Unfortunately, we don’t all work remotely from Shoe Drop locations (potential 2011 idea, Blake?), but our HQ scenario isn’t too bad. Posted up in a funky complex in sunny Santa Monica, CA, you’ll find a long alley way that leads to a big warehouse door. A TOMS flag atop the entry-way is the first indication that you’ve reached TOMS HQ. From there you step into our lobby area, complete with Shoe Drop photos extending from the cement floors to the high ceilings, and two cozy chairs. Meetings are taking place in the “barn” (our main conference room), people are skating out the door to lunch, and you can hear our customer service team helping customers with exchanges over the phone. A few more steps and you’re in the middle of the magic that is TOMS HQ. This is a special place to all of us, one that has grown and changed a lot over the past year. And because we’re so proud of this space today, we thought we’d give you the inside scoop with the Top 10 Things you didn’t know about TOMS HQ…
10. HQ is a big sound stage ware-house turned office. 7,500 square feet of awesomeness kept warm by little space heaters in the winter, and cooled only by desk fans in the summer.
9. We’re resourceful: one wall is made entirely out of boxes of old TOMS.
8. Most of our retailer’s window displays are made right in our make-shift wood-shop: the alley way outside our front door.
7. Two sets of brothers work here: Justin and Jordan Farr and Blake and Tyler Mycoskie.
The J.Farr bros and the Mycoskie bros
6. Our office manager, Travis, and his dad built all of our “cubicles”. Its really a family affair here at TOMS!
5. We require FUN on the last Friday of every month. A TOMS tradition since the beginning, Fun Fridays are a time for us to get together and make gingerbread houses, carve pumpkins, have potlucks and sing karaoke.
4. Our kitchen is stocked with dishes and silverware to reduce our waste, we take recycling seriously, and many of us bike to work.
3. With so much production equipment and crew in the office for the AT&T commercial shoot in February, a bunch of us employees were happy to relocate our work days to a sunnier location…
2. The audio system was installed this past year and you can always catch something unique on the loud speakers: Today, for example, is reggae… but we’ve also had the RENT soundtrack, Motown, Fleet Foxes, Andrew Bird, Mariah Carey, Brazilian Samba… It’s also great for impromptu karaoke.
Spin those tunes, DJ!
1. Our CEO’s desk isn’t in a corner office: its actually in the most high traffic area. Front and center, right next to customer service.
We’re just about at the finale of our ten Top 10 lists, but the next one NEEDS YOU. After reflecting on such an amazing 2009, we’re excited about what 2010 has in store… So what will you do in the next twelve months to change the world? We’re highlighting our 10 favorite ideas here on the blog this week, so COMMENT ON THIS POST! Tell us your ideas, your plans, why, how, when… inspire us!
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Tags: culture · employees · HQ · TOMS culture · TOMS HQ · top 10 · top ten top tens
Categories: HQ Updates17 Comments
17 responses so far ↓
I think it would be awesome if a shoe was made modeled after the toms flag. It would be the perfect way to spread the word even more! Something that would catch the eyes as you walk by with the name right on top. No mistaking those
Writing a letter to one person each week. Every time I receive a letter I smile (inside and out!) and get that awesome “someone loves me” feeling. Maybe letters for others will do the same.
So how do I get a job at Toms? Love you guys!
give TOMS domestically? I know about 120 homeless people that come to get a hot meal everyweek that could use them– right here in the OC. just an idea(isnt that how TOMS was born?)
thoughts??
- Travel to all 50 states and take a picture in front of every state sign with the TOMS flag. TOMS’n across the U.S.A.?
- Have a collab project contest where a fan can design some limited TOMS sold on the website? more than just a SYS party.
- Rock TOMS in 2 feet of snow, and they aren’t the Botas, Cordones, nor Wrap boots.
In 2010 I promise to continue being passionate about my job working on promoting social responsibility and sustainable development issues here in Chile and the rest of South America…
Blake is invited to come down and support some of our projects as well as come on my radio show to talk about the amazing international work of TOMS
Happy New Year – peace and love to all.
What will I do to help change the world?
