Founded 2006

Founder: Blake Mycoskie

Headquarters Santa Monica, California, United States

Area served Worldwide

Products Shoes, clothing, eyewear

Website toms.com

Blake Mycoskie visited Argentina in 2002 while competing in the second season of The Amazing Race with his sister. He returned on vacation in January 2006 and met a woman who was volunteering to deliver shoes to children. Shoes manufacturer Mycoskie offered to help and has cited the shoe distribution experience, and the many shoeless children he encountered, as the birth of his idea for his eventual company.

He decided to develop a type of alpargata (a simple canvas slip-on shoe that is popular in Argentina) for the North American market, with the goal of providing a new pair of free shoes to the youth of Argentina and other developing nations for every pair sold. According to Mycoskie, Bill Gates encouraged him by saying that the lack of shoes was a major contributor to diseases in children.

Upon returning to the U.S., Mycoskie sold the online driver education company that he was running for $500,000 to finance Toms Shoes.

The company name is derived from the word "tomorrow," and evolved from the original concept, "Shoes for Tomorrow Project." Mycoskie initially commissioned Argentine shoe manufacturers to make 250 pairs of shoes. Sales officially began in May 2006. After an article ran in the Los Angeles Times, the company received order requests for nine times the available stock online, and 10,000 pairs were sold in the first year. The first batch of 10,000 free shoes was distributed in October 2006 to Argentine children.

In 2007, the company launched its first annual "One Day Without Shoes" event, which encouraged participants to go shoeless for one day in order to raise awareness about the impact shoes can have on a child's life. The event has had corporate sponsors such as AOL, Flickr, and the Discovery Channel.

In October 2007, Toms Shoes received the People's Design Award, as determined by an online popularity contest by the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

By 2011, over 500 retailers carried the brand globally and in the same year, Toms launched its eyewear line. By 2012 over two million pairs of new shoes had been given to children in developing countries around the world. The Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative at the University of New Mexico has described the company as an example of social entrepreneurship.

The company launched TOMS Roasting Co. in 2014, and with each purchase of TOMS Roasting Co. coffee, the company works with other organizations to provide 140 liters of safe water (equal to a one-week supply) to a family in need that lives in a coffee-producing region. In 2015, the TOMS Bag Collection was launched to help contribute to advancements in maternal health. Purchases of TOMS Bags help provide training for skilled birth attendants and distribute birth kits containing items that help women practice safe childbirth.

In June 2014, the company announced that Mycoskie was looking to sell part of its stake in the company to help it grow faster and meet its long-term goals. On August 20, 2014, Bain Capital acquired 50% of Toms. Reuters reported that the transaction valued the company at $625 million; Mycoskie's personal wealth following the deal was reported at $300 million. Mycoskie retained 50% ownership of Toms, as well as his role as "Chief Shoe Giver". Mycoskie said he would use half of the proceeds from the sale to start a new fund to support socially-minded entrepreneurship, and Bain would match his investment and continue the company's one-for-one policy.