'Check Your Label' event brings TOMS Shoes founder to IU

“One for One.”

That’s the business model Blake Mycoskie had in mind when he founded TOMS Shoes, and that’s the model the company continues to follow; It donates a pair of shoes to children in need for every pair purchased.

Mycoskie, founder and chief shoe giver of TOMS Shoes, will be a speaker at the “Check Your Label” event by the Kelley School of Business on Friday at the IU Auditorium.

The event will focus on the growing trend of consumers paying attention to where goods are made, instead of basing their purchases on style and price.

“It kind of fits into this theme that what we purchase may or may not affect people in the world,” said Kathleen Robbins, director of the undergraduate program at the business school.

Besides Mycoskie, there will be four other speakers.

“I’m hoping he talks a little bit about how he came up with the idea and what that means to him,” Robbins said.

Mycoskie founded the company in 2006 after seeing children in Argentina without shoes.

“I had an epiphany,” Mycoskie said in a 2007 People Magazine article. “What if I redesigned the shoe and every time I sold a pair, I gave one to these kids.”

After selling 10,000 pairs of TOMS shoes in the first year, he returned to Argentina and delivered 10,000 pairs. As of December 2009, the company has donated more than 400,000 pairs of shoes to children in need.

“I was so overwhelmed by the spirit of the South American people, especially those who had so little,” Mycoskie said in a company biography. “And I was instantly struck with the desire – the responsibility – to do more.”

Junior Lauren Newkirk travelled to Argentina with the company in December 2008 to help deliver shoes.

“I just thought the trip sounded like an awesome opportunity,” Newkirk said.

Newkirk, who said she wants to work for TOMS Shoes after graduation, applied for the trip through the company’s Web site. After being accepted into the program, she travelled with a group of 12 other volunteers and a trip coordinator to two different locations in Argentina to complete a shoe drop.

Working on average from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., the group usually travelled to three schools a day and fitted every child for the proper shoe size, Newkirk said.

“I’ve never seen people who have been generally happy with what they have,” she said. “Giving them shoes gave them more opportunities.”

The company donates shoes because children in developing countries often need to walk miles to get food, shelter or water but physically can’t barefoot, according to TOMS Web site.

With shoes, the children can walk where they need to go and avoid getting injuries on their feet.

“A lot of kids couldn’t go to school because they had one pair of shoes for the entire family,” Newkirk said. “It was awesome to see them get what was their first gift ever.”

When the volunteers arrived at the schools, Newkirk said people were waiting with posters and generally families would bring all their children, even those too young for school.

Despite the abundance of children needing shoes at every school they visited within the 10-day period, the volunteers never ran out, Newkirk said. After the trip ended, TOMS Shoes kept in touch with all of their volunteers.

“It’s a company that will stay with you for the rest of your life,” Newkirk said.