Special-edition, Congolese-inspired TOMS Shoes
We're teaming up with Giving Partner Eastern Congo Initiative (ECI), an advocacy and grant-making organization founded by Ben Affleck, on two Congolese-inspired designs with an additional give. Read More >>
TOMS x charity: water - An Eyewer collaboration
TOMS and charity: water, an organization founded in 2006 (like TOMS!) that’s dedicated to to helping bring clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations, join forces for the first-ever TOMS Eyewear collab! Read More >>
Giving TOMS Shoes in the DRC
Founded by Ben Affleck in 2010, ECI is an advocacy and grant-making organization that works with and for the people of DRC, the third most populous country in Africa, and one that struggled under a cycle of violence for nearly 20 years – particularly in the east. Read More >>
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Listening to Truth
“To do what you love and feel that it matters-how could anything be more fun?”-Katherine Graham
Because Blake’s in the office for a few weeks, we interns got to attend our first all-staff meeting last Thursday, only to learn that “pep rally” is a more fitting term. We were super excited to be reminded once again that we were valued as part of the TOMS family, but more than the excitement of the first all-staff was the surprise of the second all-staff that sprung up on us the very next day (Friday).
Recognizing that Fridays tend to drag a bit in anticipation for weekend, Blake relished the moment and guided us through an awesome exercise. He told us of a song he heard during his recent travels in Europe, and that he’s a firm believer (as am I) that everyone’s life has a soundtrack. He shared the song with us to pull us a little closer into where he is in his journey with TOMS.
Three-and-a-half years ago, as Blake and a small team of interns and employees ate, slept and breathed TOMS in order to gain enough momentum to get it off the ground, Blake and one colleague toured the country in an Airstream. He parked it on the crazy streets of New York City and stopped all along the way back to the West Coast, speaking at small events as often as he could find people to listen.
While parked in Texas, he heard this band in a coffee house and snagged their album, having really enjoyed their set. The next time he heard that band would be on his business trip to Europe, a little less than four years later, when audiences actually flocked to hear the TOMS story on their own will!
The band’s name is Balmorhea, and the song’s called “Truth.”
It would obviously be adopted into Blake’s life soundtrack, sending him on a wild adventure through his own mind, tracing the amazing TOMS landmarks since that Texas coffee house.
He thought deeply about where the four years had taken TOMS and himself, and also about the separate but similarly exciting path this band had followed during that time.
And so last Friday we found ourselves with the the lights turned off in HQ, all of us lounging in comfortable spots, with eyes closed and minds open. During the 6-minute song, Blake guided us to think about where our paths have led us in the past four years and where they may lead us in the next few.
Most of us interns have no idea where our paths will lead… how could we even? Some of us are still in school, most fresh out it and some a few years beyond that, but wherever we are in our lives, we can make it the peak if we fill our days with meaning.
I think I can speak for the whole intern pack that in the past 5 weeks at TOMS, we’ve been doing just that. This is just one of the amazing reminders of how lucky we are to be a part of something a whole lot bigger than us. And as the quote states it, “how could anything be more fun than that?”
