TOMS Shoes » Team SW

time’s flying by but we still lookin fly

blairSW — Mon, 11 May 2009 20:55:32 +0000

This week has just flown right by us. We went from San Diego to Beverly Hills to Salt Lake and have now ended up in Vegas… to be reunited with the rest of the Vagabond family!

Our Event at Point Loma was amazing dance parties and pictures galore! Our rep created a TOMS photo booth which of course made for some epic photos:

Team SW with our awesome rep Max!!

Kelli’s dream come true! An entire Mustache Militia!

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getting acquainted

krystenSW — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:01:44 +0000

I’m writing to you from the Vagavan, as Team SW once again leaves Los Angeles, headed for Phoenix. We just can’t seem to get enough of California and Arizona. It was exceptionally hard to leave LA this time, however. We’ve spent the past week getting acquainted with our San Juan Hills High School campus rep, Parker Tinsley, and his incredible family. We had originally planned to stay with him for only two days – the night before and the night after his event. When they realized we had nowhere to stay for the two nights after that, the Tinsleys insisted that we stay. Considering how much we hung out with Parker this week, we hope he had enough time to finish all of his schoolwork. We all know how important it is to get straight A’s! Admist crashing at their beautiful home in Orange County, we worked at the Catalyst Conference West Coast in Irvine during the day. The conference provided an awesome opportunity to introduce attendees to TOMS and to the One for One movement. Blake spoke to a packed room on the first day of the conference, most of which had never heard of TOMS before. The conference was chalk full of familiar faces – Sean Carasso and the other guys at Falling Whistles (www.FallingWhistles.com) were there, as was the Hillsong United worship band and the people from To Write Love On Her Arms. We even ran into former TOMS interns!

We’re having a hard time believing that tour is going to be coming to an end soon. But don’t worry – if you’re in Arizona, Nevada, California or Utah, we’ll see you again before we head home!

TOMS all day,

xoxo Krysten

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team sw in texas? oklahoma?

krystenSW — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:37:11 +0000

After Team SW left Phoenix, Arizona, we began the grueling drive across New Mexico. Where were we headed? Not anywhere in the southwest region of the United States, as you might suspect. We were headed to Lubbock, Texas. Our Midwest team is rocking it out there on the road, but the Midwest (primarily Texas) is just one big place with a lot of ground to cover. So we decided to tackle the event at Texas Tech University, where we helped pre-sell shoes for an event at a local Lubbock TOMS retailer, Chrome. They have an awesome event this Saturday, April 4th, from 10:00 – 6:00 PM, with lots of live music and food – and will, of course, be selling TOMS! Our Texas Tech campus rep Jordan and her roommate Jennifer definitely showed us some Texas hospitality – Jordan gave up her bed for us to sleep in! They were wonderful girls and really wish we could’ve stayed longer.

After Lubbock, we drove on to Dallas, where we stayed for the night to break up our drive north to Norman, Oklahoma. I have family in Dallas and Kelli has friends in Fort Worth, so it was nice to see them all briefly. The highlight of our time in Dallas, however, was the fact that we ran into two crazy girls who are traveling the country in a 15 passenger van, selling shoes at high school and college campuses! Wait…that sounds oddly familiar. You’ve got it, Team SW ran into the infamous Midwest Team, in all their glory. They were headed down to Houston for an event, but we had just enough time to grab breakfast with them, swap stories, and share some love. It was fun to see the Vagavans parked next to each other and snag some photos of us all reunited.

Before heading up to Oklahoma, we made one last stop in Dallas on our way out. We visited Kelsey Brandon, one of the OG Vagabonds, or a member of Vagabonds Season 1, if you will. This girl is probably the sweetest thing on earth. She had a bag full of goodies ready for us when we got there, as well as lots of smiles and hugs while she asked us how the tour was going so far.

When we finally arrived in Norman, OK, we were thrilled to meet Natalia – the best friend of our beloved HQ intern Danielle – who let us crash at her place for a few days. Our event at University of Oklahoma was the jam (props to both our campus rep Kelli and the former rep Kojo, for setting it all up), and we can’t wait to see what the next two weeks worth of events in Oklahoma are going to be like (most likely out of this world – duh).

We love you all! TOMS all day!

Krysten

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arizona california arizona?

blairSW — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 00:27:46 +0000

We have finally left the state!! We hit Arizona on Sunday… but we were back in LA today for a church event. We set up at a huge Eco Friendly Fashion show at USC, too. Now we’re blazing the trail back to AZ- all in one day. Its going to be crazy and that is why we are just the ladies for the job!

Anyways, back to how things have gone for our last week…. To begin with all you other Vagabonds out there are so jealous that we got to see Mikey P!!! He helped us put on an event at the Pearl Hotel in Point Loma Saturday night. Our last big BANG in CA before eating a quick Ihop b-fast and heading to AZ. We haven’t quite been vagabonding it since our arrival here, being that Kelli’s apartment is in Phoenix we’ve been living a lush lifestyle the last few days. We had two great events in Tucson with our amazing reps Chelsea and Jenna. [We love you guys!] Had a relaxing day off yesterday and are getting ready for what’s bound to be another great event tonight at ASU!!

