Blake Mycoskie: Difference between revisions
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'''Blake Mycoskie''' (born August 26, 1976) is an American entrepreneur and author. He is best known as the Founder and Chief Shoe Giver of TOMS Shoes. |
'''Blake Mycoskie''' (born August 26, 1976) is an American entrepreneur and author. He is best known as the Founder and Chief Shoe Giver of TOMS Shoes. |
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==Early life== |
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Blake was born in Arlington, Texas to Mike Mycoskie, an orthopedic surgeon and former Texas Rangers team doctor, and Pam Mycoskie, author of the best-selling cookbook, Butter Busters. He is the eldest of three children, including his sister Paige and his brother Tyler. |
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As a teen, Mycoskie attended James Martin High School in Arlington, Texas before transferring to St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Austin. In 1995, he was accepted into Southern Methodist University on a tennis scholarship. During his sophomore year, Mycoskie suffered a career-ending injury to his Achille’s tendon. It was while he was recovering from this injury that Mycoskie had the idea for his first business, EZ Laundry, a door-to-door laundry service targeting his fellow students. After growing to a total of 40 employees and eight trucks, Blake sold the business to his partner. He would go on to start four more businesses before founding TOMS. |
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==Entrepreneurship== |
==Entrepreneurship== |
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Revision as of 03:08, 30 June 2012
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Blake Mycoskie (born August 26, 1976) is an American entrepreneur and author. He is best known as the Founder and Chief Shoe Giver of TOMS Shoes.
Entrepreneurship
In 1999, Blake created his second business, Mycoskie Media, an outdoor billboard company based in Nashville, Tennessee, that he would later sell to Clear Channel Communications. Following his stint on the CBS reality show, The Amazing Race, Mycoskie sought to create an all-reality cable TV network called Reality Central. Reality Central was covered by CNN and featured on the front page of Variety, but ultimately folded when Rupert Murdoch launched the Fox Reality Channel. After Reality Central, Blake partnered with the founders of TrafficSchool.com to create Drivers Ed Direct, an online drivers education service and in-the-car training school featuring hybrid cars and SUVs.
Amazing Race
Blake and his sister Paige competed as a team on the second season of CBS’ The Amazing Race. In one of the closest finishes in the show’s history, Blake and Paige finished just four minutes short of winning the $1 million dollar grand prize. The Mycoskie siblings finished third overall.
TOMS
While vacationing in Argentina in 2006, Blake spent a day volunteering with a local non-profit organization delivering used shoes to children in the villages outside of Buenos Aires. Blake’s self-described epiphany moment came when he realized that he could start a for-profit business, not a charity, to continually give new shoes to children in need. He would do so by selling an updated version of the alpargata, a shoe worn by farmers in South America for over 100 years.
Blake created the One for One business model, which provides a new pair of TOMS shoes to a child in need for every pair purchased. Blake originally called his company “Shoes for Tomorrow,” but later shortened the name to “TOMS Shoes.”
In 2011, TOMS Eyewear was launched using the One for One model. For every pair of glasses sold, people in need would receive prescription glasses, sight-saving surgery or medical treatment.
References
Time Magazine - http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1582305,00.html
Wall Street Journal Online- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204632204577131031031671906.html
Huffington Post – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/blake-mycoskie
WebMD – http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/features/blake-mycoskie-starts-something-that-matters
Fast Company – http://www.fastcompany.com/1776334/toms-shoes-ceo-blake-mycoskie-on-social-entrepreneurship-telling-stories-and-his-new-book
Inc.com - http://www.inc.com/magazine/20080301/my-place-blake-mycoskies-cozy-cruiser.html
Footwear News – http://www.wwd.com/footwear-news/brand-of-the-year-toms-shoes-3391402
ACE Awards – http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2009/dec/133351.htm
New York Stock Exchange: Investor Relations - http://ir.nyse.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=129145&p=irol-newsArticle_Print&ID=1356038&highlight=
Go Go Gala – http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/alltherage/blake_mycoskie/
Key to West Hollywood – http://www.hanson.net/site/postings/5860?section_id=17
Cooper Hewitt – http://peoplesdesignaward.cooperhewitt.org/2007/