Shoesday Tuesdays: Toms Shoes Urges Everyone to Go Barefoot Today

Shoesday Tuesdays: Toms Shoes Urges Everyone to Go Barefoot Today </scrip

Footwear Webdesk
April 5, 2011

Go bare and go home—that’s the goal of Toms Shoes’ 4th annual “One Day Without Shoes” initiative. Usually the event encourages participants to join a local walk to raise awareness for the millions of children worldwide without shoes, but this year’s event, taking place today, encourages participants to go barefoot everywhere—from work to school to home.

“In previous years, we’ve asked people to go for walks without shoes. However, we’ve realized it’s cold in some parts of the world and it might not be that easy for them to participate this way,” explains Founder Blake Mycoskie. “So this year, we are asking everyone to do what they normally do, just without shoes. This can be a meeting without shoes, dinner without shoes, grocery shopping without shoes, etc.”

Last year, over 250,000 people went without shoes at more than 1,600 events around the globe, the company reports. Mycoskie hopes this year’s increased publicity will encourage a million people to chuck their footwear for the day. In addition to the revamped message, the company is hosting a new walk in New York, led by supermodel Anne-V, and also released a One Day Without Shoes mobile app for iPhone and Droid, which enables users to share pictures instantaneously, provides soundtracks for barefoot adventures and includes an array of Toms and One Day Without Shoes merchandise. “One Day Without Shoes is important for us to raise awareness of the impact a simple pair of shoes can have on a child’s life,” Mycoskie says. “Millions of children walk barefoot for miles risking injury, infection and exposure to soil-transmitted diseases.” —Audrey Goodson