Transformation Design Watch: Tom's Shoes

I had the pleasure of grabbing breakfast with Blake Mycoskie a few weeks ago. In addition to being a great guy, Blake is the founder of another example of transformation design: Tom’s Shoes.

Here’s the story:

During his travels through South America, Blake noticed many of the children weren’t wearing shoes. His first reaction labeled this as a cute characteristic of their culture. However, he later found out this was a characteristic of poverty and a serious health issue. Blake wanted to help.

Inspired by the simple design of a traditional Argentine shoe, Blake started Tom’s Shoes to, in his words, make life more comfortable for people around the world.

While the shoes are unique, the business model is the true piece of design: every pair of shoes you buy, Tom’s will donate a pair to a child in need on your behalf. His design amplifies and dimensionalizes the individual action of buying.

Of course everyone thought he was crazy when he committed himself to this model. A year later, Tom’s is one of the fastest growing shoe companies in the world. Demand decimates supply. Everyone is buying. Everyone is talking.

In fact, here is the pair I bought:

(Yes, I know. I’m kinda preppy.)

Tom’s is an interesting example of transformation design for a couple of reasons:

#1 Most of the examples in the transformation design catalog are objects; the example here is the business model: buy a pair, give a pair.
#2 It’s what I’ll call a “sling transformation.” Just as a Sling Box moves content across geography to deliver it to another recipient device, so too does a “sling transformation.” Activated by a person in America, the transformation does not happen to the buyer. Instead it is delivered to and happens to a child in-need.

A couple of other notes about this example.

I’ve mentioned before storytelling is the metaphor of transformation design. Like a story, transformation design allows people to step into new experiences, be challenged by them, learn new ideas or behaviors from them, participate in them and share them with others.

Tom’s Shoes is a proof point to this idea. It is a piece of design inspired by story; it teaches you about the world through story; it invites you to participate in and share its story. At every touch point the company offers what I call an “access point” – an opportunity for a person to access the story and become a role player in it:

(access point: top of the packing)(access point: top of the packing)(access point: labels)(access point: the actual product)