You may be thinking, "ummm, hello Angela. Isn't World Vision and Airwalk and Payless joining together to bring shoes to shoeless children in Central America a great thing?"
YES, it's a great thing they're doing. I wish they'd come up with it on their own.
Many of you know my obession with TOMS Shoes. TOMS Shoes mission is to put shoes on the feet of shoeless children. Sound familiar?
And a new "Hope Shoe" from Payless:
They couldn't even come up with their own show design? I remember from marketing class about price points and offering different qualities of product for different price points, but this is changing the world we're talking about here. Do we have to compete here too?
It leaves a bad taste in my mouth to see our American consumerism and capitalism bleeding over into charity and the Christian mission. Both TOMS Shoes and World Vision are clear about their mission to make a better world, but copycatting is not the way to go.
Payless, Airwalk, and World Vision your cheap knock off of the TOMS shoe isn't really doing anything for me.
Proverbs 3:9 days "Honor God with everything you own; give him the first and the best." If we have the opportunity to give what is in my opinion a better made TOMS shoe to a child in need should we opt for the cheaper Payless Hope shoe?
Because I'm usually an optimist and because I really do want the barefooted people of the world to at least have an option to put on a pair of shoes, I hope that your Good Shoe Project does well and puts shoes on the feet of lots of children.
And I hope they don't fall apart too quickly.
