Blake Mycosie

Project Who Inspires Me

For my project i choose Blake Mycoskie, and he is the founder of TOMS Shoes.
It began while just dropped out Southern Methodist University and went to visit Argentine in January 2006. He said "I was sitting on a farm pondering life, and it occurred to me, 'I'm going to start a shoe company, and for every pair that we sell, I'll give a pair to someone who needs them". And he also said he would start a business rather than a charity would his impact last longer.
At the Second Annual Clinton Global Initiative he said Mycoskie recalled that children without shoes were not only susceptible to health risks, but were not allowed to go to school. When asked "why shoes?" Mycoskie's main reason is a disease called podoconiosis. Also known as "Mossy Foot""there are over 1 Billion people at risk around the world, and shoes can prevent it. Mycoskie emphasizes that his company's goal is to not only give shoes, but to also educate others on the importance of shoes.

Since 2006 more than 300,000 pairs of shoes are given with TOMS' One for One movement(shoes have been given to children in the United States (Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi and Florida), Argentina, Ethiopia and South Africa. ) And with collaboration with Clinton Global Intuitive, TOM gave a one time donation.

In January TOMS worked with Element Skateboards to a new line of shoes, skate decks and longboards, and for each of TOMS Element shoes or/and skaeboard is bought they will give the same to kids at the Indigo Skate Camp, in the villige Isithumba, Dubran, South Africa

Blake want to began the One for One program with other companies for areas like housing, water and schoolbooks so they can give the same material to kids in need.

In 2007, Blake was invinted with to speak along with President Bill Clinton at the Opening Plenary of the Second Annual CGI U Meeting. In February 2009 Mycoskie also spoke at the TED conference (Technology, Entertainment, Design), a meeting of peers including people such as Bill Gates. Blake has also visited the White House. On March 6, 2009 he attended a meeting with President Obama's Senior Administration with other business leaders to present viable solutions and ideas regarding U.S. economic policy(Specifically, he presented information regarding potential in the economic plan to support small businesses in the U.S.)

How does he inspire me ?
He inspires how one person can help more 300,000 after dropping out of college.

-Ganesh Vanvani