"Shoes for tomorrow"?

TOMS shoes is very much a company after my own heart. I remember when I was 15 when Rachel told me about these shoes she'd heard about at church, that donated a pair to children in Africa. She bought a cute blue plaid pair she wore threadbare. I remember distinctly thinking they looked weird. By senior year, I had caught the I'm-gonna-change-the-world bug and bought my first pair — picnic plaid, and I wore them in my senior pictures. In college I heard Blake Mycoskie speak about how what he does isn't just philanthropy — it's an effective business model. It plays off of consumerism and people's simultaneous desire to make the world better for someone else. And it's worked. Clearly, sustainable global change won't come from buying a new pair of shoes — I'm not so naive — but I fully believe that if everyone fills their life with little meaningful actions like buying shoes from a socially responsible company, great things will happen. I have had four pairs now (and I'm sure I'll get more).

TL;DR: I love TOMS.

Imagine my surprise when I realized they were being sold here, in Costa Rica! And they costed less than in the states? I wasn't sure how that worked, but I got up early to go to Best Brands at the mall to check them out.

They were fake TOMS.

You are probably not surprised. I have fake Birkenstocks from here (that I do regret). However, my loyalty to the company and my belief in this mission made it so my heart was totally broken that Ticos might go buy Toms to support a cause and really just be overpaying for poorly made shoes that fund someone's illegitimate business. So, Costa Rica friends, be careful: those TOMS might not be what you think they are.

Here's the top 5 reasons how I knew:

1. TOMS has registered retailers. To sell TOMS and receive Toms, you have to sign up. There is only one in this dear country I live in: Guanacaste. An easy way to know if you are being sold TOMS that are legitimately straight from the company is to see if they are at a registered retailer.
   
2. International TOMS scams. In non-U.S. where real TOMS aren't as accessible, it's easy to pass of a pair as real to people who don't see real ones everyday. I was already wary.
   
3. Only some styles exist. For example, black with shimmy gold swirlies is not a design of TOMS — which means the ones I saw weren't either.
   
4. Shoddy design. The stitching was uneven, the sole wasn't glued into the shoe, the TOMS logo on the back of the shoe was crooked, and you could still see the glue oozing out from where the sole was glued onto the canvas body.
   
5. The TOMS flag. Filter results for pictures of people with their TOMS flags. Every pair comes with a cloth flag. These didn't.

I don't really like to soapbox much, but please, don't buy the fake TOMS! It will hurt my heart.