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What Ever Happened to Toms Shoes?
A decade after millennials fell in love with the brand, it’s plotting a comeback that includes ending its sell-a-pair, donate-a-pair model.
Toms, the once-high-flying shoe brand, is itching for a comeback.
It starts with expanding beyond the millennials who swooned for its slip-ons and how it donated a pair of shoes to a needy kid for each one sold. To connect with today’s teens and early 20-somethings—a group dubbed Generation Z—the brand has ended the footwear donations that keyed its breakthrough a decade ago and is now giving a third of profit to causes it says this younger cohort cares about, such as gun violence. Marketing has been revamped to focus on teens. It’s also pushing further into sneakers.