Toms Shoes

The left shoe bore a pattern of thick stripes in shades of blue and turquoise. the right one had a similar design in the rear complemented by vivid blotches of red, orange, yellow and green on the forefoot. Lacey and about 50 other children at Lighthouse Ministries took part enthusiastically in a “Style your Sole” event. they received free shoes on which they painted their own designs. The shoe giveaway coincided with an appearance in Lakeland by Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS Shoes, a company that donates a pair of shoes to needy children for each pair sold. Mycoskie, 33, founded the company in 2006 after a visit to Argentina, a country he first encountered as a runner-up on the TV show “The Amazing Race.” During that second trip, Mycoskie met some American volunteers who had come to distribute shoes. Mycoskie learned that many Argentine children lack shoes, leaving them vulnerable to injury and disease and making them ineligible to attend school. Mycoskie decided to start a company based on the “one for one” concept, selling “alpargatas” – traditional Argentine flat-soled shoes.

TOMS – a shortened version of Tomorrow’s Shoes – has grown from a one-man company based in Mycoskie’s apartment to one with 70 employees at its headquarters in Santa Monica, Calif. Celebrities such as Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley wear the shoes, and Mycoskie has been featured in magazine articles and an AT&T commercial. Before the paint began to flow Wednesday at Lighthouse Ministries’ Jay & Eloise Troxel Family Life Center, Lakeland Mayor Gow Fields gave Mycoskie a key to the city.

The shoe donation culminated a fundraising drive headed by the Dick Pope Chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association. the drive yielded enough purchases to give 140 pairs to children at Lighthouse, the Salvation Army Center of Hope in Lakeland and the Lake Wales Care Center.

Mycoskie, his company’s “chief shoe giver,” was an unassuming presence, with his unruly brown curls and a scruffy beard. Wearing dark jeans, a blue T-shirt and a striped pullover – along with brown TOMS Shoes – he knelt or sat beside children, watching as they painted their newly delivered shoes. “That’s looking good,” he told Lacey as she painted. “I like all those bright colors.” Most of the children, including Lacey, were residents at the center. Previously homeless, they live with mothers enrolled in one of several recovery programs.

The younger children wore red smocks to protect their clothes, and a drop cloth covered the floor. Staff members and students from Florida Southern College supervised the painting session. Lacey, 8, examined her freshly painted shoes.“I could wear them anyplace,” said the girl with tightly braided hair and dark-rimmed glasses. “This is like my happiest day.”Sisters Breanne and Natalee sat nearby as Samantha Tyburski, a junior at Florida Southern, tried to keep the girls from painting themselves.

“That’s cool,” Tyburski said as Natalee, a red-haired 3-year-old, slathered mixed colors on a shoe. “That looks like a sunflower.”Breanne, 9, produced a more restrained design with radiating stripes in blue and green.“I think it’s really exciting, and I’m so happy and I’m glad to have these shoes,” Breanne said. “It’s like, ‘Wow.’ Everybody’s so excited. Everybody’s painting and having a good time.”Earlier Wednesday, Mycoskie spoke to students and staff at Florida Southern’s convocation in Branscomb Auditorium.He offered an alternately humorous and poignant chronicle of his company, which to date has given away more than 400,000 pairs of shoes in 20 countries, including the United States.

The Texas native said his life was forever changed by his first “shoe drop” in Argentina.Mycoskie recalled meeting a woman whose three children had to share one pair of shoes, allowing each to attend school only every third day.He emphasized TOMS is not a charity. he said the business model works because enthusiastic customers do the marketing, sparing the company from spending money on advertising. Mycoskie, who was to leave Wednesday night for London’s Fashion Week, encouraged Florida Southern students to consider ways to inject philanthropy into traditional careers. he also invited them to apply for paid internships with his company. Mycoskie said he never tires of the shoe deliveries. “Every time it’s different,” he said. “If you build a house for Habitat for Humanity, you get one payoff at the end of the week or end of the month. With shoes, every child is kind of a payoff. in the course of a day, you might get 50 or 60 really cool experiences with 50 or 60 kids. … So it’s a really gratifying thing.”