How I Built This with Guy Raz - TOMS: Blake Mycoskie

Episode Date: May 29, 2017

Blake Mycoskie started and sold four businesses before age 30. But only in Argentina did he discover the idea he'd want to pursue long term. After seeing a shoe drive for children, he came up with TOMS — part shoe business, part philanthropy. PLUS in our postscript "How You Built That," how a long-haired Southern Californian, Chris Healy, co-founded The Longhairs and created special hair ties for guys. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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made it feel less like a visit and more like we were actually living there. Plus, taking a trip is the perfect time to host your space on Airbnb. your place with all of its personal touches and its amazing location could make someone else's vacation even better your home might be worth more than you think find out how much at arbb.ca slash host well i kind of freaked out and i got this like small army of interns to help basically be customer service to email and call all these people and let them know that there was no chance that they were going to get their shoes in the four days or five days of the website, promised it was going to be more like a couple months.

And I literally, uh, Fruit of Buenos Aires took a taxi to this guy's house, Juan Torres, who was making the shoes in his garage force at the time. And I walked in and with the little Spanish I knew, I said something like, Muchos Zapato's Rapido. From NPR, it's how I built this, a show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements, they built. I'm Guy Raz, and on today's show, how Blake Mikoski turned a goodwill mission into a multi-million dollar shoe empire and created a business model unlike anything anyone had seen

before. So I should probably let you know right at the outset here that today's show is going to be a little bit different. Because normally, in the first half of the show, we hear the story of how an entrepreneur painstakingly builds his or her business from the ground up and then, you know, how it goes from there, right? And normally it's just one business. But with Blake Mikoski, it is not just one. Because before he even turned 30, he'd already launched four companies, and some of them did pretty well. And as for his best known business, Tom's shoes, we're not even going to get there for a while. So hang tight.

Blake's very first business dates back to the mid-1990s when he was a freshman in college. Growing up, he'd been a pretty good tennis player. He even played against Andy Roddick in high school. And Blake was recruited to play at Southern Methodist University. And everything was going according to plan. That is until one day when he injured his Achilles tendon. I had this big cast on in crutches, and I wasn't able to play tennis for several months. as I did rehab, but the other thing I couldn't do is I actually couldn't carry my laundry

down to the facility in the college dorm. And so my laundry was piling up in my room, and my roommate was probably not liking it that much. And this is hard to believe, but this is back before any search engine, so we had the yellow pages. And I remember looking in the yellow pages to find a place that would come pick up and deliver my laundry back to me because I physically couldn't do it. and there was nothing like that in Dallas that I could find at the time. They would come to the campus and do that.

And that ultimately led to my first business, which was called Easy Laundry. Blake partnered with his roommate, and eventually they figured out that the key to getting customers wasn't through the students, but actually through their parents. So the next year, he and his roommate got a booth at the freshman orientation. So the parents are kind of going. They're just kind of signing up for everything. You know, they're getting the books, they're getting the this,

they're getting that. And they get to the laundry thing and they don't know how long we've been in business or if every kid on campus does it or not. But gosh, here's a chance to, you know, sign their kid up for something that's not that expensive. It'll help make sure that the kids don't ruin their clothes their freshman year if they haven't been used to washing and drying their own clothes. And it saves them some time that they can use for other things. And we had a pretty good pitch. And within a series of like two or three days, we did like $80,000 in prepaid laundry sales for the year. From there, they actually expanded to four other colleges in Texas. And then they were doing so well that Blake dropped out of SMU to focus entirely on the company. And after a few years, they decided to sell it. So at 21, Blake walked away with about $100,000 and lots of time to kill. Yeah. And I actually took a trip out to Los Angeles for the first time to take a little bit of time off, visit a couple friends that were going to school out here. and when I was in LA, I saw these huge advertising displays on the sides of buildings.

Now, growing up in Texas, I'd never seen that. I'd never seen like a massive ad for an iPhone or a movie or whatever, you know, painted on the side of a building. Yet there was a lot of that in Los Angeles. And I noticed that there not only was a lot of it, but there was almost exclusively advertising movies and TV shows. So the specific industry, the L.A. was not a lot of it. known for. And I remember sitting there, I was actually sitting at Mel's Diner on sunset. I'll never

forget this moment. And I was looking at this massive ad for, I think, one of the first Jurassic Park movies. And I was saying, God, this is so powerful. Like, there's no way you can tune out this type of advertising. Yeah. It's bigger than life. It's, it's exciting. You know, I wanted to go see the movie because of the wall scape was so exciting. And underneath it, it had a name of a company, Van Wagner and that was a company that owned that space. So I kind of called Van Wagner and said, hey, I had this company and I really want to do something really big in LA and I saw all this ad. You know, anyways, could I rent this side of this building on sunset? And they said, well, actually we have a year-long contract with Warner Brothers for that one so we can't. But we have

some other one in town. And I was like, well, how much would it cost if I wanted to rent this one? And he said something, I think he said it was like $85,000 a month. Wait, just pause for sake. You were, of course, pretending like you wanted to. Yes, you just want to get the information. Yeah, I was just curious. Yeah. He says 85,000. Eighty-five thousand a month. Wow. And so I'm thinking, hold on, that means that building owner is making over a million dollars a year just by renting the side of their building. And he has two sides because the building faces sunset two different ways. So that's two million dollars on one building. And I thought, and there's no cost. Like,

all you're doing is just painting or putting the vinyl on. There's no like actual billboard structure, steel and all that stuff you have to do. Like, this is, this is incredible. And I just started thinking to myself, like, who would pay $85,000? And, like, why? Because there's no way that could make sense on a, you know, cost per thousand or an advertising metric. I mean, there's just not enough people that drive on sunset.