1. Continue to use my experience from the South Africa shoe+board drop as motivation to be involved in projects that help others (currently- skateboard ministry, and feeding and clothing the homeless occasionly)
2. Tell all my friends and family about Toms and all the good that the company does. Also how real it is….
3. Continue to buy more Toms for me, friends, and family
4. Hopefully go on a mission trip to help underprivleged children
5. Put a video up on YouTube (youtube.com/user/nateeckhart) that is about the South Africa shoe drop which will have the footage that I took from the trip. Hopefully this will show others what it’s like in another country.
6. With my wife, continue to sponsor a child in India…
7. Etc, Etc, Etc
My cousins and I are in the beginning stages of starting a business to help families world wide. The way it works is that that family produces something, right now purses, bags and aprons, and we bring them back to the united states to sell. Tomorrow I am selling a bunch of the purses at my high school I graduated from last year. This summer we’re going to Vietnam where we can hopefully meet more families to help.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=teaching+them+2+fish&search_type=&aq=f
^^ this video highlights what we are trying to do!
TOMS is our inspiration!
Love getting an insider’s look at TOMs HQs. My favorite decor item is the old boxes serving as walls!
My plans to change the world? In the U.S., helping foster children in California navigate the legal system and educate foster parents through the NPO call Advokids (www.advookids.org).
My friend Katie and I are planning our spring break volunteer trip to Africa. Meeting with the fantastics woman behind the Knowledge Center on Sunday.
Thanks for keeping me inspired to change the world!
I’m making a stop motion video for TOMS shoes to show to my friends, family and the students at my school to spread the One for One movement! I don’t want to give too much away because it’s a surprise but it’s going to be AWESOME.
I’m also attending the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) Conference this April with my proposal to build a clinic in a rural area of Uganda. I know Blake spoke at the conference last year about TOMS and that TOMS is very involved in CGI. Hopefully he’ll be there this year!
My aim for this year is to make life a happier place for more AIDS orphans here in South Africa. To let them know that they are NOT forgotten and that they are loved.
TOMS please help us do this?!!
1) hospice volunteering (its amazing)
2) beginning my career as a registered nurse (finally gradutaing – hooray!) at the county hospital serving primarily those who cannot afford health care and doing my best to ensure that everyone receives the compitent, comassionate, & equal care they are entitiled to as human beings
My fellow TOMS campus reps and I are holding a series of coffee shop concerts and one big (surprise) TOMS event towards the end to raise money for our Campus goal. That goal for the year is to raise enough money to buy 100 pairs of TOMS. By doing so we are not only donating 100 pairs for TOMS to give away, but we are going to give away 100 pairs we bought to kids who are in need of shoes right here in Central VA! This way we can spread the One for One movement on our campus and also have an impact on our community and world!
[...] had so many awesome responses to our last post when we asked how you plan to change the world in 2010. SO many that we want more… and [...]
In 2010 my first goal is to spread the word about this amazing company called toms, Iv already started that.
2. I would like to reflect on what I can do to help others with the talents and experiences I have.
3. Tell my church about you guys, and get in there so I can do a little talk to the teens and tell them why shoes are so important, and how they can help. Its a big group.
4. get my whole family “Its big, very big” to own a pair of toms
5. take part in my first walk with no shoes day.
-thats it so far thank you toms for the inspiration you guys have given me and keep up the great work!
Every year my boyfriend and I help the local Cystic Fibrosis chapter put on an event called “The Brewer’s Ball” (Picture wine tasting with beer). All of the money collected from the event goes to help find a cure for Cystic Fibrosis, which is a genetic disease effecting the lungs and digestive system. People with CF have a life expectancy of 37 and spend about 3 hours a day doing breathing treatments just to be able to breathe in and out like you and I do every day. Last year the CF Foundation had a breakthrough and introduced Vertex which is a drug that basically cures one of the mutations of CF. We’re getting closer to a cure and it just proves that every person helping with events (like the Brewer’s Ball) gets us one step closer to a better world! Happy 2010 to all those making a difference!
Giving a little of my time to help those around me. Sometimes we feel we are so busy or so tired that we don’t have “time” for volunteering or service but that isn’t right: to have time you have to make time. Those of us with so much, stay humble: volunteer!