Blake Mycoskie was born on 26 August 1976, in Arlington, Texas, USA. He is an entrepreneur, author and philanthropist, as well as the founder and Chief Shoe Giver of TOMS Shoes.
So just how rich is Blake Mycoskie? He has an estimated net worth of $300 million, which he has amassed from the success of his company.
Mycoskie was born to parents Mike, an orthopedic surgeon, and Pam, an author. He went to Arlington Martin High School but later transferred to St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Austin from where he graduated in 1994. He received a partial tennis scholarship to Southern Methodist University (SMU), studying Business and Philosophy. After sustaining a career-ending injury, he left SMU and started his own business, EZ Laundry, which caters to students inside the campus. After reaching almost a $1 million in sales, he left the company,selling it to his partner at a nice profit.
Blake Mycoskie Net Worth $300 Million
Mycoskie then moved to Nashville where he launched Mycoskie Media, an outdoor billboard company, which was quickly sold to Clear Channel after nine months, again at a considerable profit to add to his net worth.
Aside from his successful business ventures, in 2001 Mycoskie competed on the second season of the reality series “The Amazing Race” with his sister, Paige, finishing third. His next companies included Reality Central and DriversEd Direct. His net worth is still growing.
However, his biggest success was creating Shoes for Better Tomorrows – TOMS, inspired by an American woman he met while visiting Argentina. TOMS is a for-profit organization, but which aims to help underprivileged children through the “One for One” business model, in which TOMS would donate a pair of shoes for every pair sold. Since then, the company has donated over 10 million pairs of shoes. The company then included eyeglasses in their “One for One” model, in which for every pair of sunglasses sold, a treatment, surgery, or eyeglasses is provided to someone in need for free.
In 2011, Mycoskie released the New York Time bestselling book “Start Something That Matters”, about the importance of social entrepreneurship. The purchase of the book also follows the same business paradigm with his shoes and sunglasses, in which for each volume sold a children’s book will be given to a disadvantaged child. In 2012, it was also announced that all the royalties from the book would be used to help budding entrepreneurs. In 2014, TOMS Roasting Company was launched, which promises to donate a week’s worth of water for every bag of coffee purchased. The same year, Mycoskie sold half of the company to Bain Capital, which enabled him to remain as Chief Shoe Giver. He has also sworn to donate 50% of the profits to start a fund that focuses on social entrepreneurship, which Bain Capital has also pledged to do. His net worth continues to grow.
In his personal life, Mycoskie is married to Heather Lang(m. 2012), whom he met while working at TOMS. They have one child and live in Los Angeles. His wife runs Toms Loves Animals, which was launched in 2014.