That's what I was thinking. Yeah. And so the reason that I basically came up with in my mind was it had to be ego-driven. You know, it had to be that, like, all these studios in town went their movies on, you know, on the street. They want to show the actor, the starlet, like, I can put you on this building and like how big a deal of that? And I was living in Nashville at the time. And I made a quick assumption that the country music industry had maybe not as big of egos, but definitely some big egos in town. And what if I put country music stars on the sides of buildings? Huh. So is that,

is that what you did? Yeah. So I went back to Nashville and got after it and found out that, you know, There was no one that had ever done this in Nashville. And it was very, you know, challenging to get the city to allow me to do it. Ultimately, I had to convince the city because they had the Highway Beautification Act, which kept people from putting up any new billboards, I think, like, after year 1984 or something. So what I ultimately came up with after, like, I don't know, countless city council meetings and discussions and this and that was, I was going to actually make the city more beautiful because I was going to. create country music art. And so what I did was I actually would put the album cover of the new

Dixie Chicks or Shania Twain or whoever was coming out with an album. But there would be no like call to action, no like available at Best Buy for 999. It was just the art of the album. And by doing that, I convinced the city I was adding to the landscape of Nashville, which is all about country music. So what would you do? You would call them up and say, hey, I had this idea. All you have to do is give me the side of your building and you get, you're just going to get cash. So, yeah, the thing you don't ever want to do, especially when you're 22 years old and you're trying to talk to 50 and 60 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 not going to inspire a lot of confidence. Yeah. Because people can say, I don't like your idea. I don't believe in your idea. But if you say, I have a business. And what we do is we lease, you know, the side of your building and we'll guarantee you this amount of money per month. and we're going to resell the side of your building

because we specialize in selling advertising to the country music industry, and you'll make money on an asset that you never thought you'd ever make money on. Wow. I mean, you were basically hustling them a little bit. Oh, a hustler. I mean, there's no doubt.

Like, I mean, anyone is an entrepreneur, especially if they start really young. I mean, you got to fake it until you make it. And, you know, and I was never being dishonest. I was just saying, like, this is what I'm doing. And they had nothing to lose. Like by signing a contract with me, then they were basically saying, okay, if you go out and lease this to the Dixie Chicks, let's say, and you can lease it for $10,000 bucks and you're going to give me 30% of that just for me allowing you to do this, that's $3,000 extra dollars a month to a place that maybe was charging $500 a month for apartments. So basically I just created six new apartments that they didn't even have to take care of.

So how did you get the first company or who were labeled to agree to let you work with them? to put their album on. Like, how did you even have those connections? And how did you make that happen? It was just cold calling. You know, I mean, I found out who had albums coming out, did some research. And then I contacted, you know, the marketing person said, hey, I know you're getting ready to promote, you know, this album.

And I have a way that you can promote it larger than life right here in Nashville. It's going to make a big impact. And you could be one of the first to do it. I mean, those are all things that marketing people love to hear. Yeah. And who was your first client? What was the first piece of art that you put up on the side of a building? Amy Grant.

And we did it on the side of a Ramada hotel in downtown. There's a picture of me and my partner who was helping me at the time, standing in front of it, you know, on the cover of the Nashville newspaper when it came out. And it was great. And then once we had that, we had credibility. And then we just started, you know, selling them right and left. What did the label pay for that? I think we charged for that one about, I want to say, 15,000 a month. So we were probably cashful in about $10,000 a month just for that one wall.

I mean, do you think you had the confidence to do that because you had done the laundry business in college? Yeah, I mean, I learned a lot. I started the laundry business as 19. So I'd been, you know, kind of hustling and building and having employees and learning about customer service and learning about all these things for about four years. So when I had this idea, I had probably a little bit more confidence. And, you know, I had nothing to lose, you know.

It's like they either were going to say yesterday they weren't. And I've always been good with, you know, like just taking chances and seeing what happens. So eventually you left Nashville. What would you do with the company? So I ended up selling the company to Clear Channel, big media company that was really big into outdoor advertising. We ended up having walls in Nashville and then we expanded to Dallas too. And once I got to Dallas, I realized that this was like a big business game. I had some small successes, but it was very quickly that the big companies like the Viacombs, Clear Channel, Van Wagners, they were onto my game.

And it was going to be hard to compete with them. So did you walk out of that deal more or less set? Pretty set. Yeah, I mean, look, everything is relative, right? But I definitely had a nice cash flow coming in from that that I wasn't having to, you know, jump to L.A. and find a job. So when I moved to LA, it was more kind of for fun and exploring what could be next. And I was fascinated with reality television and how it was becoming so popular. Because this is like right after like the first Survivor came out.

