TOMS is often among the first companies that come to mind when thinking of socially responsible businesses. But how effective is its One for One model, and why is it so silent on sustainability?

TOMS Shoes began with a restless soul, a trip to Argentina, a pair of traditional alpargatas and an idea for a for-profit company that would fight global poverty. It has since become a driving force in the world of social enterprise, infiltrating mainstream fashion with its simple but stylish kicks and providing more than one million needy children with shoes through its feel-good One for One model.

But though TOMS has galvanized millions of customers around its mission, some say that the TOMS model harms the communities it intends to help. Add a troubling lack of supply chain transparency and all of a sudden those warm-fuzzy feelings start to harden. In this week’s Behind the Label, we take a look at TOMS’ sustainability and giving practices to see if the company has earned its position at the top of the social enterprise food chain.

The original premise of TOMS is introduced simply enough:

If you’re new to TOMS, hi, we make shoes, and with every pair purchased, we give a new pair of shoes to a child in need.

TOMS implements its One for One model primarily through partnerships with humanitarian organizations like Partners In Health, IMA World Health, WE International and Goods for Good, as well as through high profile shoe drops coordinated by its non-profit Friends of TOMS arm.

Last June, in a dramatic unveil, TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie announced that the company was expanding from a shoe businesses to a broader “One for One” business, starting with the launch of a new eyewear line that provides sight to one person for every one pair of frames purchased, either through medical treatment, prescription glasses or sight-saving surgery.

Since its founding in 2006, TOMS has been particularly successful at engaging with college communities. Through TOMS Campus Clubs, like-minded students can unite around the common values of “conscious consumerism, helping children in need and being heard through their choices” and participate in events like shoe-painting parties and the now-famous One Day Without Shoes, a celebrity-driven campaign that calls upon people to ditch their shoes for 24 hours in order to spread awareness of global shoelessness.

THE GOOD

Through TOMS’ giving department, more than one million pairs of shoes have been distributed across 23 countries, including Argentina, Ethiopia, Haiti and the United States.

By pairing with reputable groups on distribution, TOMS aims to ensure that its aid is not isolated, but rather part of comprehensive development programs targeting healthcare and education. Goods for Good founder Melissa Kushner writes that these types of donations can be an effective form of aid, when done right.

After eight years of learning how to best provide goods to those in need, I can safely say that shoes, fabric, school materials as well as other necessities like eyeglasses can have a lasting impact, even after they wear out. Goods provision can be right and when it is, it has far-reaching benefits. For example: Goods for Good has witnessed a 25 percent increase in school attendance by providing students and teachers with re-purposed educational supplies and trained over 200 vulnerable people in the marketable skill of tailoring who in turn created over 24,000 school uniforms for orphans and vulnerable children, based on the gift of surplus fabric.

And TOMS makes a concerted effort to make sure its donations are “done right,” a former employee told EcoSalon. Giving partners are thoroughly vetted and communities thoroughly assessed to ensure that local economies won’t be disrupted by large-scale shoe distribution. Each order of donation shoes is made-to-order so that the giving partner can meet the needs of the children they serve – no surplus product in odd sizes here. And most of the donation shoes are basic black canvas, since black shoes are often required for school uniforms and school uniforms are often required to attend school. TOMS also works to establish long-term relationships through repeat giving, so that new shoes can be provided when old shoes are outgrown or worn out.

More information is available in TOMS’ first-ever Giving Report, published in 2010.

THE BAD

Despite TOMS’ efforts to give responsibly, its One for One model has become a subject of criticism from many in the international development community. In 2011, the blog Good Intentions Are Not Enough launched a counter-campaign to One Day Without Shoes called A Day Without Dignity, calling upon aid workers and people from areas that receive shoe drops and aid to speak up against TOMS’ “Whites in Shining Armor” approach to philanthropy.

More than 60 blog posts were contributed to the campaign, including one from Kelsey Timmerman, author of Where Am I Wearing? A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories, and People That Make Our Clothes, who wrote:

Yes, someone giving you a pair of shoes would sure be nice if you didn’t have a pair. But a job that allows parents to send their kids to school could change your family tree forever.

TOMS is also notoriously vague about the origins of its products, the sustainability of its supply chains and the ethical nature of its business practices. While I couldn’t find any direct links to production information on TOMS.com, a Google search revealed what looks like a hastily thrown together summary of TOMS Manufacturing Practices.