For me this week as been the first week of real tour being that I’m from Southern California it wasn’t much different then the travel I was used to. Krysten and Kelli didn’t feel like we were really on the road until we were crossing that state line either. We can’t believe that tour is almost half way over but are loving every event and every campus rep more and more. Although I will admit that it’s getting to the point where days and weeks and dates blend together. Wait is today Monday or Thursday… no Friday? I dunno. haha. No matter what day it is we know were going to have an epic event at whatever school we stumble upon!

Highway Motorist Tip #4:

Be advised that Interstate 8 is a windy dusty road. We felt a little like Dorthy and got excited for just a moment that we may end up in OZ to sell TOMS to munchkins. Despite the excitement its not so good for steering, cleanliness, and definitely for your air filter! Bernadette [the official name of the van] had to have it replaced yesterday along with her oil change. She’s still a pretty dirty girl though…

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get excited!

krystenSW — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:14:18 +0000

Friday marked the last day the Vagabonds were in the office at TOMS headquarters! Today, we hit the road on our tour of the Southwest and we couldn’t be more stoked. Last week was absolutely nuts – preparing for a three month tour in a van is not an easy thing. We organized and packed inventory (and trust me when I tell you that packing a 15-passenger van is a lot harder than a game of Tetris), put together art supplies, and – of course – continued booking our tour! We definitely learned what shuffling around boxes in a van is really going to be like for the next twelve weeks. Friday, the Vagabonds attended the Falling Whistles Fashion Show in downtown Los Angeles. We were very excited to support an organization that helps raise awareness and bring an end to child soldiers in DR Congo. Falling Whistles is nothing but supportive of TOMS and we’re looking forward to returning the love!

Kelli, Blair and I were so sad to say goodbye to our fellow Vagabonds this morning… but we definitely made this past weekend one of the best! We had a farewell breakfast Saturday morning before loading boxes into our respective vans and this morning, the TOMS staff and the Vagabonds had their very own Style Your Sole event as part of our tour launch party.

We can’t believe that we’re already on the road – but we couldn’t be happier to come to a city near you to spread the TOMS love! Get excited!

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out here in hollywood you don’t need a sweater cause the sun feels better

rachontheroad — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:01:22 +0000

Well, the week that Hannie and I have LOVINGLY dubbed ‘hell week’ has finally come to a close. 5 states, 6 states was a huge success, but it actually turned out to be 6 days, 6 states. We completely overlooked Colorado! WOOPS! It was a crazy week and we’re proud to say that we survived and had a great time plowing through it.

We were able to stay with my friend John in Utah for a few days—and can I please tell you how much we freakin’ loved Utah?! First of all- best host ever. He had dinner waiting for us when we arrived, new toothbrushes, and and huge towels. I’ll be honest, I had a lot of preconceived notions about Utah—and those were totally thrown out the window. It was gorgeous, clean, and everyone was SO excited about TOMS! We had a great event at Utah State University and fell in love with the students there. Everyone was SO NICE!

To sum things up, 6 states, 6 days, 6 miles walked barefoot, a motel 6, 3 Hanson concerts, 40 hours driven, and approximately 902 text messages to fellow Vagas, friends, and family keeping them updated along the way the way– It was total insanity.

It was Vagabonding.

We’re back in California for another round of events before we wrap up the tour in mid-December. Hannah and I are lucky enough to be going home for Thanksgiving and we CANNOT WAIT! The tour is absolutely incredible, but we’re pretty stoked to sleep in our own beds and see our other sister, Molly—our favorite human on the planet. More on our experience with the Hanson boys and TOMS Project Holiday soon.

Hope you’re all having an excellent fall semester, and we’ll see you on the road!

Love,

Rachel & Hannah

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live from Salt Lake City…

rachontheroad — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:04:34 +0000

We thought Kelsey and Laura (we love ya’ll!!!) had a sweeeet idea in making a photo blog– so we’re following their lead! Here’s a tiny bit of what we’ve experienced over the past 7 weeks…

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like a rolling stone…

rachontheroad — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:13:00 +0000

Hey Everyone!

Well, Hannah and I finally made it out of California! We had an amazing time over the past four weeks traveling up and down and all around the golden state, but we were SO ready to cross state lines. First stop—Arizona!

The southwest is so different than what I know! We’re from Florida where the land is flat. It’s quite a change to go from driving in a place where there isn’t so much as a hill, to driving through the mountains. KIND of terrifying, but also kind of awesome. As you all know, we’re HUGE documenters at TOMS and there are billions of pictures and videos to come!

Let’s just a take a minute to give a shout out to GPS lady, Shirley. Shirley… is a little sassy to say the least, but that’s only appropriate given she’s a member of this team. Sometimes, Good Ole Shirl likes to misdirect us out of spite, but we know she loves us and has only the best of intentions. She’s gotten us this far and we’re so excited to hit New Mexico, Utah, and Vegas in the coming weeks!