Yeah. And it just fascinated me. I think the competitiveness in me, the adventure, you know, like all that. And my sister and I were thinking about applying for Survivor. And we actually did apply for Survivor. Wait, you wanted to be contestants on Survivor? Yeah. And the casting people of Survivor were also casting this new show called The Amazing Race.

And they called us up and said, hey, I don't think we can put you and your sister-owned survivor. But they knew about the Amazing Race. And so they kind of talked us into thinking about the Amazing Race. And so we got into the process of being interviewed for that. And we got on. And then the actual show itself was 31 days. So we literally disappeared from our world for 31 days. And we couldn't really tell anyone what we were doing because it's...

Super confidential. So we just, like, disappeared. And you went from, like, country to country, right? Yeah, just all over the world. Take a right, take a right, go, go, go. And then when we were done, the hard part was the show wasn't going to start airing for another, you know, a couple months, and so we couldn't tell anyone what happened.

You know, if we won or if we didn't win or how far we got. I mean, not to spoil the ending for anyone because it did air in 2002, but you barely, I mean, you almost won. You guys almost won a million bucks. Yeah, and thankfully, you didn't because I think that that would have been a positive thing at that moment, but probably wouldn't have been good for my further drive from an entrepreneurial standpoint. So the amazing risk ends. You've sold your company and what?

I mean, at this point, you are kind of, you're like 23, 24. 25 now, you're 25. You've got this check coming in from Clear Channel. I guess presumably you didn't really have to work if you, right? You didn't have to do a whole lot. Yeah, I mean, but I was never really about the money. Like, I mean, every business I've ever started has been more of a curiosity and a kind of what if. And so as I just got off the amazing race and was looking around and seeing how popular reality television is becoming and kind of understanding the basic metrics of advertising and what advertisers want and targeting and all that, I just got really excited about this idea of a network of you really having your own channel that would be completely focused.

on reality and reality TV stars. Like a cable TV channel? Yeah. But how did you... It's just amazing to me because I remember when I was 25. And I, you know, I was... I worked pretty hard. I was a foreign correspondent.

And, you know, I was trying to, like, you know, start my career and stuff. But, I mean, I don't know too many 25-year-olds who would think, let me start a cable TV channel. Like, that's a pretty bold idea to have when you're 25. Yeah. I mean, absolutely. But I felt like, you know, I felt like it was possible.

Like it just seemed like I was in this position. I started to understand by being on the show, the interest that people had. And it was just about finding the right people that knew how to do it and then figure out how to channel their energy and get the right capital together to do it. So did you raise money for it? So I did. So I basically I tracked down the gentleman who was the founder of the E channel and somehow got a meeting with him. And then he kind of said, look, like it's so competitive now to start a channel. You know, it's probably about close to a million bucks, maybe $750,000 you would need just to get the lights turned on.

And I said, well, I definitely don't have $750,000 to just kind of bet on this right out the gate. But I do know some people who really understand reality TV and who have some money that maybe they'd invest. And my idea was to go to all the winners of the reality shows of the last two years and get them to invest. You said you guys should all invest. Let's start a reality TV channel because you guys won. Yeah, and you got the money. They all got a million bucks or whatever. Yeah. 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 this $750,000. And we launched what was called Reality Central.

So you raised this money and then what do you do? Do you start like producing a reality show? No, the whole idea was that we would acquire the content for next to nothing. you know, to re-show. And then we would actually do kind of like mystery dinner theater where you had someone come on that was on the show and kind of talk you through what was happening. Wow. That's a great idea. Yeah, so we thought it was. But, you know, so we really didn't have to spend a lot of mail on the content.

It was more about trying to get the distribution, which ultimately was the Achilles heel and why it didn't work. And because we had to go to, like, Comcast and Time Warner and charter and these big organizations that are. cable networks that host all the channels and convince them that they should give us a slot of the one of 500 channels. And ultimately, we couldn't convince them of that. You know, it's funny, because I hear you tell this story, and I think of you as somebody who has really tried to make the world a better place. And I don't know if your 24-hour reality channel would have made the world a better place. No, it wouldn't have. And I'm so thankful that it didn't work. I would probably want to shoot myself if I was running a reality TV channel.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's something genius about it and something really horribly sinister about it. So what happened with all the people, including you, who put money into it? Unfortunately, we all lost her money. It was really hard. I was pretty depressed for a while. I had to let go everyone.

It was challenging. So when that all kind of collapsed, what did you decide to do? Yeah, what did you decide to do next? So, I mean, this is company three that, that, yeah, I think, I think the, the overarching theme of my entrepreneurial life, which I'm, I'm really thankful for has been like there's been no connection from one business to another. It's literally been me following kind of my curiosities and the serendipitous conversations and experiences I have. And so the next business was totally that way. I was actually at a barbecue as we were kind of closing down the reality channel. And one of the people that worked for me, they had a son that was 15 years old and he was there. And I was asking him what he was doing that summer, you know, making small talk and waiting for a burger or something. And he told me he was doing driver's ed. And I said, oh, it's got to be so exciting.

