TOMS Shoes » Vagabonds

you’ve had the adventure of a lifetime, now we say goodbye

admin — Fri, 22 May 2009 18:30:56 +0000

If you have been reading the Vagabond blog posts this week, you might have noticed they are all saying their goodbyes. Each of us here at HQ could easily write about how much they have inspired us and how proud we are, but on our behalf, here is Mike Hammer- Director of Campus Programs and Vagabond Tour.

Dear Vagabonds,

It has been a sincere pleasure working with you guys this semester!!! THANK YOU so much for all of your hard work and commitment!

Thousands of lives have been changed as a result of your efforts in the past 19 weeks spreading the TOMS One for One Movement.

It is not an easy job to travel the country meeting new people and finding new places to stay all the time, but every one of you rose to the challenge and inspired our staff, our fans, and new TOMS enthusiasts.

Few are given the opportunity to make spreading the idea of Compassion in Action their every day. You took this mission on and as a group affected our culture for the better.

We will miss you all dearly. You reports from the road have humbled us, inspired us, and cracked us up. We will continue to watch your hilarious YouTube videos this summer.

You have left a great mark on TOMS and the world and the next Vagabond crew has some big shoes to fill.

On behalf of the company, and with all the repect due to some true Vagabonds, THANK YOU and good luck with your next adventures!

Truly,

Mike
Director, Campus Programs

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why do all good things come to an end?

hajarMW — Fri, 22 May 2009 00:07:53 +0000

Yes I said “end” but we will be Vagabonds for life!!This experience was quite a journey and I think all of us have learned so much about ourselves in the process. To all of our readers who have been following our tour and watching our videos, thank you for all of your support. We will leave this experience with some great stories to share with our friends and families. I will never forget the crazy moments with our 15 passenger van. Driving that thing was an experience in itself.

Time definitely went by fast for us. Just being back at the office and driving down Olympic Blvd. again has brought back so many memories of the beginning of our journey. I feel we have grown so much in this short time and I’m glad to see all of the familiar faces at HQ and even some new faces, too! Vagabonds, I love you all and it has been a privilege to get to know and make memories with all of you. I have to say that I started this tour with 3 pairs of TOMS and I am leaving with 15! My favorite right now is the pair that i designed while we were in Chicago, what do you think? Cool huh? I plan to wear them all summer and enjoy my TOMS tan lines too.

So long guys! Peace and love be with all of you! -Hajar

Eleven weeks on the road. Insane. We were sent off in style, and brought back in style. Friday we got here and were welcomed with hugs, smiles, rainbows, and cookies. Just kidding about the cookies. But seriously, the last week I’ve just been taking some time to think about what I just did. What we all just did. We just put shoes on so many kids feet, together. I had no idea at the beginning of this that it would feel this great, that I would feel like I accomplished something so grand. And truth be told, I didn’t do it alone. You guys did it, too. Maybe you didn’t buy a pair of shoes on the tour, but you read our blogs, watched our videos, and encouraged us while we were on the road. You kept us going when we didn’t think we could drive another mile or lift another box. So this is as much your accomplishment as ours. Thank you.

As for the next move, I’m planning on debriefing from being on the road. I might need to keep a TOMS box in my car at all times, and randomly carry it into places to unload it. I also will probably need to do laundry at laundromats for a bit, just to not have a complete shock to the system. Maybe one day I’ll have clothes in a closet, and will sleep and shower in the same place everyday, but at heart I’ll always be a Vagabond. Tia OUT.

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viva las vegas, and back in cali

tiaMW — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:56:44 +0000

You guys, Vegas was INSANE!

We were reunited with our other Vaga-loves in Vegas over the weekend! How I missed them so! On Friday night a few of us went to see the Beatles Love Circue Du Soleil show! AMAZING!

It comes highly recommended from this girl. We also went as a whole group to see the Jazon Mraz and Dave Matthews Band concert at the MGM Grand! It was a ton of fun! Those boys put on a great show!

And now our tour has come full circle, because we are back in LA! We had a few final events this week, and now it is over! It’s still incredibly surreal that it’s been three months.

For the next few days, I’m going to savor being with all of these crazy fools. They’ve changed my life forever, and I know that they will be my friends for LYFE. Yep, I went there.

