Ethiopia

I have had many incredible experiences since starting TOMS, but none have been more moving or humbling than the twelve days that I recently spent in Ethiopia.

It’s hard to believe, but thousands of children are dying every year in Ethiopia because they do not have proper footwear. Podoconiosis (or Podo, for short) is a terrible disease caused by a certain type of contaminated soil. Podo causes massive swelling, ulcers and deformities in the feet and lower legs – leaving young children with feet the size of elephants. Those suffering from Podo are treated like Lepors in their communities and have no chance to hold a job, get married or raise a family. At this very moment, between 500,000 and 1 million Ethiopians are suffering from Podo and 11 million total are at risk of contracting the disease. The statistics are mind-boggling.

The solution to this problem, however, is tragically simple: SHOES.

We want to completely wipe Podo off the face of the Earth by hand delivering a tough and durable shoe to kids at risk of contracting the disease. Show your support and visit our Causes page on Facebook!

Whole Foods Eco Vegan Shoe!

Tribeca Film Festival

I would like to thank everyone that came and supported us at the Tribeca Film Festival. You guys ROCKED! I have so many unforgettable memories from this week… of theaters overflowing with TOMS clad fans, mad dashes to secure more tickets, and experiencing tears of joy seeing Alejo charm the silver screen. Few experiences have topped this.

Check out some of the videos I took while in NYC:

Pre-order your copy of For Tomorrow on TOMSshoes.com!

TOMS Hits the Silver Screen!

I am really proud to announce that our documentary about TOMS has been accepted into the Tribeca Film Festival! The film is entitled ‘For Tomorrow’ and beautifully tells the story of TOMS first Shoe Drop in Argentina. The director is my good buddy Ken Kokin who, in a stroke of good luck, I met at a poker table in Ocean County just weeks before the Argentina trip. Ken co-produced the Academy Award Winning The Usual Suspects and worked with Ryan Phillippe a few years back on The Way of the Gun.

If you live anywhere near New York City, please come and support us at one of the screenings. It is going to be AMAZING. I am going to be doing QandA after each of the screenings. I hope to pack as many TOMS fans as possible into the theater…

Thursday, April 24, 4:00 pm, AV7-05

Saturday, April 26, 12:00 pm, AV7-04

Tuesday, April 29, 7:30 pm, A19-01

Thursday, May 1, 5:00 pm, VEC-06

Sunday, May 4, 1:00 pm, VEC-05

Locations

AMC Village VII (AV7)

66 Third Avenue (at 11th Street)

New York, NY 10003

AV7-5: Seats 160

AMC 19th Street East (A19)

890 Broadway (at 19th Street)

New York, NY 10003

A19-01: Seats 219

Village East Cinemas (VEC)

181 Second Avenue (at 12th Street)

New York, NY 10003

VEC-05: Seats 66

VEC-06: Seats 151

You can either buy tickets at the box office before each showing or buy them online at the Tribeca website.

See you guys there!

Sailing with Inc. Magazine...

Despite learning to sail from a DVD box set (think “Sailing for Dummies”), my skills have actually gotten pretty good. I like how slowly everything moves on a boat. My life moves so fast… I’m always on the go, multi-tasking, running to catch planes, and hammering away on my Blackberry, that it is nice to be on the water and just glide along.

When Inc. did this photo shoot it was super windy and one of the photographers almost fell overboard. It was too windy to get up the big sail that doubles as a TOMS flag.

You can read the article here.

O Yeah!

Check it out, Oprah picked TOMS as one of her favorite things!

See The O List in April's O, The Oprah Magazine.

Africa, I will miss you!

The past month has been an absolute blur for me, filled with more excitement, sadness, anger, and sheer joy than I have ever felt in my life. Africa, I will miss you!

As part of TOMS latest Shoe Drop, I traveled with friends, family, TOMS staff and so many other AMAZING people to South Africa. Over a 30 days period, we crisscrossed the country – driving, and flying, and pretty much always moving – from Johannesburg, to Port Elizabeth to Durban to many small villages and townships along the way. In total, we hand delivered 50,000 shoes to kids in need! We met these children in orphanages, schools, community centers, and along the side of the road.

I have so many moments that I would like to share with you, but before I do so, I would like to spotlight the experiences of other volunteers on the trip:

Sean writes:

“Today we went to a school for the disabled and discovered it was the first school of its kind in the entire region. There are over 1,000 disabled kids on record for this area and estimates suggest there are many many more thousands who are unaccounted for. Only 22 of them get to go to school. That is where we went. At some point there was a miscommunication and we only ended up with 2 sizes of shoes at the school. We were trying to make it work and I went to this one boy in a wheelchair who had, quite simply, the most horrific feet I've ever seen. It was obvious no person had touched his feet to clean them in many months. I had a moment of panic when I saw them and a compulsive need to cover them with shoes. The size 10 was so tight I couldn't get it on but that was all we had. When I looked up at the boy I realized that, though he couldn't speak, he wanted those shoes far worse than I wanted to give them. The internal panic was overwhelming as I stretched and pulled on the seams of this stupid shoe in order to make it fit. By the time it finally got on his feet my heart was beating out of my chest and I was covered in sweat. But I looked up and his eyes were as joyful as any I've ever seen… I'll never forget that moment as long as I live."

Liza writes:

“The last place we went today was a house run by a woman who feeds close to 400 of the village’s children. These children receive porridge that has the vitamins and nutrients that they need. Without these meals twice a day, the children would have nothing to eat. When we drove away from the village, a little girl came down the rocky hill wearing her little red-and-white stripe TOMS. I thought about snapping a picture with my camera, but no camera was needed. The moment was priceless… We are giving these children shoes, but they are giving us so much more. I can only hope that every day will be as memorable as today!”

I would like to give a shout out to Esther Havens for taking the photographs below... and capturing so many of images, thoughts and feelings that I could never describe in words. You can see more of Esther's stuff on myspace at http://www.myspace.com/estherhavensphotography.