I mean, you learned to drive. And he responded, like, totally in an uninspiring way. I mean, he just said, like, yeah, it's okay. You know, I go to this place and the teacher's boring. and I pretty much sleep through the class. And I was like, well, first off, this is not good that our future drivers in L.A. are sleeping through their driver's ed class. That doesn't make me feel good by getting on the highway.

And the second thing is, like, I mean, getting your license should be like this amazing experience for a 15-year-old. And there's got to be a better way to engage them. Yeah. And I just thought, gosh, like all these teenagers are starting to be online more and more. You know, maybe there's a way to kind of take this drivers. ed instruction and learning into the technology that the teenagers are embracing. Yeah. So I had this idea to kind of start a new type of driver's ed company.

We would do all the instruction online. You'd have to pass things in a sequential manner so you could really make sure that they're learning and they're paying attention. Like they couldn't just like cram for the final test. They would have to, you know, get to stages, almost like a video game. And I recognize that one of the ways to get them to pay attention. and be more excited about the actual learning to drive was to have drivers at teachers that were going to hold teenagers attention.

And the best way I could figure out to do that was I hired only models and actors and actresses part-time. So you would basically hire like attractive people as the- Super attractive people that teenage boys and girls would be like, you know, totally idolizing, you know? And I knew that would spread fast on the internet. And there's a lot of people in L.A. that need part-time work, need flexible schedules between auditions, and they're trying to make it. And I was really lucky.

I found some guys that were already in the business of online traffic school and driver's ed. And so they kind of really knew the business. And we ended up being partners. And I was a 33% partner in the new company that we formed together with these two other guys. How did you get the word out about it? You know, we did once again, we went and drafted my old flyers. You know, I love the old flyers. So flyers at high schools, you know, lots of that, lots of, you know, targeting on MySpace.

But it grew really quickly. Just to clarify to listeners, we are going to get to the good that you did in the world. We will get to that. We will get to that. So, okay, so you've got this fourth business, the driver's ed business that is going really well. And, I mean, could you have just continue to do this car thing forever and ever? or, I mean, did you think that that was going to be the rest of your life? You know, I never think.

I mean, I never thought, like, one business was going to be the rest of my life, probably until Tom's. Blake Mikeski, when we come back, how a random conversation in a wine bar in South America led Blake to Tom's and his biggest business yet. I'm Guy Raz, and you're listening to How I Built This from NPR. Hey, welcome back to How I Built This from NPR. I'm Guy Raz. So it's 2006 and Blake's driver's ed business has taken off. He's making good money. He's living a great life. But he was feeling a little bored, a little restless. So he decided to take a break and do something a little unusual. He thought, why don't I learn how to play polo in Argentina? And it was actually after about being down there for about three weeks when I met serendipitously a few women that were, in a wine bar that were talking in English, which was nice because most everyone is speaking Spanish, and I didn't understand most of what they were saying. And when I asked about what they

were doing, they explained they were doing something they characterized as a shoe drive. And what that meant was they were going around collecting slightly used shoes from wealthy families in Buenos Aires to take to children who did not have shoes and couldn't afford shoes that needed them to go to school. And I was just really taken by their passion for this project and the fact that there were kids just outside of Pointe of Cyrus that didn't have shoes because that was something, you know, kind of new to me. And, you know, I asked enough questions to get interested. And they offered me to come with them and help distribute the shoes. And I said, sure. They said, listen, you want to just check it out with us? Like in the next couple days? Yeah, they were going

like a week later. And I was going to be down there still. And so yeah. So what happened when you got down there? The experience was an amazing one. I mean, I didn't have really any experience up at this point about volunteering or being in a place of poverty. But I saw all these kids really light up when they got these shoes. And these weren't even new shoes. These were used shoes. But the kids were acting like it was Christmas Day.

And their parents were excited and there was joy. And after we put the shoes on the kids, we played with them, we jumped rope. We played soccer. We did all these things. And it was just a great day. And so I went back that evening and I was talking to my polo teachers, named Alejo, about the experience and telling him what a great day I had and how, you know, how satisfying it was. And I was going on and on just, you know, like when you're gushing with enthusiasm. And then he asked me a question that I really wasn't prepared for.

He said, Blake, he said, this is amazing what you've done. And I commend you and doing this in my country. And I know what area you were in today. And that's a very challenging area for the families. He said, but what happens when the kids, you know, grow out of their shoes or when they wear out of them? If it's their only pair, they're going to wear out of them. And I said, gosh, you know, I don't know. And his question kind of haunted me, to be honest, because all of a sudden I thought, gosh, did we actually do something good?

Or did we just further propagate a problem that they're going to have down the road? And I remember that night, like, actually having a little trouble sleeping and kind of wrestling with this question he asked. So I woke up the next morning, and one of the things I've done since I was like, like 15 years old as I write in my journal almost every morning. And I was having a cup of coffee and writing in my journal and kind of thinking about his question. And ultimately I got to this idea of like, okay, well, if I really want to help these kids, which I really did, I really connected to this group, maybe I go and get all my friends to donate shoes a couple times a year and we bring them down.

