Smooth move, Skechers. It's totally not cool that you ripped off TOMS' one-for-one business module and expected to reel in sales by dropping a few bucks off the price. Then, in what appears to be a desperate attempt to salvage your plan, you've now sweetened the deal by pledging to donate two pairs of shoes to children in need for every pair of fake TOMS Bobs purchased. So, you know, now we're the assholes over here wearing less-charitable kicks.
What would have been cool—dare we say awesome—is if you had developed a different style of sneaker as an alternative form of good-doing footwear, thereby siginificantly increasing the sum total of charitable purchases and hence, number of shoes donated to the needy. No one's debating the value of a good product with an even greater goal in mind. But all you've managed to do with the eerily similar Bobs is to shift sales in an already cornered market. Surely, you're not expecting us to believe that you have a heart hidden somewhere behind the façade of your partner charity Soles4Soles.
Take note: it's hard to support a brand that reeks of laziness and corporate greed. While we'd like to help the children, what we really want are cool shoes that aren't simultaneously funding an ugly machine—at least not when we have the option to do otherwise. So from now on we'll just have to buy two pairs of TOMS, thankyouverymuch. Even a child can smell a rat.
