You've incorporated giving into your businesses and lives; you've served your local communities; you've raised the TOMS flag and shared the story of One for One™; some of you have gotten married in TOMS and some of you are starting to have kids who are now helping kids. Heck, you have even gone without shoes - on one special day each year -- to show your support.

And through all this, you have inspired everyone here at TOMS, countless businesses and non-profits, and millions of people spreading your stories around the world. Lastly, you have deeply inspired me, and as a result, given me and the TOMS team the courage to take this next step, to embark on a new journey.

"To whom much is given, much is responsible" is a quote I have tried to live by since first hearing it. In a way, those words kind of make "risk" feel trivial. Unfortunately, for so many, risk is not an option and every day life is a struggle. So today, as we celebrate the launch of TOMS Eyewear and our hopes of using it to serve thousands if not millions of people struggling with their sight around the world, I dedicate this special day to you. To every member of the TOMS community -- from Ben Katz who bought the first pair of camouflage TOMS 5 years ago, to the retailers, campus clubs, customers, businesses, churches, and members of the media who have all helped share our story and create their own, all with the simple goal of creating positive change in the world we live in -- I tip my hat, raise my glass, and quietly bow in respect and thankfulness for you.


carpe diem,

blake

A few years ago, there was a movie starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman (two of my all-time favorite actors) called The Bucket List that really resonated with me. The concept of the movie is that two men meet in a hospital room and decide that, before they die, they're going to put together a list of all the things they’ve always wanted to do in life (i.e. their bucket list) and check off as many items as possible.

I really like the idea of having a bucket list… but I don't think that you should wait until you're older, or at the end of your life, to start checking things off. Sure, some things may require you to have lots of money, or be a certain age, but many items on your list can and should be simple pleasures or inexpensive road trips (like seeing the Grand Canyon at sunrise), and my life philosophy has always been to get started now, because you never know when your last day might come.

Today, I crossed an item off my list, and yesterday I did so as well. 

Today was the first day of the AT&T National Pro-Am which I was graciously invited to play in by Randall Stephenson, the Chairman of AT&T. This is one of the biggest honors that an amateur golfer can receive, and it was really special to be invited by AT&T since our commercial with them premiered during the Masters just two years ago. A lot has happened since that commercial introduced millions of people to the One for One movement... and I, and every one who works every day to put more shoes on children's feet, will forever be grateful.

Yesterday, I got to play Pebble Beach (practice round) with my dad caddying, and many of my dear friends, co-workers, and family walking the course with us. It was a glorious day, one that I will never forget.  Some great photos were taken and here they are… hopefully you’ll be seeing more on CBS this weekend as me and my partner, Vaughn Taylor, attempt to earn a place in golf history.

Carpe Diem.

One of my favorite things about being in the office is getting to introduce new staff members. With everyone gathered around, I call each new employee and intern to the front of the room and have them tell the group who they are, where they're from, and how they first heard about TOMS.

Of all the introductions that I've made, KC Brown's might be the most memorable that we've ever had. It was also a first in TOMS history...

Most employees get introduced once.
Some employees get introduced twice - first as an intern, and then again when they're hired full-time.
This was KC's THIRD introduction.

The backstory here is worth telling...

After a long trip away from the office, I jumped on the TOMS Shuttle one morning and discovered KC behind the wheel. As we got to chatting, something strangely familiar caught my eye... and I couldn't help but ask: Are those my shorts you're wearing?

Oddly enough, the answer was "yes."

KC explained that he's an old friend of our Office Manager, Travis, and that Travis had given him the shorts as a wedding present in Australia. This seemed even more puzzling until KC explained that Travis got the shorts at one of my "office garage sales" (from time-to-time, I open up my closet and allow TOMS staffers to pick through my extra stuff. Because I live on a sailboat, my closet is conveniently located in the office).

A few months later, though, KC told us that his true passion is film and that he wanted to give up his full-time job at TOMS Shuttle Driver to become an intern in the Film Department. This request was a tad out of the ordinary, but we decided to take KC up on his offer... and KC was again introduced to the TOMS team - only this time as a member of the Fall Intern Program.

