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Toms (stylized as TOMS) is a for-profit〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.toms.com/faq/ )〕 company based in Playa Del Rey, California, that operated the now defunct non-profit subsidiary, Friends of Toms. The company was founded in 2006 by Blake Mycoskie, an entrepreneur from Arlington, Texas. The company designs and sells shoes based on the Argentine alpargata design as well as eyewear. When Toms sells a pair of shoes, a new pair of shoes is given to an impoverished child, and when Toms sells a pair of eyewear, part of the profit is used to save or restore the eyesight for people in developing countries. Similarly, the company launched TOMS Roasting Co. in 2014. With each purchase of TOMS Roasting Co. coffee, the company works with other organizations that they refer to as “giving partners” to provide 140 liters of safe water (a one-week supply) to a person in need. In 2015, TOMS Bag Collection was launched to help address the need for advancements in maternal health. Purchases of TOMS Bags help provide training for skilled birth attendants and distribute birth kits containing items that help a woman safely deliver her baby. ==Company history== Blake Mycoskie first visited Argentina while competing in the second season of ''The Amazing Race'' with his sister in 2002. He returned there on vacation in January 2006, and noticed that the local polo players were wearing a form of shoes called alpargatas, a simple canvas slip-on shoe that he himself began to wear. The shoes have been worn by Argentine farmers for hundreds of years and were the inspiration for the classic style of Toms shoes.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Blake Mycoskie )〕 They are made from canvas or cotton fabric and are now manufactured in many styles including a cordones, botas, wedges, stitchouts, and wrap boots. The sole is constructed of rubber.〔 Later in the trip, when he was doing some volunteer work in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, he noticed that many of the children were running through the streets barefooted. After discovering that a lack of shoes was a wider problem in Argentina and other developing countries than just this one community, he decided that he wanted to develop a kind of alpargata for the North American market, with the caveat that for every pair sold he would provide a new pair of shoes free of charge to the shoeless youth of Argentina and other developing nations.〔 Mycoskie had learned that the lack of shoes was a problem that had a serious impact upon these youth, threatening the ability of the children to go to school, prevent infection, and so forth. He took the idea to Argentine shoe manufacturers and began building the company based on this idea, and initially made 250 pairs of shoes. The company first officially began selling its shoes in May 2006.〔 After an article ran in the ''Los Angeles Times'', the company received order requests for nine times the available stock online,〔 and 10,000 pairs were sold in the first six months. The first batch of free shoes were distributed in October 2006 to Argentine children; the number was equivalent to the amount of stock sold: ten thousand.〔 The company was self-financed, as Mycoskie sold his online driver education company for $500,000 to fund the shoe company. The company name (TOMS) is derived from the word "tomorrow,"〔 and evolved from the original concept, "Shoes for Tomorrow Project." In 2007 the company launched an annual "One Day Without Shoes" event where adherents do not wear shoes throughout the day in order to raise awareness for Toms' mission for clothing impoverished children. The day to raise awareness has had partners such as AOL, Flickr, and the Discovery Channel that help to promote the event. By 2011 over 500 retailers were carrying the brand globally; that year it also launched its eyewear line. By 2012 over two million pairs of new shoes had been given to children in developing countries around the world. The Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative at the University of New Mexico describes the company as "a for-profit business with a philanthropic component".〔 In June 2014, the company announced that founder Blake Mycoskie was looking to sell part of his stake in the company to investment partners in a move to help grow and expand faster and meet the long-term goals of the company. On August 20, 2014 it was announced that Bain Capital had acquired 50% of Toms. Reuters reported that the transaction valued the company at $625 million. Mycoskie retained 50% ownership of Toms, as well as his role as Chief Shoe Giver, and said that the goal of the sale was to build the company's global impact. Mycoskie will use half of the proceeds from the sale to start a new fund to support socially minded entrepreneurship, and Bain will match his investment and continue the company’s one-for-one policy. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Toms Shoes」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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