And I thought, well, you know, that's, once again, 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 donations what if I actually started a shoe business and every time I sold a pair of shoes I would give a pair away what what kind of shoes did you have in mind at that point well you know at the same time I'd been in Argentina for about a month and I noticed that a lot of the polo players and even some of their girlfriends were wearing these these shoes called the Alpergata and it was kind of like

an espadryl type canvas shoe that was very different than anything I'd ever seen in the U.S. And it just like kind of magically kind of came together with, gosh, what if I sold these shoes that everyone down here is wearing to people who've never seen them and come back here and give away shoes to kids who need them? So what did you, how did you even get started? So we just started meeting with people in town that made these shoes and asking them like, hey, could you change this? could you change that. They all thought it was crazy because what they all, in what the country in Argentina would everyone appreciate about the shoe is they were really inexpensive and they were kind of disposable and they were, you know, not something that put too much investment in so people

could buy them, you know, every month or two or a couple months as they kind of need a new pair. And so they thought some of our changes was going to make the shoe way too expensive, but they didn't really understand that we had a market that would pay because people were paying 40 bucks for a pair of vans. If I could make something that... had the same, you know, kind of longevity, then they would pay $40 for this. And these were just like small-time artisanal shoemakers, or were these... Yeah, yeah, just people making them in their garages or making them in different, you know, small little barns and factories and things. So we got some ideas and they prototyped them really rapidly because they were small little organizations.

And we made a couple hundred pairs of like prototypes. And the name Tom's was birthed or created. down there too because when I told Alejo what I wanted to do, I said, I think if we sell a pair of shoes today, we'll give away a pair of shoes tomorrow. And we'll call them tomorrow's shoes. And our slogan will be shoes for a better tomorrow. So it's all around this word tomorrow. And 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 in the heel. So we shortened the word tomorrow's to Tom's, and that's how the word Tom's came. And so you get back to the U.S., how many pairs of shoes did you bring back?

About 250 pairs. And what was your idea to just see if this would work like? Because you could have come back to the U.S. and people would have said, I'm not really sure about these. Or you could have sold them all, and then what? Yeah, it was definitely, I mean, I try to stress this to people. I mean, of all the businesses that I started, this was the, the least business of the businesses.

And that's the irony of all of it. 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 business. It was clearly like, this is a way for me to kind of stay connected to this amazing feeling I had of helping these kids and an excuse to come back to Argentina, which I had

totally fall in love with. And that was it. And I'd still do the driver's ed business. I'd still kind of have my normal. life as an entrepreneur, but this would kind of be my side project and my kind of own personal, you know, fun, philanthropic experiment. And so when you came back to L.A., how did you sell the shoes? What did you do? So, I mean, first I kind of got some friends and my sister and girlfriends and stuff to kind of buy them. And luckily they liked them and they thought they were cool and

they were different and they liked the style and they loved the idea that they were helping someone. And what did you charge for? At the originally price was I think 37 bucks. And so I sold a few pairs that way and then I got some people, local people in LA that worked in PR that I had met through Friends of Friends to help me try to get the story out there because it was a really interesting story. And at the same time, they knew some like kind of cool, trendy kind of fashion stores that like to carry stuff that no one else has.

This was clearly that. And so my first account was a store in L.A. called American Rag. I went in there with a really a backpack full of these shoes, some pictures of the kids that we had helped in Argentina. And, you know, the girl's name was Courtney. She was a shoe buyer. And I shared her the shoes, and she really liked them. And then I told her the story, and then she just loved it. And she was like, this is totally unique.

This is totally us. She asked me how many pairs I had to sell. And I said, well, look, I started 250. I've sold about 30 pairs, so I have 220. I have a little website that's selling them as well. And so she took, I think, like 85 pairs and put a little display in the window at American Rag. And that was our first big account.

But one of the funniest and most amazing parts of the story and really kind of a turning point in all of it was this woman Boothmore, who was at the time kind of the leading fashion writer for the LA Times. She was in the store, American Rag, and heard about the story. and she asked for my information

and she contacted me and she interviewed me so I did interview I 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 in the LA Times and that day we sold 2,200 pairs on the website Wow

but I only had like 80 pairs in my apartment in your apartment you had 80 boxes or you're like 80 stacks of shoes 2200 pairs what did you do well I kind of freaked out

Okay, yeah. I also did what I think a lot of entrepreneurs do in a time of dire need. I started putting as many ads for interns on Craigslist as I could. And I got this, like, small army of interns to help basically be customer service to email and call all these people and let them know that there was no chance that they were going to get their shoes in the four days or five days of the website. I promised it was going to be more like, you know, maybe a couple months or, you know, longer because I had to go back and make them an Argentine. Tina. You literally had to hop on a plane and go back? Yeah. So like three days later, after I got the intern set up with like laptops and phones in my apartment, I said, okay, I'm going back to make these shoes. And I took the article because

I knew they would never believe me. And I literally, uh, Fruit of Buenos Aires took a taxi to this guy's house, Juan Torres, who was making the shoes in his garage force at the time. Had Alejo meet me there. And I walked in and with the little Spanish I knew, I said something like, uh, um, Muchos Zapato's Rapido. And, yeah, and we just got cranking, and Juan called some friends over and other people who knew how to make the shoes. And we got our own little kind of small little factory going in this little barn down there. And after a couple weeks, we got to where we could make about 900 pairs a week out of this little operation. So it took you, what, a month?

