Dear Toms

Dear Toms,

I have a confession to make...I'm officially cheating on you. There I've said it.
While your company's one for one policy is wonderful and your shoes are adorable, they are WAY TOO OVER PRICED!

I own one pair of your shoes. And I love them, I really do. But your shoes were starting to take over my mind and I just cannot have that. Neither can my pocket book.

I really believe in your cause. I believe that we should all be socially responsible. I love the fact that you donate a pair of your shoes to a child in need. And this is what drew me to your shoes in the first place, because I have to be honest, the first few times I saw them on my hipster Christian friends I thought they were hideous and made their feet look HUMONGOUS!

But alas, I succumbed to the socially-aware, "charitable," philanthropic idealism behind this fashion statement and I went out and bought myself a pair.

I rocked those shoes all summer. I wore them with jeans, shorts, leggings, and even a few skirts. I loved them and I loved you. But as time went on, I started feeling...gross. I started feeling like if I was going to "donate" something to a child I should just do that and not get a pair of $50 shoes in return. So I kept up with my actual giving to organizations and decided to hold off on trying to be trendy in return.

Because face it Toms thats what you are-trendy. You're in style right now. You're the go-to shoes of every hipster Christian and LA fashionista. And who would have ever thought Midwest Christians  and LA socialites would have things in common. But we do. We all like a cute shoe. Especially when these shoes have a great message behind them.

While I love the fact that you were thinking of little barefoot kids in Argentina when you decided to start your company and I know that your intentions were GREAT and very very honorable, at this point my dear dear Blake your shoes are so incredibly over-priced.

I wanted your $98 wrap boots and pouted a little at Christmas when I didn't see them under the tree. I wanted your yellow wedges and tried to convince myself that it was justified to spend $70 on one pair of shoes that I would probably only wear a few times a year because somewhere a cute child was getting a tiny pair of yellow wedges herself. But I'm pretty sure she wasn't. I'm pretty sure she was getting a teeny tiny pair of basic black Toms that may have cost $2.00 to make.

So my dear dear ex boyfriend Toms, if you lower your prices to actually reflect the cost and labor of two pairs of shoes with a small profit, I will gladly come back to you. And I may even become desperate enough for a cute pair of cordoroys or some awesome new textile your creative design team comes up with in the near future.

But for now, I have to break up with you.

So, while shopping around for a pair of Dyeable shoes for my friend's wedding, I stumbled upon another Toms-esque venture. It's by Airwalks. At Payless. Yes, yes I know I have no idea who is making Airwalks. And yes, I know I don't know if the person behind them is Christian. And yes, I know they're not on a sleek website or at a trendy expensive boutique, but at my local corner Payless.

But the shoes were $30 dollars cheaper. AND I was still able to partner with World Vision and donate a pair to a cute child in need. So I say it's a win win situation. I saved about $80 (I bought two pairs...they were BOGO!) AND I was still able to donate two pairs of teeny tiny baby shoes to two cuties in South America.

The most ironic part about it all is the reaction my Toms-loving Christian friends are going to give me when they see me sporting the "copy cat" brand. I wonder if there's going to be a little girl in Argentina who is shunned by her friends for sporting her donated pair of the imposter brand.

Love.