i'd like a new pair of shoes

[Disclaimer: Dear TOMS-loving friends, you hereby have permission to judge me for the following. Heavens knows I have done the same to you and your feet in the past. J]

I remember one night at the Campus Ministries retreat my Junior Year, Terese Cox began our evening in the Word with the proclamation “I hate trends.” To demonstrate her despise, she held up a pair of TOMS shoes. Granted, this was a bold move, considering that said brand of shoes were, in that moment, spooning many a Ouachitonian heel in that Perrin chapel. Yet, Terese had my undivided attention for the rest of her spiel, for I, too, had similar distaste for those canvas slippers.

My resentment wasn’t about comfort. I had donned a few of my friends’/roommates’ pairs when they weren’t looking. I knew TOMS hugged one’s feet better than a snuggy or a great-grandmother. It was not so much about style either. I thought TOMs looked pretty cool, to be honest. My aversion to the shoes was more about WHY they were cool…

TOMS shoes were and are cool because every pair has that oh-so-hip stamp of social justice on the box. When you spend $44+ on a pair of TOMS, you can rest assured, that not only will you look hipsterlicious in your new duds, but 7,000 miles away, a child named Sikote, will also be strutting his stuff-- barefooted no more--on those dark, dusty, African paths. Because of you and your socially-compassionate ways, Sikote will no longer be threatened by the dangers of ring-worm, glass shards, and stylelessness.

Is it dumb that Sikote had a new pair of shoes? No.

Is it dumb that you can be trendy by being socially just? Perhaps.

In the words of Emilee Wade, “what will happen when it’s no longer cool?”

Thus, for 4-years, I resisted the trend, sitting on a prideful throne of simultaneously idealistic and cynical principles and trying (kind of) to keep my opinions to myself and thus, not offend my beloved TOMS-wearing best friends.

Yet, today, I would like to eat my words and take back the bitterness I have held against TOMS and TOMS-wearers for some time now.

TOMS shoes has now officially touched my family and me in a personal way.

I am here to report that thanks to TOMS shoes, two China-dwelling children are no longer shoeless. There names are…Emily and Susanna Schleiff.

And now, thousands of miles away from Ouachita and my—probably vain—desire to resist Ouachita trends, I have once again, secretly donned TOMs when their owners weren’t looking. I found that my previous resolve to never own a pair wavered as I slid my foot into that oh-so-comfortable-and-practical two pieces of canvas + sole. Maybe my future pair of TOMS will be from the Chinese black market. And maybe my purchase won’t instigate the giving of a subsequent pair to an impoverished African child, but it’s the principle of the matter.

And the fact of the matter is: I will be purchasing some ASAP.