Three, four weeks? Three, four weeks to make 2,200 pairs. So you have 2,200 pairs of shoes being made in Argentina, and then did you ship them back? Did you like stuff them in suitcases? Like, how did you bring them back? We literally, I mean, it was like we put them in like big boxes and they flew back with me on American Airlines in the cargo area of the airplane. So you walk out of LAX with giant boxes of shoes. You race back to your apartment in Venice.

Is that right? Yeah, met up with the interns. and we started, you know. Shipping them out. Shipping boxes. Like, so did you have boxes made and did it look professional? Or did it? Was it just like just the shoes in like a padded envelope?

Yeah, basically. And so we got the UPS guy to actually come to our apartment and pick up every day, which was great. So we didn't have to like take them all the way to the place. And so, so yeah, so we were running, shipping the stuff out of the apartment every day. And then because of that, we're getting mortars online. and then we started, you know, talking to some more stores. You guys were, I mean, you were like on a roll already at this point, right? Yeah.

And then the next big break was we got a call from Vogue magazine. And that funny thing about that was I had just seen the movie, The Devil Wears Prada. Yeah. And so I'd see Meryl Street, you know, playing Anna Went Door. And I'd see how challenging she is to Anne Hathaway's character. And when I got a call from Vogue to come to New York to meet with him, I was horrified. They wanted you to come there to meet with them? Yeah, why?

Well, I mean, they wanted to interview me, and they had read the LA Times article. And so, yeah, I went and they interviewed me, and then later they did a photo shoot in Venice. And next thing you know, we were in Vogue. And when we were in Vogue, it just all kind of exploded. Exploded. Yeah, everyone. The crazy thing is that people just assumed, like, we were like a real company when we were in Vogue. And so we were getting calls from, like, stores, all of the country.

And when did, like, celebrities start to, to. to catch on it. That was also the benefit, I think, of being in L.A. and that it was just such a radical idea. Like, no fashion company or shoe company had ever, like, given something away every time they sold it. And I think that naturally appealed to certain celebrities. And they also, like, you know, wearing things that other people don't have and, like, it's new. And so, so we just started, like, without any work on our own, we just started seeing celebrities wearing these shoes. And they started getting photographed by the paparazzi. And then it started showing up in things like People magazine and Us Weekly and okay.

Wow. But the craziest moment for me was when I saw a stranger actually wearing the shoes. That was about three or four months later, I was actually in New York trying to sign up some new stores. This was right before Vogue came out. I was a little discouraged, and I was going to the airport to fly back to L.A. And I actually wasn't wearing my shoes. I was wearing a pair of running shoes. Anyways, I'm at American Airlines.

I'm checking in using the kiosk and the girl next to me, she's probably mid-30s. She's wearing a red pair of tops. And at this point, like, the only people I've ever seen wearing our shoes are like my, you know, my parents, my friends, my interns, maybe my neighbor, you know. And I was so excited, you know, like here's like a total random person wearing a pair of our shoes. So, of course, you had to talk to her. Yeah. So I said, as we were doing the check in, I said, excuse me. I said, I couldn't help but notice these shoes you're wearing these.

They're really cool. What are they? And she, like, looked at me and she goes, oh, they're Tom's, Tom's shoes. This is, like, the most amazing company in the world. I'm like, oh, really? Tell me about it. She's like, when I bought this pair of shoes, they gave a pair to a child in Argentina. And I'm like, I have to tell her who I am, right?

And so I said, well, actually, you know, I'm actually Blake. I started Tom's. And she's like, dead silent, you know, like, like, she's just like, can't believe it. And then she looks at me, she goes, why did you cut your hair? And that was her main question. And the funny thing was, why she knew I got my hair, why she knew I lived on a boat, all this stuff was because of, at this point now, you know, we're on Facebook and we're, you know, we're promoting on YouTube.

And she had not just been a customer. She had gone online and, like, learned everything she possibly could about the business. And it just really started to kind of, like, in my mind, from a entrepreneur and mathematical standpoint, be like, whoa, this could get big. It's just unbelievable. I mean, so everyone who bought a pair of Tom's knew, more or less knew that when they were buying a pair, you guys would give a pair to a child of need. Yeah. I mean, in the early days, I think that's the primary driver of why people bought Tom's.

The shoes were, frankly, not that good of quality. They didn't last as long as we had hoped they would. I mean, you know, they were different. They were stylish, et cetera. But the giving was a huge, huge driver in the early days. You know, I mean, I'm like a total, I'm like three years behind everybody else. And I think the first time I heard about Tom's was in 2009, this commercial that I saw on TV. What was that about?

What happened? So I was doing a lot of media about Tom's. And so I think I was doing a CNN interview. And the woman asked me, she said, how in the world do you run your business? Because I'd just gotten back from Ethiopia on a giving trip. And she's like, when you were in Ethiopia last week, you were in, and you know, Argentina three weeks before that, and you have this fast-growing business,

like how are you running this company and being in all these places where you were giving out these shoes? And I held up my Blackberry at the time, which I had, and I said, this is the key. I said, I can literally approve designs, take orders, you know, do everything from this, and I can do it from Ethiopia.