KC did such a great job as an intern that we decided to hire him on full-time in the Film Department. Here's the speech that he gave at our most recent all-staff meeting... I think that you'll really get a kick out of it.

From employee... to intern... back to full-time employee. KC, you're truly one of a kind :)

Of all the collections that TOMS has made, none have resonated deeper in my soul than the upcoming spring line inspired by Dan Eldon.

Dan was an artist, adventurer and activist who lived every day as though he was creating a work of art. In 1992, amid reports of widespread violence and famine, Dan drove from his home in Kenya to Somalia to witness the devastation with his own eyes. What he discovered was a country in chaos - villages turned into war zones and kids left in the street to beg for food. The photos that Dan took were picked up by news agencies around the world, and at age 22, Dan became one of the youngest photojournalists in the history of Reuters.

Dan's photos helped to trigger a global response to the unfolding tragedy in Somalia, and he stayed on to cover the story when the U.N. began sending food and peacekeepers to the ravaged country. But in 1993, disaster struck. After a botched military raid that left hundreds wounded and dead, angry Somalis attacked journalists who had arrived on the scene to cover the story. Tragically, Dan Eldon and three of his colleagues were beaten and stoned to death on July 12th, 1993.

In the aftermath of Dan's death, his mother, Kathy Eldon, published an incredible book, The Journey is the Destination, which compiled the photography, artwork and poetry of Dan's journals. I happened to see this book at a bookstore a few years before starting TOMS and read it cover-to-cover, completely mesmerized by Dan's life. Then, in 2008, I attended an Invisible Children rally and heard Kathy speak. It wasn't until after the event, however, that I put two-and-two together and connected Kathy with Dan and the stunning book that I'd discovered several years prior. I asked the IC guys to connect us... and Kathy and I spent a wonderful day together at her house in Malibu.

Finally, about a year ago, I was packing for a surf trip to Costa Rica and once again stumbled upon Dan's book. As I pored over the book on the plane, it struck me that the TOMS community should know Dan's story and that his life and journals would be a great inspiration for a future collection.

Today, I'm proud to announce that this vision has finally become a reality. Our new collection will officially be launching in February, and I really hope it inspires you to follow your creative dreams and use your talents to become a creative activist like Dan - transforming your bold ideas into positive action. May we all live with such boundless curiosity, optimism, and wild spirit...

PS - To learn more about Dan Eldon, go to DanEldon.com. You should also check out the Creative Visions Foundation - an organization created by Kathy Eldon and Amy Eldon Turteltaub to inform, inspire and empower the next generation of creative activists.

The funny thing about starting a new business (or really any new project, for that matter), is that the most valuable interns and employees are sometimes the ones that have the least experience in what you're trying to accomplish. If you're following a set path, it makes sense to hire people that have seen-and-done what you're trying to do; but with new and innovative ideas, there is no "right way" of doing things, and when the path to success is unclear, the worst thing that you can have are preconceived notions.

When I was first starting TOMS, I pitched the idea to a college professor who said that I would need a million dollars  to get the company off the ground. I spoke with veterans in the shoe industry that saw every reason why the idea would fail. "The math just doesn't work" they would say, or "the retail business is dying," or "there's no market for canvas slip-ons," and on and on. At the time, TOMS was comprised of myself, a few duffel bags of samples, a polo instructor pretending to be a shoemaker, and a handful of interns that I hired off of Craigslist. The idea was crazy... but my interns didn't know that.  All they knew was that we were having fun, and that with a little creativity and resourcefulness, we could accomplish just about anything.

As TOMS has grown, we've continued to look for these same traits in the interns and employees that we hire. Are you passionate? Can you creatively solve problems? Can you be resourceful without resources? Do you have the compassion to serve others? You can teach a new hire just about any skill... but you absolutely cannot inspire creativity and passion in someone that doesn't have it.

Would you agree?