May 29, 2017 · 53m · how-i-built-this
TOMS: Blake Mycoskie
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
Blake Mycoskie details his journey from serial startup founder to establishing TOMS Shoes, exploring how a simple one-for-one giving model overcame extreme production hurdles to become a global social enterprise phenomenon.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Guy holds 26.5% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Guy as informed peer 2.4 Guest teaching 1.1 Guest disagreement 0.1 Guy pushing back 0.9
speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 44:11 Blake confronts development critics' arguments head-on
Blake acknowledges how difficult it was to hear accusations of disrupting local economies, frankly admitting they did not initially have answers before implementing local factory production.
Hardest push from Guy ▶ 43:43 Guy Raz challenges the One-for-One aid modelGuy presses Blake on serious academic and NGO critiques that giving away free shoes undercuts local shoemakers and fails to address the root causes of poverty.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 44:11 Blake explains shifting 40% of manufacturing to recipient countriesBlake educates Guy and the audience on how TOMS fundamentally restructured its supply chain to manufacture over 40% of its giving shoes locally in countries like Kenya, India, and Ethiopia.
Guy holds their own ▶ 43:43 Guy articulates the macroeconomic critique of buy-one-give-one aidGuy demonstrates strong domain knowledge of international development critiques, pushing past brand PR to question whether the core business model causes market disruption.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Guy as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Guy pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EZ Laundry: Turning an Achilles Injury into Blake's First Startup | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Guy Raz facilitates Blake's retelling of his early college laundry service and his transition into selling building wallscapes in Nashville. The tone is entirely friendly, with Guy gently prodding Blake on his youthful entrepreneurial hustling. | |
| Stepping into Reality TV and The Amazing Race | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | Blake details his time on The Amazing Race and subsequent failure launching Reality Central. Guy jokes whether a 24-hour reality TV network would really make the world a better place, which Blake cheerfully concedes it would not. | |
| Drivers Ed Direct: Innovating Online Driving Instruction | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Blake describes founding Drivers Ed Direct with online lessons and hiring aspiring actors and models as driving instructors. Guy lightly reassures listeners that the interview will soon reach Blake's philanthropic work. | |
| Mid-Show Break and Preview of the TOMS Origin | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Guy listens attentively as Blake describes his Argentina polo trip and meeting volunteers running a shoe drive. Blake explains how polo instructor Alejo's question about outgrowing shoes inspired the One for One concept. | |
| Prototyping Alpargatas and the Birth of TOMS Shoes | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Blake outlines redesigning traditional Argentine alpargatas and creating the brand name TOMS from 'Tomorrow's Shoes'. The exchange is purely collaborative storytelling. | |
| From American Rag to LA Times: The 2,200-Pair Overnight Surge | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Blake recounts getting stocked at American Rag and being featured in the LA Times, generating an overnight backlog of 2,200 orders. Guy prompts Blake through his rushed journey back to Argentina to produce the inventory. | |
| Vogue Feature, Celebrity Buzz, and an Airport Encounter | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Blake details getting profiled in Vogue, celebrity adoption, and a pivotal moment encountering an enthusiastic customer at an airport check-in kiosk. Guy listens and validates the organic marketing milestones. | |
| The AT&T Campaign and Hyper-Growth Production Challenges | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Blake discusses the massive boost from an AT&T national ad campaign and scaling revenue from zero to hundreds of millions. He candidly shares that shoe manufacturing quality remained their steepest learning curve. | |
| Sabbatical in Austin and Reconnecting with the Mission | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | Blake describes stepping back to Austin when TOMS became overly bureaucratic before feeling called back to lead. Guy asks whether framing TOMS as a 'movement' is seen by cynics as simply clever branding. | |
| Answering Critics: Evolving into Local Manufacturing | 5 | 2 | 1 | 4 | Guy presses Blake on substantive economic criticisms that One-for-One aid harms local developing markets rather than fostering long-term employment. Blake agrees with the critique and explains their pivot to manufacturing over 40% of donated shoes locally in regions like Kenya and Ethiopia. | |
| Reflection, Philanthropy, and Answering to 'Tom' | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Blake reflects on applying his early venture experience to TOMS, selling a stake to private equity, and happily answering to 'Tom' in public. The segment concludes with a community spotlight on The Longhairs. |
Statements from this episode (16)
Blake Mycoskie's college laundry business generated $80,000 in sales within days
“We had a pretty good pitch, and within a series of, like, two or three days, we did, like, 80,000 dollars in prepaid laundry sales for the year.”
Blake Mycoskie: Never pitch property owners by calling your proposal an 'idea'
“The thing you don't ever want to do, especially when you're 22 years old, and you're trying to talk to, like, 50 and sixty-year-old people who own apartment complexes, you don't want to use the word idea. Because if it's just an idea, then it's like, you're no…”
Mycoskie: Raised $750,000 from reality TV winners to launch Reality Central
“Yes, and I got them all to invest, and then I put some of my own money in, and within a couple months, I raised a 750,000, and we launched what was called Reality Central.”
Mycoskie: Drivers Ed Direct hired only actors and models as driving instructors
“And the best way I could figure out to do that was I hired only models and actors and actresses part time.”
Mycoskie: For-profit giving models are more sustainable than charitable donation drives
“Dependent on other people's donations, and what if they don't do it, and, you know, that doesn't seem like a very sustainable way to give these kids shoes, and then that led to, you know, well, what if there was a business, you know, instead of a charity and d…”
Blake Mycoskie: TOMS was named because 'Tomorrow's' didn't fit on shoe tags
“When it came time to put a tag on the shoe, we couldn't fit the word tomorrow's onto the tag, because the tag was really small on the heel, so we shortened the word tomorrow's to toms, and that's how the word toms came.”
Blake Mycoskie: TOMS was originally conceived as a one-time philanthropic project
“It was like, okay, there's 250 kids in this village. I want to come back by Christmas and give them all a new pair of shoes. So I'm going to go sell these shoes, and I'm going to come back, and then we'll figure out what we're going to do. Like, it was not a b…”
Mycoskie: TOMS sold 2,200 pairs online in one day after LA Times feature
“So I did interview her, told her the story, you know, emailed her a picture of one of the shoes, and the next Sunday, it was like on the cover of the calendar section of the LA Times, and that day we sold 2200 pairs on the website.”
Mycoskie: TOMS was the first fashion company with a one-for-one model
“No fashion company or shoe company had ever, like, given something away every time they sold it”
Mycoskie: Early TOMS shoes were low quality and lacked durability
“The shoes were, frankly, not that good of quality. They didn't last as long as we had hoped they would.”
Mycoskie: TOMS scaled from $300k to $60M revenue in four years
“The first year in business, I want to say we did about 300,000. In the second year, we did about three million. And the third year, we did Like, fifteen million, and the fourth year we went to, like, sixty million.”
Mycoskie: TOMS reached $450M in annual sales within seven years
“We went from basically from zero to four hundred and fifty million dollars in sales on an annual basis in, like, seven years.”
Mycoskie: TOMS manufactures over 40% of giving shoes in recipient countries
“But ultimately, back in 2000, I think it was, no, 12, actually, we made a pledge to manufacture as many shoes as we could in the countries that we give in, and today, we're manufacturing over 40% of our giving shoes in countries like Kenya, Ethiopia, India you…”
Mycoskie: Committed half of personal wealth to investing in social entrepreneurs
“We made a real conscious decision to take half of it and commit it to investing in social entrepreneurs, so that's a big part of my life now is actually investing in the next generation as a way to solve problems that, that we are faced with”