And someone who worked at BBDNO ad agency, who AT&T was our client, saw that interview. And they thought, man, if this guy uses AT&T, this is the best commercial we could ever do. Right? And thankfully, I did use AT&D. So they called me up and they said, okay, well, we want to talk to you about an idea we have for a commercial. My name is Blake, and I'm the chief shoemaker at Tom Shoes.

They went with us on a real giving trip in Uruguay. When you went and handed out shoes to kids. When we hand out shoes, they filmed us in our office. I need a network with great coverage because for every pair of shoes that we sell, we can. was just totally real, totally legit, and they made it into a very different type of commercial for AT&T, but it just hit a nerve with people. That was a turning point. That turned Tom's from kind of this fashion niche thing to a major shoe company. Yeah, I mean, that was the turning point. Because now, I mean, millions and

millions of Americans at least were seeing our story multiple times throughout the week on different shows and commercials. And that was just driving the business in an incredible way. And by this point, had you, I mean, I'm assuming you, you hired a team to help you run this growing business, right? Because you were probably doing, like, what kind of revenue were you doing every year? At that point, I mean, we did the first year in business, I want to say we did about 300,000. And the second year, we did about $3 million. And the third year, we did like $15 million. in the fourth year we went to like 60 million.

Wow. I mean, we went from basically from zero to $450 million in sales on an annual basis in like seven years. You know, I think we became the fastest growing shoe company in the world. That's insane. Yeah, it was insane. What did you find to be the hardest thing about growing so quickly, you know, after that commercial and after you just started like going gangbusters? I mean, you had this shoes. Making the shoes. For sure. Yeah. And even, I mean, even until just, I would say,

recently is the last two years, making the shoes has always been the hardest part for us. Because none of us were shoemakers. None of us were, you know, production people. I mean, it was all just different people I met along the journey that had a passion for, you know, for helping kids and doing something disruptive and having fun. And like, and so the discipline of being in great, making shoes has always been something that we've struggled. with and we've really just recently in the last couple of years gotten better at. But like I'm wondering about something that happened around 2011, 2012, because you decided to just take a step back from from the whole company and just like drop off the map.

So why? Well, you know, the business was was becoming pretty corporate, pretty kind of bureaucratic. We had, you know, a leadership team that we had built that was, you know, maybe not running it the same kind of way that we used to and same passion. And I didn't feel as connected to the mission of Tom's. And I was questioning, like, is this something I wanted to the rest of my life? Or like my other entrepreneur gigs, is it time to go and do something different? And so I just felt the best thing for me to do, which I've always found is when I'm struggling. It's just to get away and kind of be alone and take some time. And I did that. What did you do? Did you just, like,

go take a hike? No, I went back to Austin, Texas, where I originally love all. Austin and I'd just gotten married. And so my wife and I decided to move to Austin for a year. I mean, if the company became super corporate and you were kind of disillusioned, what happened to make you want to return to it? Ultimately, I realized there was more to be done. You know, like we had bigger ambitions than what we had accomplished before. You know, I felt like we could use our model to help more people with more products. I had enough new things that kind of get my energy again. You know, it was just time for me to come back. And it was really my wife, actually. She recognized that I was

kind of getting into a depressed state in Austin. And I just realized when I was gone that I loved it. I missed it. I missed the people. I missed being in it. Missed the challenges. Yeah. I mean, I've seen you refer to Tom's as a movement rather than a business. Obviously, you know, there's some people who are cynical about that. And then they say, oh, that's just, that's just Blake. He's just using that as a way to generate more interest in this business. But is that, like, is that how you see it, a movement rather than a business? You know, I think, I think that the movement part, I really felt that when our customers are engaged in the effect that they're having with their business and that maybe buying a pair of Tom's is the first step or maybe it's the 10th step

and their desire to be more conscious consumers and humans. And so to me, that is more of a movement of a way of thinking than it is a business transaction. Blake, you, I mean, you've read and know about, you know, over the years people have said, look, you know, this might sound like a great business model. But actually, Tom's is disrupting markets in these countries. And they're actually not helping alleviate poverty. and, you know, they're actually creating other problems. I mean, surely some of those criticisms are, there's some, you know, merit to them, right? Yes.

I mean, the first and kind of most prevalent criticism has been like, okay, if Tom's really want to make a difference in the communities, they would not just focus on aid. They would focus on job creation. And that criticism was really difficult to hear at first because, frankly, I just didn't know how to address it. Like, I agreed with it. And, you know, yes, in theory, it would be amazing to create a bunch of jobs in Kenya. But, I mean, how in the world am I going to figure that out, like with everything else going on? 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 know, lots of different places where we're also giving. So was that, was that a direct response to your critics or sort of like saying, you know what, you're right? It was. It was. And it was a humbling experience in one where we had to express some vulnerability and say, okay, we don't know how to do this. We're going to try it.

