So have you seen the latest?  Sketchers has just announced a new shoe, “Bobs” .  They are the spitting image of Toms Shoes’ comfy slip-ons. To make matters even weirder, Bobs even sell under the premise that for every shoe you buy from them, they’ll donate one to a child in need – which is pretty much a copy and paste job of Toms’ philosophy.

Dave actually brought home his first pair of Toms after a Catalyst conference about 5 years ago.  I found a few pair on clearance for $10 at Macy’s before they became popular.  My friend swears by them and even spent a 2 hour hike up a mountain in Haiti wearing them. Needless to say Toms was probably the first company that inspired the idea of selling something while at the same time giving back.  For each pair of Toms shoes you purchased a pair was donated to someone in need. Very inspiring and I believe Toms launched the way for other organizations to do the same thing. 

I’m not sure why this has bothered me so much.  I mean after all it’s a shoe company taking someone’s idea, concept, design, market, people group, and even taking the same “giving back” idea.  It’s just shoes but it’s so much more than that. It seems to be an overiding culture shift these days where others feel they are some how “entitled”.   Lost seem the days of respecting others,  honor, and integrity.  It amazes me how some people sleep at night.

SIDE NOTE:  Maybe sketchers woke up and looked at what they were doing and realized they really could not sleep at night.  Good for them.  I just went to pull info off of the sketchers page and it is now missing.  Looks like Bobs may be a short lived rip off.  Maybe there is some hope after all.