We have a couple of days off before our first event in AZ, which is pretty rare! We’re working on booking a few more events and checking out what the southwest has to offer, which apparently is cacti and palm trees. I am a huge cactus fan! So much, that when I was three years old, I hugged one. HUGE mistake! Anyway, I digress-

Our first event here is on Wednesday at Arizona State University. Come check out the ‘For Tomorrow’ screening at 11am in the Pima Room, and then come Style Your Sole on the lawn outside the Hayden library!

HUGE thank you to everyone we’ve met thus far on the road. You guys constantly inspire us and remind us what we’re doing here—getting shoes for kids who really need ‘em.

Oh, and I apologize for my excessive use of exclamation points. I really am just that excited about all this!

Love,

The Sole Sisters

driving break in the desert!

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at our Life Pacific event with our awesome rep, Nic!

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it’s ALL love!

rachontheroad — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 04:58:56 +0000

Tonight, we’re blogging from the Tinsley living room in Ladera Ranch, California. We’re staying with our AMAZING campus rep Parker and we’re having a blast! We went to a fantastic dinner at Infusion and reviewed the logistics of tomorrows event; we couldn’t be more excited. Parker is perhaps the greatest high school sophomore to ever live.

I can’t express this enough, but I am SO incredibly proud of all of my campus reps who have been working day and night to help us make this the best tour possible. We couldn’t do it without you guys and we appreciate your hard work more than you will ever know.

While we’re at it, I’d like to take a minute to thank EVERYONE who made this tour possible. Blake, thank you for taking a risk on us– we’re going to change the world. Everyone at TOMS hq, you are our family and we miss you infinitely. Mikey and Hammer in particular– you have… my whole heart. You are, without question, the greatest men I have ever met. You’ve seen me and at my best– and at my worst. You inspire me daily and when I fall, you are always there to pick me up and put me back on track. You believed in us when we didn’t believe in ourselves and you never, ever let us lose sight of what we’re doing here. You’ve changed our lives forever. Thank you for making this happen; this is undoubtedly the greatest experience of my life.

BACK TO THE TOUR!

We have officially had our first emergency room visit of the tour! It was only Day 3, but Vagabond Hannah managed to fall off a curb, land in glass, and sprain both ankles. Pretty impressive, huh? Of course being on Team TOMS– we had to document the entire evening. For your viewing pleasure, here’s a shot of the little trooper counting the hours in the ER– check out those cankles!

Since Hannah’s left hand and both feet are out of commission for the next few days– we decided to adopt an honorary Vagabond to help us out for a couple of events! Rhonda, one of our wonderful campus rep interns, offered her services and just hours later– we were cruising down the freeway, gossiping, giggling, and getting pumped for our first high school tour stop!

I cannot WAIT for our event tomorrow!!! It is absolutely incredible to wake up everyday and feel the buzzing excitement of what’s to come. Several days ago, as I was running the mile between our event location and the van to pull more shoes, in the hundred degree heat– I couldn’t stop smiling. I literally couldn’t contain myself! I can’t even process how thrilled I am to do what I’m doing, everyday, for the next 10 weeks. I’m sorry if I’m blubbering– you’ll learn that I’m hyper-emotional, in the best way possible!

By the way, World, I cannot wait for all of you to get to know us over the course of the next few months. We are about to become BFF– get excited.

Sole Sisters, signing off!

-Rach

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we can conquer this great divide

rachontheroad — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 04:13:28 +0000

Hey Everyone!
The Sole Sisters are coming to you live from Barnes and Noble! We hit the road Monday and rocked our first event at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. We began the day by screening the TOMS documentary, ‘For Tomorrow,’ for a group of 25 students. Following the screening, we moved outside to the student union to host a Style Your Sole painting party! We sold over 20 pairs of shoes and figured out a few things about the best way for a team of two to run an event. We flew solo for the first time! Note to self: do NOT park your van 2 miles away; it makes pulling additional sizes nearly impossible!

To sum things up– tt was absolutely the perfect first event.

Yesterday, we hosted a house party at the home of our Cabrillo High School campus rep, Justine. Justine’s school wasn’t able to accommodate a TOMS event at this time—but she didn’t give up! She spent weeks trying to find a suitable venue and eventually we came to the decision of hosting a Style Your Sole event and documentary screening at her house! We had a great time and sold a ton of shoes! It was a completely different experience from hosting a campus event— we were really able to connect with the event attendees and spent hours making new friends and painting shoes. The event was fantastic and we couldn’t be more proud of Justine for taking the initiative to do something great for her community.

I just want to take a minute to express how important this program is. TOMS isn’t just about the shoes; it’s about the greater idea of waking up everyday and making the conscious decision to have a positive impact on the world around you. I’m so proud to be part of the first team of TOMS Vagabonds and I cannot wait to see what all of us, together, can do. All for one and One for One

We come from all walks of life. Our backgrounds, personalities, and interests couldn’t be more different, but we were brought together because of our common interest—making the world a better, brighter place with TOMS. Over the past 2 months, we have laughed together, cried together, fought, made up, and became a team. We are family.

We are Vagabonds.

All our lovin’–
Rachel & Hannah, ‘Sole Sisters’

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