And we started small. We scaled as we've gone. And it's actually been, you know, now it's something that we pride ourselves in as part of our business. I mean, the idea of buy one and then we'll give one to somebody. need really, you know, you guys are, you are credited with really starting this model. You probably weren't the first. They were probably other companies out there doing this, but, you know, you did this on a very big scale. And since then, lots and lots and lots of companies have followed that model, Warby Parker and others. And it's been good for business. I mean, that model has actually been

really, really good. Yeah, I mean, I think of all the things we're most proud of, Tom's is like the legacy that we've created in this model has become not just a relevant model of Tom's, but with lots of companies around the world. And it's encouraged even companies beyond the one-f-one model to incorporate giving more into their actual business model and not just a check that they write at the end of the year, you know, to a nonprofit. Yeah. Yeah, I think about like the arc of your career, right? I mean, the laundry business for college students and the outdoor advertising company and the reality TV. channel and then the the driver's ed school um i mean very different from what you did with thoms right

like very very different but do you think that you could have done tombs without without doing all those previous companies um i don't think tombs would be where it is today if i hadn't had those experiences the thinking behind tombs was always there but it was always something that was more in in order of make money first, help others second, because that's how every other business person I'd ever known had done it. You know, I never had read about anyone that was helping people as they were building the business. And I think that Tom's is like my soulmate of business. Like, I mean, it's like I get to be creative. I get to find meaning in that. You know, I recognize that this amount of wealth that now my wife and I were responsible for was far more than we would ever

even think about spending in our lifetime. And so 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 we are faced with. And so that's been a huge blessing in all of this as well. Blake Mikeshowski, founder of Tom's Shoes. By the way, Tom's has given away more than 70 million shoes in 70 countries around the world. back in 2014, Blake sold half of the company to a private equity group. Up until then, Tom's had never had a single investor.

Do people call you Tom? All the time. Yeah. And I answer to it. You say, yeah. They'll say, hey, Tom. People say, hey, Tom at the airport. I turn around just as if they said, hey, Blake, because I know who they're talking to him.

And please do stick around because in just a moment, we're going to hear from you about all the things you're building. Hey, thanks for sticking around because it's time now for how you built that. And this week's story comes to us from Chris Healy in San Diego, California. Hello. Who, like any other entrepreneur, wanted to solve a problem. But before we get to the problem, here's a bit about Chris. My hair is blonde. It's about down to the middle of my back.

When you see me, that's pretty much the first thing you're going to notice. Chris and his buddy Lindsay run a mark. marketing business. And Chris and Lindsay, they're both dudes with long hair. And when I mean long, I mean like Brooke Shields in 1982 long. And because of this, they kept running into a problem that men with long hair face. We go to the women's hair care aisle and search for the hair ties that look the least girly. And that's what guys with long hair have been doing for decades. The struggle is real, guys. It's not a very fun experience when you have to choose something that is the least bad option.

So one day, and this was back in 2014, when Chris was driving back with Lindsay after visiting a client, it came to him. I swear it just popped out. The words just popped out. I got it. It's hair ties for guys. In short, a more manly man-bun scrunchy. Chris wanted a hair tie that was a little bit wider. a little more comfortable, and with some cool designs, he wasn't seeing in the drugstore aisle. Everything from surfboards, lightning bolts, martini glasses, camouflage, rocket launchers, fun designs. So Chris and Lindsay thought, we've got this great idea. Let's make some hair ties, quick and easy. But it wasn't so simple. We started out buying our own materials, tying them off, finally got a manufacturing connection.

We got the first round with our designs printed on them, not what we were looking for. Finally, probably five samples later, we finally got what we wanted. And it took almost two years from the time that we had the idea until we had the product ready to sell. That was back in December 2015. And since then, they've sold more than 6,000 packs of hair ties to customers all over the world. Chris sells them on his website, which is elegantly called the long hares. And the site's got articles, tutorials, and tips for men about how to grow your hair out. And, of course, how to keep it healthy and glowing.

We truly are a lifestyle brand because having long hair is a lifestyle. It's a choice. You are always reminded of your long hair. I mean, just look at DiCaprio and Brad Pitt or Hairy Styles and, of course, David Beckham. Celebrities who have all at some point worn a man bun, which is a term Chris actually doesn't really like. So we call it a highball, like a fine glass of scotch. It's refined, it's dignified, and it portrays the proper respect of the fine men's hairstyle that it is. Chris Healy, co-founder of The Longhairs.

He and Lindsay have been putting everything they make back into the company for now. But eventually, they have dreams to turn the Longhairs into a full-time gig. If you want to find out more about The Long Hairs, head to our Facebook page, just search How I Built This on Facebook. And of course, if you want to tell us your story, go to build.npr.org. We love, love, love, love hearing your stories. Thanks also for listening to the show this week. If you want to find out more or listen to previous episodes, you can go to how I built this.

You can also write to us at hibt at npr.org. And if you want to send a tweet, it's at How I Built This. Our show is produced this week by Rund Abd al-Fata, with original music composed by Ramtin Arableu. Thanks also to Neva Grant, Sanazmesh Kempore, Claire Breen, and Jeff Rogers. Our intern is Lawrence Wu. I'm Guy Raz, and you're listening to How I Built This from NPR. Hey there, I'm Hanna Rosen, and I wanted to let you know that Invisibilia is back on June 1st. This season, we're asking the question, how is it that two people can look at the exact same thing

and see something completely different? You can listen and subscribe to Invisibilia on the NPR One app, or wherever you get your podcasts. Bye.