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put some creativity on canvas… shoes.

admin — Wed, 13 May 2009 21:26:14 +0000

We were pretty excited to see Pam Mycoskie’s (Blake’s mom) limited edition TOMS fly off the shelves and she is sure to be a busy lady in the coming weeks. The idea of custom painted shoes, however, is a TOMS classic that has been with the company since 2006. In the summer after Blake returned to the US from Argentina and began TOMS, the team realized the canvas upper of the alpargata took well to paint and marker. A good friend of Blake’s, artist Tyler Ramsey, began custom painting shoes in his signature splatter style, and the employees began to experiment personalizing their own shoes, too. When interns Hajime and Allie came on board, they were given the task of organizing two events that were turning points for the custom TOMS endeavor. “Painted White” and “House Party” (an organization that helped TOMS coordinate 1,500 parties across the country) were intern victories, and although with very different audiences, both shoe-painting events proved that creating unique TOMS was a special way to pull creativity and unite under the One for One mission. Allie later coined the name “Style Your Sole” and its stuck ever since. TOMS now defines Style Your Sole as a way for people to express themselves creatively with any art medium they find appropriate on a pair of TOMS Shoes.

TOMS campus reps around the country started to organize their own SYS in fall 2007, generating about 20 events that semester. For the Spring 2009 term, over 200 campus SYS events took place… and that number continues to grow.

TOMS retailers around the country host local artists for Style Your Sole events which keep the local retailer in tune and close with their community, and the action sports industry has totally embraced Style Your Sole. Artists such as Hovin Wang, Brooke Reidt, Lisa Solberg, Kris Markovich, Kelli Murray, Jake Vantiger and Ekundayo have hand painted TOMS or created custom murals at Style Your Sole events.

The TOMS Vagabond Tour launched in fall 2008, which takes 5 regional teams of TOMS interns around the country to host Style Your Sole events on high school and college campuses. Between the fall 2008 and spring 2009 tour, the Vagabonds have hosted nearly 350 Style Your Sole events.

When TOMS set out to host the first US Shoe Drops in the United States this past fall, the team brought white canvas TOMS and markers for the kids to decorate their own pair. “The need is very different for the children in the US,” states Ana Maria, who coordinates and organizes the TOMS Shoe Drops. “Giving these kids the opportunity to interact and converse with the volunteers, color their own shoes, and be creative is absolutely making an impact.”

Style Your Sole isn’t just for students on campus, churches, or retailers. A TOMS Style Your Sole event is for those who are excited about the One for One mission. The creative one in the family, the non-creative one, your 5-year old nephew, your 95-year old grandmother, friends, community members, neighbors, your graduation party guests- all are perfect candidates to join you for a Style Your Sole.

Inspired? Host a party of your own! Email Julie@TOMSshoes.com for more info.

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it was the best of times

lizSE — Wed, 13 May 2009 04:33:05 +0000

hey yo.

okay so we’ve been on the road forever now. its totally crazy. dont even worry about it. the things we’ve done by this point are amazing. every day i love my life a little bit more. dont get me wrong. tour is hard. that is one thing that the peeps out there in the world have got to understand. it is hard. but thats totally the beauty of it.

no pain no gain.

so anyway this week we’ve done a ton. we’ve been in Louisiana most of the time. let me just tell you a little something about Louisiana. its a whole other world. the food. the love. the people. are so great.

we stayed with the Bozeman family. and by family i mean OUR family. they fed us broiled crawfish. gumbo. and jambalaya. that wasn’t even the best part. our rep Rachel let us crash in her room. making it like a 4 day sleep over. Mama Bozeman left us morning notes. and we played in the backyard with the dogs. it was legit. not to mention how they had a river running behind their house where Carmin and took an early morning kayacking trip. i know its cheesy but we really did leave with full bellies AND hearts. they made us truely feel like one of the family.

then we went on drove about 10+ hours to get Fayetteville, Arkansas. home of Ashlee Chadwick. she had the biggest vagabond heart in the world. she welcomed us in her home around 3 in the morning and had welcome gifts for us. i walked in and i’m like geez. this is so sweet. and not just sweet in like the cotton candy type of way. but like sweet in the coolest thing ever type of way. she had a killer event at her high school. which was only and extension of her love and passion for TOMS. and when i say she has love and passion for TOMS i am in no way exaggerating.

I know this is long.

but i’m almost done.

just keep reading.

because i really wanna talk about TULSA.

TULSA.

home of me. liz robinson.

aka : the center of the universe.

going home for a weekend was epic.

i dont know if the other vagabonds feel this way. but since we’ve been on the road for so long with out a home. it was literally a TRIP to go back to where i’m from.

an experience.

its just been a extremely long 4 and half months. but on Tulsa Time its been flying even faster. i went home and even the roads have changed. it was such a relief to go home. but then it was also sooo eye opening. i’ve miss so much. i’ve missed the weird drama with friends and family. i’ve missed the way that tulsa smells even.at the same time. i’ve seen more than Tulsa has to offer. its weird.

but it was bitter sweet to be home. its bitter sweet becuase we’ve been gone. its bitter sweet because we’re all gonna be back to our homes soon. its crazy it really is.

okay well enough of that. we’re going to be working our way out west soon. we’re stoping by the grand canyon. and then going to vegas to meet up with all of our vagaloves. its going to be joyous and i cant wait.

for now,

liz robinson.