We want our customers to know as much as we do. As part of this effort of increasing transparency, we’ve provided some pictures of our factories in China, Argentina and Ethiopia. Regular visits by our production staff and third party audits ensure not only the product is up to standards, but that our factories provide a clean, safe place to work, fair wages and treatment, and never employ underage labor.

What followed were the three images in the screen shot below.

Mycoskie expands upon his approach to sustainability in a recent Q&A with 360 Magazine:

You hear a lot about sustainability in all different realms now. Definitely on the environmental side, on the business practice side, etc. For me, sustainability is knowing that when I give a child a pair of shoes, that when they wear them out or grow out of them, they’ll be able to get another pair, and another pair. We’re going to keep them in shoes because that allows them to go to school and prevents foot diseases. For us to truly say we’re sustainable, we have to not only build a business so we are allowed to continue to give shoes by selling shoes, but we also build profits so if we have a bad season, we can continue to give shoes. 

Mycoskie’s is a valid perspective, though it entirely ignores the environmental and ethical factors that have become inseparable from the sustainability movement. That, TOMS has yet to substantively address.

THE QUESTIONABLE

TOMS is arguably the most successful social enterprise lifestyle brand today, proving that a message about doing good can become a mainstream movement that resonates across demographics. As Timmerman puts it, “step #1 is getting people to give a shit.”

The company is crystal clear about its intentions: to effect social change through a One for One charity model. No mention of pioneering sustainable manufacturing methods, or using zero-waste pattern design, or creating job opportunities in the communities they adopt. Just One for One charity. And there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that focus.

What I do find troublesome, though, is that TOMS continues to create a movement around conscious consumerism and being heard through choices, yet it continues to hedge questions about the sustainable and ethical nature of its manufacturing practices. Most conscious consumers are as conscientious about the origins of their products as they are about the impact made through their purchases. Greater transparency about TOMS’ production processes would ease the concerns of many who want to buy into the One for One movement, as well as validate the company’s reputation as a pioneer in the world of socially responsible businesses – assuming, of course, that TOMS has nothing to hide.

SEE ALSO:

Behind the Label: H&M’s Conscious Collection

Behind the Label: McDonald’s See What We’re Made Of Campaign

Behind the Label: Levi Strauss’ E-Valuate Program

Behind the Label: Chipotle, Food With Integrity

Behind the Label: West Elm Green

The post Behind the Label: TOMS’ One For One Campaign appeared first on EcoSalon.

Column“Drawing lets me explain my feelings, all my happiness, all my sorrows, because drawing is the spirit of expression for all artists.” – Artist Jean-Mark Delphonse

Captured in a sentence, the emotional connection art can have with our souls holds a power that often becomes bigger than any of us. Clothing label Moral Fibers appears to have tapped directly into that internal connection through their mission: “Moral Fibers is a sustainable clothing brand with a commitment to artists in developing countries. We use art and education as tools to grow talent and build financial stability in the poorest communities in the world.”

Co-founded in January 2011 by Matthew Brightman (CEO) and Martin Weiss (COO), Moral Fibers is built upon the idea that international development revolves around employing the unemployed in jobs that require education and art to provide financial stability. Following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Brightman traveled to Port-au-Prince to assist with relief work. Upon that adventure, he met Erick Frazier, who has now become Moral Fibers’ local manager, or “Bossman” as they call him.

With the seeds of inspiration planted in Brightman’s mind after his experience in Haiti, he wrote up a business plan and approached Weiss to be his potential partner in crime. As Weiss tells EcoSalon, “He convinced me to come to Haiti with him and find artists. We had no idea how we were going to turn their art into clothing.”

Artist Jean-Mark Delphonse’s artwork and Moral Fibers tee

With the help of “Bossman” Frazier, they identified their first eight Moral Fibers’ artists from his community in Carrefour, Haiti and the surrounding tent areas. Following that groundbreaking trip, Brightman and Weiss mocked up their first tee by artist Jean-Mark Delphonse and got to work sorting out how they were going to make this new dream a reality.

Martin Weiss (COO), Erick Frazier (Moral Fibers’ Haiti “Bossman”), & Matthew Brightman (CEO)

In the course of the next year, Moral Fibers had expanded its artist base to include 15 creative minds, and since then, each of those artists has gradually moved out of their tents and into houses in Carrefour. As Weiss tells EcoSalon, “When an artist is hired, they provide 12 pieces of art monthly, are required to attend school, and give hours of service to their community. If we decide to use a piece of artwork in a piece of clothing going into production, we get our local manager Erick to ask questions to the artist about their ideas and the process of creating the piece.”

