Sometimes a brand blazes a trail, only to find itself outrun by the competition. 

Back in 2006, entrepreneur Blake Mycoskie, who made his name and a small fortune as a contestant on reality TV show, The Amazing Race, came up with a unique proposition for a new brand, TOMS Shoes. The business model: TOMS would donate a pair of shoes to a child who lived in poverty for every pair of shoes sold. The philanthropic concept quickly became a sensation that catapulted the company's brand awareness to superstar status.

Not surprisingly, other companies started to knock off the idea. The most egregious copycat has been a line of shoes called "BOBS" that Skechers introduced in 2010. BOBS not only look exactly like TOMS signature shoe, right down to the logo stitched on a visible exterior label, but Skechers also shamelessly followed TOMS' "one-for-one" model of giving away a pair of shoes for every pair sold.Continue reading...

Skechers recently got itself into hot water when it had to shell out $40 million to settle a suit brought against it by the Federal Trade Commission to settle false advertising charges that its “toning sneakers” could make consumers look and actually be healthier without having them change their behavior in any other way.

Now the shoe brand is looking to build back some of the good feeling it torpedoed with that incident.

The company just announced that it has “donated its first million pair of kids’ shoes through its BOBS from SKECHERS program, which gives a new pair to a child in need for every BOBS footwear purchase.” Those shoes will be finding the feet of kids in the U.S., Central America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

The BOBS sub-brand, which already mimics philanthropic brand TOMS in name, logo and shoe design, is clearly taking a cue from TOMS' "One For One" mission, which donates a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair purchased.

That clearly doesn't bother celebrity ambassador Brooke Burke-Charvet, the co-host of Dancing With the Stars, who trades her Skecher Shape-ups "toning shoes" for BOBS for the photo opp.Continue reading...

On Friday, July 8th, blog Jezebel wondered "Why Is TOMS Partnering With An Anti-Gay, Anti-Choice Group?"

In the piece, Jezebel takes Toms to task for its partnership with the far right social policy group Focus on the Family.

It was a harsh slap to progressive fans of TOMS, the digitally-savvy brand that "changed the game of social activism" with a "one for one" business model, donating a pair of shoes (and now, glasses) for every purchase.

Jezebel wrote, "TOMS is at major risk of alienating a constituency that has enthusiastically adopted their product, including yours truly."

A day later, July 9th, a TOMS spokesperson told Jezebel it regretted the move, pointing to an explanation posted on the brand's Facebook page and blog.

Except, nobody appears to have told Focus on the Family.Continue reading...

Lauren Bush's FEED USA campaign, which raises money to improve school food programs across America, last crossed our transom when it produced "Made in USA" bags for Gap that turned out to be made in China, and Gap duly apologized for the gaffe.

Now another retailer, Nordstrom, is offering an exclusive FEED bag, to support the activist's (that's her at right) global FEED Projects program, with French beauty brand Clarins on board.

This bag, dubbed FEED 15, is a makeup bag rather than a tote bag, however. It contains Clarins body lotion, hand cream and lip gloss and will be available for $30 starting July 15th at Nordstrom and on the FEED web store and starting August 1st at Clarins.com.

To extend the exclusivity even further, in October, Bloomingdale's will offer a similar FEED 25 bag. The "15" and "25" on the bags indicate the number of children fed around the world with the purchase of each bag, according to WWD.Continue reading...

As we previewed yesterday, the TOMS Shoes brand is shirking off "Shoes" to become just TOMS. Blake Mycoskie and his employees, featured in the big reveal video above, will continue to sell their simple but distinctive cloth shoes, but now they're expanding into a second product line: eyewear.

Similar to its "one for one" BOGO (buy one, give one) model that saw its millionth pair of shoes donated to a child in a developing country late last year, TOMS is expanding its brand to give the gift of sight to those in need, as TOMS transforms from "just a shoe brand" to a truly one-for-one brand.Continue reading...

TOMS Shoes is ready to kick off the "Shoes" in its brand identity, rebranding with a campaign (which we previewed in March) dubbed "What's Your Next Chapter?" that will be unveiled in a series of events with its partners across the US tomorrow.

The company, founded by Blake Mycoskie in 2006, changed the game of social activism with its "one for one" business model — a pair of shoes is donated for every pair purchased. TOMS quickly made its bandage-style shoes ubiquitous, and proved it's possible to be profitable while impacting the lives of those less fortunate.

More than 1 million pairs of shoes distributed in over 20 countries later, TOMS has proven that social media is the lightning rod for digital activism be it on Facebook, Twitter, guerilla marketing or blogging. Now, Mycoskie is ready to expand beyond TOMS beyond shoes, taking "One for One" to the next level.Continue reading...

More than 100,000 people are expected to go barefoot today thanks to TOMS Shoes. The goal of One Day Without Shoes, as the brand tweeted, is "to raise awareness of the impact a pair of shoes can have on a kid's life."

As TOMS gets ready to kick off its own shoes, celebrities endorsing this year's event include Charlize Theron, a host of Canadian musicians, and brands including Google and AOL. Participants are tweeting using the official hashtag, and also checking in via Gowalla.

AOL's Arianna Huffington and Tim Armstrong announced today that on April 5th they and their staff will kick off their shoes in support of TOMS Shoes.Continue reading...