Between the two of us, my wife and I own seven pairs of TOMS. At first, I thought they were ridiculous, but then my wife got her first pair and I thought she looked adorable in them. She urged me to get a pair, so I bit. I now own three pairs.
If you’re not familiar with TOMS shoes, allow me to give you the quick and dirty on what they’re all about. When you buy a pair of TOMS, a pair is donated by the company to a child in need. They call it their One-for-One Project, and it’s gotten the company a lot of attention including a company that has blatantly ripped-off their idea.
I have a friend (who shall remain nameless*), who bought a pair of TOMS a couple years ago. He hated them. He thought they were too tight, and he didn’t care for the look of the shoe. So he returned them. However, he was very concerned about the free pair that would be sent to a needy child in some distant part of the world. Would the child still receive her shoes? When he called the customer care team to return the shoes, he made sure that the free pair would still be donated to a child. He didn’t get a full refund, but TOMS was happy to oblige his request. I thought that was pretty rad.
Unfortunately, the great customer service at TOMS doesn’t make for a good comic strip punchline.
Do you have a pair of TOMS? What style(s) do you own?
*His name is Torrin
This is a really beautiful strip.
Thanks, man. I’m getting more confident with Photoshop and my Wacom.
Love it. I own about 4 pairs…I only wear two, sometimes three of them but I can’t bring myself to throw away my first pair. Is that weird?
But I honestly don’t keep buying them because I’m super humanitarian. I just genuinely love them as shoes. y’know, once you break them in. ha.
Loving your comics!
I have three pairs, but I only regularly wear two because I want to keep the 3rd pair looking nice. They’re my favorites, and I want them to stay sharp for as long as possible. :)
I own two pair, and love them. I also love the look of this strip. The second panel with the golden light shining behind them. Good stuff!
Thanks, Justin.
Wes, would you consider sometime posting a progression showing your strip in the various stages you take it through photoshop like some other strips do? It would be fun and informational for other artists :) Not necessarily a step by step instruction, just showing the various layers you work through…
Love this one, by the way… :)
Yeah, I’ve actually been outlining a step-by-step process to share with all you guys. It’s going to be time-consuming to put it all together they way I want it, so I’m going to have to plan it out.
Not sure when I’ll post it exactly, but it’s definitely something I’m working on.
I’m looking forward to it. What do you call those shiny things? Light blooms? They look pretty sweet.
Yeah. Gabe at Penny Arcade and Scott Kurtz call ‘em “light blooms”.
Do you say “bloke” often? How did you settle on that word?
I can’t afford Toms. Perhaps you could buy a pair for me and then you would be buying a pair for two people!
I settled on “bloke” because I thought it sounded funny. :)
I thought about doing a TOMS giveaway here on the site. We’ll see what happens . . .
Awesome.
Awesome.
That glow effect is really cool. I thought it was just the glare on my computer screen, but when I held my hand up in front of it, it didn’t go away!
Awesome. Pretty cool to know the colors psyched you out for a moment. :)
Very cute, I love it. I always justify buying them because of the free pair to others. In fact I think I will go check out the site now. All because of you today another child gets some shoes :)
Get a pair of the OSU TOMS. They’re pretty classy!
Aren’t TOMS just a cloth version of Crocs?
That’s a great observation indeed.
Your first instinct was right. Those shoes are ugly. It’s a worthy cause, but the shoes are terrible looking.
I wonder if Nike would do this? Buy a pair of Air Jordans and we’ll donate 10 pairs of shoes to the sweatshop kids who made them in the first place.
Dude! You are on to something! Help out the sweatshop kids. I could get behind an organization like that. :)
All the sweatshop kids are already wearing Toms.