Toms, the Los Angeles company known for its comfy, eco-friendly footwear and its shoes-donating ways, is tiptoeing into an unusual product line: coffee.
The philanthropic business, which sells shoes and eyewear under a One for One business model, made the announcement Tuesday in Austin, Texas, at the South by Southwest Interactive conference.
For every bag of coffee purchased, Toms said it will be able to provide a week’s worth of clean water to a person in a developing country.
“Through my travels, I found that some of the greatest coffee comes from developing countries,” said Toms founder Blake Mycoskie. “I learned that the largest ingredient in coffee is water, and that in many of the countries producing coffee, there are huge populations of people without access to safe water.”
