Toms Shoes Unveils Next Product
Blake Mycoskie knows how to keep a secret.
On Tuesday, following months of intense speculation, the founder of Toms Shoes unveiled his second one-for-one initiative, Toms Eyewear, in front of hundreds of fans in Santa Monica.
In conjunction with the Seva Foundation, which has been working to prevent blindness across the world for three decades, Toms will provide medicine, prescription eyeglasses, and sight-saving cataract surgeries across southeast Asia, which is home to nearly 90 percent of the 284 million visually impaired people across the globe.
“The more and more I learned,” says Mycoskie, “the more and more I was committed to helping people save their sight. A lot of blind people at one point had their sight, but later developed cataracts. Fortunately, those can be fixed with a fifteen minute surgery.”
Toms unveiled two styles for men: the Classic 101, a wayfarer-style frame pictured above ($135) and the Classic 103, an aviator shape ($145). Both styles feature three stripes: one to represent the buyer, one representing the individual receiving aid, and a third to signify Toms as the connector between the two.
“I wanted to personify the one-for-one equation,” says Mycoskie. “The stripes are there to remind you of that when you buy these sunglasses for your enjoyment, you are helping one person with their sight.”
When asked if additional one-for-one projects are on the horizon, the 34-year old Californian seemed optimistic. “Let’s just say that I’m committed to addressing as many needs as I can. There’s a lot more that I can do with our one-for-one model.”
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Posted by Dania
on 18:28. Filed under