Toms’ New Vision

ANTHROPOLOGICAL footwear brand Toms is extending its charitable work by launching an eyewear category, and is promising to help give sight to a person in need with every pair sold. The label was first launched in 2006 when its founder Blake Mycoskie decided that with every pair of its espadrilles sold, the company would give away a pair of shoes to a child in need. The company has since collaborated with the Olsen twins, who wanted to support its One for One ethos.


"Everything we do starts with the need," Mycoskie told us. "In 2006, when I was in Argentina, I saw many children without shoes, with cuts and scrapes on their feet. I also learned that many of them couldn't go to school since shoes were a requirement. That's where I had the idea to create a sustainable way to provide these children with shoes. It was similar with eye care. I came across another need that I wanted to address - sight. And now with Toms Eyewear, we are able to address this need through medical treatment, prescription glasses, and sight-saving surgery."

The collection features three styles, each featuring three hand-painted stripes that allude to the deeper purpose of the offering and all of which are available exclusively at Selfridges. With each pair of sunglasses bought, Toms will donate money to the Seva Foundation which has been implementing sustainable blindness prevention and sight restoration programs for over 30 years.

"The first stripe on the temples represents the purchaser," explained Mycoskie. "The stripe on the tips represents the person to whom sight is being saved or restored. And the middle stripe is Toms, bringing the two together."










ELLA ALEXANDER 22 March 2012
http://www.vogue.co.uk/jewellery/news/2012/03/22/toms-eyewear---sunglasses-from-footwear-brand