While all the company’s current partner artists are based in Haiti, Brightman and Weiss are working with the artists in Carrefour as a test-bed for their international development model. Moral Fibers’ artists receive salaries of five times the average national income, and get to choose from four benefits: education subsidy for one child, home rental subsidy, healthcare subsidy, or an entrepreneurship fund. In exchange, the artists must deliver 12 pieces of art per month, be actively attending school, and volunteer in their community.

“We’re actively trying to improve our artist development model,” says Weiss.

While both men are full of passion for international development, Weiss and Brightman are also both intent on continuously evolving their model to improve the quality of life and lifetime earning potential for their artists.

“We strive to make the best fashion, and our artists strive to make the best artwork,” says Weiss.

In just a year since their initial launch, Moral Fibers has already embraced a massive shift in perspective.

“The Fall Collection is the embodiment of a large step forward. Moral Fibers was founded as a t-shirt brand that wanted to change what a clothing brand could be, and our artists were found as inhabitants of a tent city in a failed state that wanted to change what art could be,” says Weiss.

Sharing the intimate stories behind the artwork is something key to the DNA of Moral Fibers.

13-year-old artist Jean Daniel Maurilus tells his story

While the profiled artwork originates in Haiti, Moral Fibers does much of the the behind-the-scenes work designing in their Montreal headquarters, and has manufactured their past collections locally in Montreal. Recently, their team has been working on a new initiative, which involves manufacturing at INDEPCO in Haiti. Some of their upcoming Spring designs, launching in April, have been made at this non-profit group of Ateliers that are based in Cité Soleil, Port-au-Prince.

Spring 2012 teaser, launching in April 2012

Managed by Hans Garoute, Haiti’s 2010 entrepreneur of the year, INDEPCO has a 20-year operating history of success, and is funded by the Clinton-Bush Haiti Foundation and USAID. As Weiss tells EcoSalon, “Garoute pairs clients like Moral Fibers with ateliers who focus on low-to-medium quantity, high-quality fashion production, and who will scale with their clients.”

A graduate of New York City’s Fashion Institute of Technology and a former buyer for Macy’s, Garoute is all about incentives for his employees. Offering free sewing classes to all of his workers to increase their skills, Garoute also presents his “sewing graduates” with their very own sewing machine upon completion of his courses.

Moral Fibers sees value in producing their garments at INDEPCO for two reasons. “While a ‘Made in Haiti’ tag adds intangible value to Moral Fibers’ brand image by further supporting economic and infrastructure development in the company’s pilot country, outsourcing sewing to INDEPCO saves Moral Fibers an average of 35-50% on the total cost of goods of each piece sewn in Haiti before shipping expenses,” says Weiss.

Additionally, further investing in generating more job opportunities through manufacturing in Haiti gives Moral Fibers an added-value edge.

By artist Victor Phalange

For Moral Fibers, being a for-profit business in their sector means upholding a responsibility of creating “real social good” that’s sustainable. Shamelessly, Weiss mentions a Men in Black quote when asked about the message he hopes to share via Moral Fibers: “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.”

For Weiss, “this quote kind of sums up the problem that you encounter when you generalize about ‘people in developing countries’ or try to teach a crowded classroom instead of an individual.” Experiencing so many aspects of life in Haiti, Weiss has realized directly that individuals are smart, but a lot of them are simply dealt terrible lives, without the opportunity for education, safety, happiness, food, or shelter.

For Weiss, companies like Toms Shoes use a model that is less-than-sustainable. “The ‘Buy One, Give One’ model accomplishes the goal of charity, but will never work for development—no matter how many shoes you send to Africa. You will never succeed in substantially improving the quality of life for anyone there simply by shipping goods.”

On the contrary, Weiss pushes the fact that if you “build a shoe factory, train a foreman and workers, and produce Toms shoes there, you will.” Unfortunately, he explains, Toms Shoes are made in China because production costs are low and workers are already trained.

What Toms Shoes is doing is considered international development and it is doing social good. But, Weiss emphasizes that “Moral Fibers is trying to change this paradigm of sending the excess products of our industrialized world to developing countries and counting it as social good. Our model of international development revolves around employing the unemployed in jobs that require education and art to provide financial stability.”

While it’s all a journey of self discovery, Moral Fibers seems to be treading a particularly positive path, using art as the driving force.

The post THREADED: Moral Fibers – Wearable Art With A Focus On International Development appeared first on EcoSalon.