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TOMS.

= TOMS: One for yourself, and one for your friend. = = =

What is TOMS?
TOMS is an American footwear company owned by Mycoskie, that originated in Santa Monica, California. TOMS also operates a non-profit program entitled Friends of TOMS. For every pair of shoe bought from TOMS, TOMS donates a pair of new shoes to a child in need.

Definition of Social Entrepreneur :
A person who recognizes ant tries to solve social problems via entrepreneurial practices to make social changes.

Visual Aid
http://www.xtranormal.com/profile/2596789/

Although TOMS essentially is not a non-profit organization, it does implement some social entrepreneurship techniques. TOMS is divided into two divisions: TOMS store, and the Friends of TOMS program (one to one program). The first one, obviously, deals with selling TOMS shoes and making profit off it selling them. The second one is that, when a person buys a pair of shoes from TOMS, TOMS donates the same style pair of shoes to children in lesser developed countries around the world that need shoes.

After it was first established, over 600,000 pairs of new shoes have been given to children under the One for One program. These children are from the United States (limited to Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Florida), Argentina, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Guatemala, Haiti, and South Africa. There are more than 500 TOMS stores in the US and international markets. Some large department stores that sells TOMS include Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, and Whole Foods (a store that features styles made from recycled materials.)

In January 2009, TOMS and Element Skateboards collaborated and formed a line of TOMS shoes (skate decks and longboards). For this, for each pair of this style of TOMS shoes, the same one is given to the kinds at Indigo Skate camp in the village of Isithumba in Durban, South Africa. TOMS continues to establish more partnerships with other countries so that more customers can buy what they want while the same models are given to the people that really need them across the globe.



TOMS Website
For more information, visit the TOMS actual website at http://www.toms.com