On the 10th of May 2016, Toms celebrated their 10-year milestone with a signature event – ‘One Day Without Shoes’, an initiative to raise awareness for children’s health and education. In Malaysia, the occasion was carried forth throughout a day of barefoot liberation.

BAZAAR had an exclusive one-on-one with Founder of Toms, Blake Mycoskie – the man who single-handedly turned a trip to Argentina into a quest to provide shoes to children in need through his revolutionary one-for-one business model. Known to many as the ‘Chief Shoe Giver’ of Toms, Blake embodies the essence of an international citizen of the world and humanitarian known to each corner of life.

With such strong vision of the charitable kind, what personal trait do you possess that has kept you driven across 10 years?

The spirit of entrepreneurship and passion. When I started as a shoe company, I knew nothing about footwear. But starting from scratch only made me work that much harder. I think this spirit of entrepreneurship, passion and building something completely unique has been a large part of the Toms culture and philosophy too. At Toms, we are a group of passionate people, committed to giving and to keep giving at the core of everything we do.

Toms Founder, Blake Mycoskie Giving shoes to a child in need, an act that has become a celebrated ritual.

What has been the biggest challenge?

The critics. ‘If you really are serious about poverty alleviation,’ our critics said, ‘then you need to create jobs.’ At first I took that personally, but then I realised that they were right: using our model to create jobs is the next level. We have worked to expand our production options to countries like Kenya, Haiti, Ethiopia, Argentina and India. There really is a lot you can learn from the critics – you can either try to debate them and fight them or you embrace them and learn from them.

Blake Mycoskie visiting a newly established safe birth center in Haiti

Were there any failures along the way, and what key learning did you take away from the experience?

I would say one of the harder lessons I’ve learned in building a company like Toms is that it’s more important to get the right kind of people in the company than it is to get people with the most experience. When we began growing really quickly, I was desperate to hire people who could help us scale and had the experience we needed. However, without a true dedication to the core mission and the reason we started Toms in the first place, we saw disruption internally and we lost our ability to share the same vision across the organization. I’ve learned that the right people truly are the pillars that build a long-term foundation for change and business innovation.

Words of wisdom or encouragement to pass on to anyone with an idea and vision to change the world? 

I think if you’re passionate about something, don’t worry about the size of the market or how big it could become. Get it right in a small way first. When we started, I was trying to help 250 kids. I wasn’t thinking about 60 million kids. The main thing to remember is whatever you’re going to do, do it really well and do it small, and if you’re successful there, business will come. So that’s my big piece of advice: start small, focus, get it right and then let the growth come.

Your one sole life motto?

Carpe Momentum. It used to be Carpe Diem but with our 10 Year Anniversary I shifted to Carpe Momentum. We are continuously moving forward and now looking to the next 10 years!