TOMS Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie discusses social entrepreneurship
For every pair of shoes purchased, TOMS Shoes gives a pair of shoes to a child in need. Photo by mr.guime via Flickr.
I had the opportunity to interview an individual that I've been inspired by for some time, Blake Mycoskie of TOMS Shoes. Blake has an amazing story of how he's built the TOMS Shoes name into an internationally recognized social entrepreneurship success story.
Blake will be the lunch keynote speaker at this year's Greater Omaha Young Professionals Summit on March 4, (registration closes this Thursday). He was gracious to share a few minutes with me to provide the background of TOMS Shoes, his thoughts on who inspires him, and what he thinks the future of social entrepreneurship holds.
Also in the interview, we talk about the AT&T commercial that served as the tipping point for TOMS Shoes. I've included that video and its "behind the scenes" video below.
The AT&T Video on TOMS Shoes:
The AT&T TOMS Shoes Commercial – Behind the Scenes:
Keep an eye out for more from TOMS Shoes over the next few weeks as they are launching an updated website next week as well as holding the One Day Without Shoes event April 8!
ARCHIVED COMMENTS
Great Interview Jeff! Great Company! Thanks for posting!
The business model of today... and tomorrow. Blake is the man!
Can you post a link to the guy he mentioned whose name I can't spell? : )
Brad, I think you're referring to his mention of Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank – here's his Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Yunus.
(I assumed this since I stumbled on that name, too.)
Tom Shoes about a cool as it gets. I had a former employee leave MN to work for Tom's in CA, best thing she's done.
Congrats on a neat piece.
What an inspiration!
this is really cool this helped me with my essay sooo much
Tom Shoes about a cool as it gets.
Rad post. It's cool to see the behind the scenes of companies like TOMS