How Oliberté, the Anti-TOMS, Makes Shoes and Jobs in Africa “At Oliberté, we believe Africa can compete on a global scale, but it needs a chance." Tate Watkins
Tate Watkins – How Oliberte, the Anti-TOMS, Makes Shoes and Jobs in Africa · Oliberte Footwear makes shoes using African materials. · Free-range live stocks produce high-quality materials. · Oliberte provides high salaries and well benefits for local Africans. · Different from Oliberte, TOMS’ donation is harming the local economy · The goal of Oliberte is to build high …
Apr 12, 2012 · Oliberté makes shoes in Africa using local materials and sells them in Western countries. The company went from 200 pairs sold in the beginning, to 10,000 in 2011. Oliberté’s shoes are made in...
Oliberte has brought manufacturing to sub-Saharan Africa by building its first shoe factory in Ethiopia, and offers relatively high wages and generous benefits to its workers while giving equal opportunity employment to both men and women (Watkins).
Oliberté’s shoes are made in Ethiopia with leather “sourced from local free-range cows, sheep and goats,” according to an article by Good. The natural rubber in the soles of the shoes is processed in Liberia.
Innovate business models, not marketing campaigns. The TOMS model is a great marketing campaign in that it appeals to a person’s sense of compassion.
Gina-Marie is a freelance writer and journalist armed with a degree in journalism, and a passion for social justice, including the environment and sustainability. She writes for various websites, and has made the 75+ Environmentalists to Follow list by Mashable.com. Read more stories by Gina-Marie Cheeseman.
TOMS Shoes advertises that their primary goal is to provide shoes to children who ostensibly do not have access to shoes. [xi] TOMS claims that shoe donations enable kids to attend school, avoid being exposed to infection, and improve their self-esteem.
TOMS Shoes was founded in 2006 by Blake Mycoskie, an American entrepreneur [i]. His bio is the first story featured on the TOMS Shoes homepage, and the story features photos of him shaking hands with Hillary Clinton and putting shoes on the feet of children wearing dirty clothes [ii].
Primarily, it has a significant impact on the local markets by displacing the pre-existing shoe industry and reducing the demand for local employment in the countries to which TOMs donates. A comparison of TOMs to the second-hand clothing industry proves this point. Both one-for-one products and second-hand clothing donations are imported into these countries, being sold or given away. Consumers prefer to pay low prices, or no price at all, for items like shoes rather than pay higher prices from local markets. Since the two are similar in this way, they will have a similar effect on the market when it comes to local production and sales. Between 1981 and 2000, used-clothing imports were found to be “responsible for roughly 39% of the annual decline in apparel production, and roughly half of the annual decline in apparel employment” in Sub-Saharan Africa. [xviii] Aside from failing to adequately address education and poverty, TOMS’ donations have even more unintended consequences. Local shoe businesses cannot compete with donated shoes; who would buy shoes when they are being given away for free? In the same way that clothing donations led to a dramatic increase in unemployment in the textile sector, [xix] employees of local shoe companies may lose their jobs because of shoe donations, exacerbating existing economic problems. What makes TOMS even more unsuccessful in this manner is its lack of an ability to create jobs. At least second hand clothing “provides women with new opportunities for self-employment” [xx] by allowing them to refashion and resell what is donated. TOMS decreases the opportunity for local entrepreneurship, further undermining its mission.
More specifically, Blake Mycoskie, a white Texan entrepreneur, decided in 2006. [xiii] Mycoskie’s bio emphasizes his ingenuity and creativity in coming up with the business plan for TOMS, with no mention of the perspectives of the Argentinian children by whom he was inspired.
While TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie ’s story and background are central to the company’s mission and marketing, the recipients of its shoes are voiceless. The social and economic consequences of shoe donations are given little thought, demonstrating the affective nature of TOMS’ marketing strategy.
Their goals of solving poverty, ending hunger, or creating peace are stunning at first glance, but their supporters rarely question their motivations behind and means of accomplishing these goals.
TOMS has a compelling origin story. When founder Blake Mycoskie was traveling in Argentina in 2006, he "witnessed the hardships faced by children growing up without shoes.". According to TOMS corporate lore, Mycoskie decided that there was a simple solution to that problem: Give them shoes.
If so, you should be a little mad. TOMS, of course, is an accessory company that markets itself like a charity: When you buy TOMS products, the company makes an in-kind donation to a person in need. When someone buys a pair of TOMS shoes in the US, for instance, the company donates a pair of shoes to a child in a poor country like Haiti.
Shoes seem important! They protect your feet and are a basic requirement for participation in a lot of public life. Not having them sure sounds like a big problem. Getting free shoes sure sounds like a great solution. So great, in fact, that it has spawned a slew of imitators.
They might be staying home because they're in pain, or because their schools lack private bathrooms, or because their communities believe that women should stay in seclusion while they're menstruating. Problems like girls' lack of access to education or the cycle of poverty just tend to be complex.
SoleRebels employs around 100 workers. They pay three times the typical wage in Ethiopia. The company covers healthcare costs and sends the workers’ kids to school. It’s a universal truth that garment workers and shoemakers don’t want their kids to grow up to be garment workers and an education can ensure that.
I met Blake Mycoskie the president of TOMS shoes last year and had the opportunity to hear his story. It’s an amazing story. He was in Argentina playing polo (I had a little trouble relating to the polo piece of the story) and accompanied a group of foreigners who were dropping off used shoes to a village.
TOMS is a business that has become a movement, so much that it’s the first thought that blips into a student’s mind when talking about socially conscious purchases. I don’t have a problem with TOMS, in fact, I believe they are more socially conscious than many of the shoe brands out there (that’s not saying much).
Almost everyone has heard of TOMS shoes. If you haven't, TOMS is a business that sells shoes, sunglasses, bags and many other items. What makes them unique is that for every product sold, an equivalent is donated to someone in need.
The pandemic and subsequent lockdowns and isolations have left an incredible number of people to self-medicate with some of their favorite comfort foods. And that's okay, comfort foods can help with our mental health, but the challenge comes with the inability to hit the gym whenever you need a little more wiggle room in your daily calorie intake.