Blake Mycoskie is not your everyday entrepreneur. A former contestant on The Amazing Race, he was learning to play polo in Argentina — not in a business school classroom — when he came up with the idea for TOMS Shoes. Dismayed to see so many barefoot kids, he committed to an unusual business plan: You buy a pair of TOMS, he gives a pair to a kid that needs them. This summer, Rugby is offering specially designed, limited-edition TOMS, marking the first-ever design collaboration for either company. We caught up with Blake in Los Angeles and got the story behind TOMS’s phenomenal success.

Rugby: First things first: You’re name is Blake, but your company is called TOMS Shoes. Can you please explain?
Blake Mycoskie: I started out calling it the "Shoes for Tomorrow Project" and then "Tomorrows Shoes," which works because the company’s whole focus is on making a better tomorrow. But "tomorrow" wouldn’t fit on the tag, so I just shortened it to TOMS. Never did I think that TOMS would become as big as it is, nor did I think that everyone would want to meet Tom. Whenever I go to make a speech or attend a trunk show and I introduce myself as Blake, I see this look of, "Where’s Tom? I thought Tom was coming." There is no Tom.

R: What’s the inspiration behind the design of the shoes?
BM: I was inspired by an Argentinean shoe, the alpargata. Farmers have been wearing them for years. The polo players, who are superstars there, started wearing them and so did their girlfriends, and they became very trendy in Buenos Aires. The originals had a rope sole, like an espadrille. I took the shape and improved it with a rubber sole for durability, and a leather insole with an arch support for comfort. The shoes at Rugby are made from classic Rugby fabrics, like madras and repp striped ties, instead of canvas.

R: Why is it important to give people shoes?
BM: Without shoes, not only do feet get cut up and infected but there are millions of people who don’t live normal lives because they have a major foot disease. For example, people don’t realize that hookworms, which millions die from, come into the body through the feet. The overall goal of TOMS is to find places in the world where people are robbed of life because they don’t have shoes and remedy that.

R: You’ve given away TOMS in Argentina and South Africa. Where are the TOMS sold at Rugby going?
BM: They’ll be going to Ethiopia. The worst foot disease in the world is in Ethiopia. It’s called podoconiosis and occurs when microparticles of dust penetrate the skin, causing the feet and legs to swell up. It is completely preventable if people have shoes. I met a woman in Ethiopia who had Podoconiosis. Her feet were the size of elephant’s feet, and she was ostracized from her community. She was so depressed that she was considering suicide. After she went through treatment for the disease, she started wearing shoes and got involved in a vocational training program, learning hairdressing. When she went back to her village, she started a hairdressing business and made so much money from it that she was able to buy a donkey, which she rents out. Last year she fell in love and got married—all because she sought treatment and began wearing shoes.

R: You travel to some rough places. What are your essentials?
BM: I always take a bed bag, which protects from bed bugs, mosquitoes and other things that want to crawl into bed with and bite you. I take malaria pills, because I am often in places that have malaria-infested mosquitoes. Purell, because I’m constantly putting shoes on kids’ feet, and these are some of the dirtiest feet you’ve ever seen in your life.

R: Are there other ways, besides buying shoes, to get involved with TOMS?
BM: TOMS was built by college students. We have 38 full-time employees, 13 of who were once interns. We take on 20 interns a semester, and house and feed them. We also do a lot of externships. At Pepperdine, we gave students two main events to plan. They hosted a screening of a documentary film about TOMS and our business, and then they had an event called "Style Your Sole." We gave them some plain white TOMS and they customized them with markers and additional fabric. It was a great night. The kids wore them around campus, which created awareness. You can buy a pair of shoes and that gives a child a pair, but if you really want to get involved there’re a number of ways to do it. We welcome that.

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