TOMS Adds Sunglassses to Products

After weeks of anticipation, TOMS Shoes has finally unveiled their new One for One product: sunglasses!

In case you don't know about TOMS or their One for One program, the idea is this. For every one purchase you make, they will also donate to a person in need. They started with shoes in a small town in Argentina and have now given more than a million pairs of shoes away. They sell flat shoes, wedge shoes, men's shoes, women's shoes and kid's shoes.

Why shoes? According to their website, three simple reasons: disease, injury and education. In many developing countries, diseases come from the dirt and earth. Bacteria can transfer through the skin on bare feet. This leads to the second point, which is injury. For most of us, if we get a cut on our foot, we can clean it, put on a bandage and some shoes and it heals quickly. For children without shoes, a cut can lead to further infection which shoes can help prevent. Lastly, most of the time shoes are a required part of the school uniform and without them, these kids can get any type of education.

They also started "A Day Without Shoes." This day is dedicated to walking a mile in someone else's bare feet, to get a small taste of what children and adults around the world live with every day.

Today, however, TOMS became more than just a shoe company. According to founder Blake Mycoskie, they are now a One for One company.

In the video below, the decision to move into eyewear is laid out. With the recent decision by the UN to make the internet a basic human right, wouldn't it only seem logical that sight would also be a fundamental right? Thanks to TOMS, hopefully, millions of people can be given the gift of sight.

So why glasses? Because more that 250 million people in the world are unnecessarily blind. With just the help of eyeglasses, this problem could be cured. There is an immediate impact. Also, because a large majority of those affected by curable blindness are women.

For every pair of new TOMS sunglasses that are purchased, one pair of eyeglasses or one sight-saving surgery will be given to someone who needs them in Nepal.