TOMS Shoes has an aggressively philanthropic business model, giving one pair of shoes to a child in need for every single pair they sell. Their hugely successful line of canvas slip-ons and newly released “wrap boots” sell to major national retailers like Nordstrom, Urban Outfitters, American Rag, and Greenloop. Up until just last week, Founder Blake Mycoskie and team have flown to exotic locales like Argentina, South Africa, and Ethiopia to personally fit kids with brand new pairs of TOMS, distributing more than 85,000 pairs around the world.

Doing shoe drops abroad seemed to make the most sense to Blake, considering most kids in the US have access to shoes. He recently realized though that some American children, like victims of natural disasters, were stuck with ill-fitting hand-me-downs or had to share shoes with siblings. So Blake decided to finally bring his “shoe drops” home to the US by organizing a handful of TOMS signature DIY shoe parties, dubbed Style Your Sole, at four different school districts in Mississippi still recovering from Hurricane Katrina. Each child received a brand new pair of white canvas TOMS to paint in their own unique way. Needless to say, they were very excited! Another brilliant idea from TOMS.