Walk in these Shoes

For all those that think that business owners are gready s.o.b's; I have two success stories for you to check out.

First, here's a link to an exclusive radio interview with Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry's fame.

Next, here's a story straight from the Church of the Customer Blog:

Customer evangelism case study: Tom's Shoes

Here's a customer evangelism case study in the making: Tom's Shoes.

Tom's was founded in 2006 by Blake Mycoskie, a former contestant of "The Amazing Race" who was inspired by the low-cost alpargatas (espadrille-type shoes) during a trip to Argentina.

His idea was to bring alpargatas to the U.S. and give them a fashion makeover.

Blake was also struck by scenes of poverty in Argentina; so he launched Tom's based on the premise of giving away a pair of shoes to shoeless children in third-world countries for each pair he sold.

So far, he's sold 200,000 shoes and given away the same number. He's struck licensing deals with Ralph Lauren and distribution deals with all sorts of department stores and retailers like Whole Foods (where I first saw Tom's last month). Blake has also created an evangelistic following; one restaurant chain in New York outfits all of its servers with Tom's because of the cause.

Tom's Shoes has buzz for a variety of reasons, which include:

1. An uncommon product amidst of sea of commonality.
2. A simple, yet inspiring story that's easy to tell and therefore spread.
3. An accessible and well-spoken leader who'll tell the story to anyone who'll listen.
4. A strong culture of participation among employees and customers that's ingrained into the DNA of the company.

JJ Ramberg of MSNBC has an excellent piece on the magic behind Tom's.

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