TOMS is a company based on a simple exchange: buy a pair of this brand's shoes or glasses, and the company gives a pair of the same to kids who need them.
For a long time, TOMS was an example of a sustainable brand that combines a viable business model with social consciousness. The brand itself accumulated significant equity in the process: wearing a pair of TOMS shoes means that you are a responsible, caring consumer who puts benefits of others over their own vanity.
Now, TOMS upped the ante on giving back. The brand recently launched TOMS Marketplace, a platform for social entrepreneours to promote and sell their environmentally conscious, sustainable goods. Yes, this effectively means that a brand sells other brands under its turf.
The thread that makes this actually make sense is the unifying mission between the TOMS brand one one side and all those emerging entrepreneurs and the goods they are selling on the other. The more TOMS can unite other companies under its mission of giving, and the more ways to give it can find, the stronger its own brand becomes. Simple.
As of now, TOMS Marketplace features about 200 products from 30 companies. Products range from jewelry to tech, home hoods and accessories. Best part is, one can search by the region, product, cause or brand. Check it out, each listing includes a story and the social impact of the company, and there are some cool product curations by TOMS founders, too.