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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!!

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looking up at the desert sky

kelliSW — Sat, 02 May 2009 00:13:12 +0000

Friday night we did just that! Our dear friend Luis put on an amazing event in Phoenix that was jam packed with adventure! Adventure including me dropping a huge event table on my bare foot, that was great for sure! haha! So many excited faces for TOMS and some reps from Invisible Children showed up as well. There were artist stations set up, where people could move from station to station to get their TOMS painted. My best, Sentrock, even painted some shoes to be raffled off for the night! Phoenix provided much needed respite seeing that I still have my apartment there. We re-charged our batteries and have now returned back to beautiful Southern California, only we almost got blown away at a dinosaur park yesterday.

Last night we had the pleasure of taking TOMS to Chapman University for the first time, and our rep Natalie was a brilliant host. In the first 15 minutes, 5 items had already been purchased. These guys were great at coming up with shoe names: my personal favorite was El Shoepacabra! Yes! Such creativity!

Right now, many of us Vagabonds around the country are watching The Rescue live in Chicago. Invisible Children is dear to our hearts and we all wish we could be there singing along. There are hundreds of people singing “In the name of love, Oprah come and rescue us” in hopes to be rescued after being out in the Chicago streets since Saturday afternoon. Our hearts are beating for Joseph Kony’s child soldiers.

Next week we get to meet up with all the other Vagabonds and dance the night away in Vegas. We are all so excited. I know I don’t speak alone when I say that a little bit of my heart is in each of those Vaga Vans across the country… it will be nice to have us all together once again.

Tour is winding down but we aren’t done yet. We have promises to keep and miles to go before we sleep!

A sample of Sentrock’s art work

A portrait of Blair our rep’s friend Greg did! Perfect! ha

Tiny Blair in the bottom left corner of the photo, about to get blown away and eaten by the T-Rex

hangin out with some Triceratops, no big deal

Wario got so scared at the dinosaur park, he was hiding for at least an hour

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good times on the road

caitlinNE — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:53:33 +0000

Life in the Northeast is pretty awesome. Everyone is super excited about TOMS and the One for One movement. Our events have been going so well we are having difficulty keeping up with the demand! It’s a little disappointing that we can’t outfit everyone at the events with TOMS but it does give us a chance to give out our promo code “Vagabonds” to give people a chance to get $5 off online! The coolest part about our events, though, is definitely Style Your Sole. Everyone is so creative with their designs! Here are a couple pictures I’ve saved up of some pretty sweet stylings…

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so official

admin — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:17:57 +0000

Blake was proud to announce our partnership with Dave Matthews Band for the Spring 2009 Vagabond Tour, but we have a special update for those of you who might be heading out to a Vagabond event soon.

At EVERY Vagabond event for the remainder of the semester, one lucky person will win 2 concert tickets to a Dave Matthews Band show for their Summer 2009 tour. To see Vagabond event listings, visit the Vagabonds on Facebook.

Disclaimer to the winner: TOMS is not responsible for making all of your friends super bummed that you had to select only one person to join you.

Check out the DMB site to see tour updates, hear some new music, and learn more about all the cool things Dave Matthews Band is up to.

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exciting stuff

bmycoskie — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:47:04 +0000

Exciting news…tonight I’m being interviewed on CNBC’s “The Entrepreneurs” hosted by Donnie Deutsch at 6:00 pm PT / 9:00 pm ET. This is so exciting for TOMS and I keep thinking about how we got here all thanks to YOU sharing the story of TOMS.
So thank you for continuing to spread the word — here are three ways you and/or your company can get involved NOW in the TOMS One for One movement!

1. Email your entire contact list. Every journey starts with a single step (or email).
2. Participate in the One Day Without Shoes. Yes, on April 16th, socks only in the office. To find an event in your area check out One Day Without Shoes.
3. Help keep TOMS Vagabonds on the road by sponsoring our next Vagabond Tour, pretty please! They need gas, food, lodging (or free sandwiches!).

Or just email blake@TOMSshoes.com your idea, there is a good chance it will be well received.

Thank you in advance for your support. I look forward to hearing all of your wonderful ideas!

Carpe Diem,

Blake

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