We Love Toms!

Welcome to WeLoveToms.com.  This past October, Toms Shoes teamed up with skateboard giant Element Skateboards to participate in a unique demonstration of the One for One Movement.  Not only did they give away a pair of shoes to a child in need, but they also partnered up in a team collaboration that both helped kids get shoes and gave kids in a remote part of Africa a safe place to have some fun, with skateboards!

The premise of the collaboration is simple.  Toms Shoes designed a number of Element Skateboard-inspired Toms Shoes.  And Element Skateboards designed a Toms-Shoe-themed skateboard.  Working together, Toms Shoes and Element Skateboards gave away shoes and skateboards to children in need, and in the process provided them with a safe community location to spend time and have fun.

Here are some photos from the shoe drop:

As you can see, the Toms Shoes team and the kids as well had an amazing time, and their Toms Shoes fit perfect!  Hint – for more pics, you can check out the Toms Shoes Facebook Page about the South Africa Shoe Drop.

The shoe drop came about after two like-minded companies came together to really make some good happen in this world:  Toms Shoes and Element Skateboards.  This was the first time that Toms Shoes banded together with another company to fulfill its One for One Promise and people responded with overwhelming positivity – both the special edition Toms Shoes and the Toms Shoes Element Skateboard sold out very quickly.

Of course, if you want to get your hands on some amazing Toms Shoes (or an Element skateboard for that matter), there are plenty of amazing styles to go.  And remember that with your purchase of a pair of Toms Shoes, you are purchasing a pair of shoes for a child in need just like those wonderful smiling faces you saw above.  What a gift you get to give.  If you’re interested in purchasing a pair of Toms Shoes, you can click on any of the images or go to the banner at the bottom of this post and to your right.  With the One for One Promise in full effect, you can rest assured that your new pair of shoes is bringing a smile to the face of a child somewhere far away around the world.

We’ll leave you with this YouTube video that the Toms Shoes Team made about the shoe drop.  Watch it here, and then go to TomsShoes.com to get your own pair and support more shoe drops just like this one!

One of the greatest aspects of Toms Shoes is the actual giving away of the shoes to kids in need.  They call this the “Shoe Drop”, where members of the Toms Shoes team essentially drop into a location and give shoes to kids, guerrilla style.  It’s pretty exciting, we know.  Well Toms has done a few of these shoe drops, and this summer they had a fantastic successful shoe drop in New Orleans, Louisiana!  Toms Shoes puts shoes on the feet of kids in need no matter where they are, even if where they are is right here in the United States of America.

The good folks at Toms Shoes know that kids all over the world like to have fun, and they deserve too!  So in this particular shoe drop, the Toms Shoes team had kids coloring in and decorating their very own Toms!  Check out this video of the Toms Shoes New Orleans shoe drop:

Thirty volunteers from the Toms Shoes team, including Friends of Toms, Toms Shoes interns from the home office in Santa Monica, California, and founder and Chief Shoe Giver Blake Mycoskie.  The drop took place from August 20th to 26th, as the Toms team went to five local school New Orleans Schools.

Says Toms Shoes Program Manager Ana Maria (quote taken from TomsShoes.com): “The domestic need is very different from the need in international places Toms gives shoes.  In the States, kids may be wearing shoes that are too big or small, worn out beyond repair or shared, and we want to bring awareness to that.  Every child should have a pair of comfortable shoes to call their own.”

Here’s a photo of a happy child in New Orleans with his new Toms Shoes (photo taken from the Toms Shoes Facebook Album):

The volunteers loved the event, and the kids did too – and of course, they got well-fitting and custom-designed Toms Shoes out of the process!  What a noble event.  Read about Friends of Toms here.

So how can you participate?  Well, there are two things you can do!  First thing you can do is go to the Friends of TOMS homepage.  Simply enter your email on the homepage, and you will be notified about shoe drop opportunities in 2010 in Argentina, South Africa, the United States, and Ethiopia.

But how do they get the shoes to give away in the first place?  That’s where you come in again, and in a big way!  Remember that with the Toms One for One Movement, Toms Shoes gives a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair you buy.  So when you buy a pair of Toms Shoes, you are also making a shoe to be available for all the good folks at Friends of Toms to give away when they have shoe drop!  Go to TomsShoes.com and support the One for One Movement!