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TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie struggled with severe depression after selling his charitable shoe companyHe tells PEOPLE that he didn’t feel like he was “enough,” and eventually sought professional helpMycoskie is selling beaded bracelets with the word “Enough” to support others struggling with their mental health; proceeds will go to mental health charities
By the time TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie sold his charitable shoe company in 2019, he had helped donate more than 100 million pairs of shoes to children in need. He was looking forward to freedom.
But the transition didn’t go smoothly. “When I sold TOMS, I really wasn’t prepared for what was going to happen,” Mycoskie, now 49, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “All of a sudden, I did not have a purpose anymore. My whole purpose had been helping children get shoes around the world, and building something to make the world a better place.”
He was left with an unfamiliar emptiness.
“I started feeling depression for the first time in my life,” he says, adding that he “did lots of things to try to fix it,” like building his dream house and trying out new hobbies. But “nothing was working,” he says. “It got really, really bad about three years ago.”
TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie.
Chris Orwig
After he moved to a San Francisco suburb, “I started feeling totally hopeless, and not really wanting to be here anymore,” he says. “My self-talk was constantly negative and mean. Mental illness, it’s so real and it’s so invisible — because to everyone else my life looked great,” he says. “I lived in this mansion in this really fancy neighborhood, and my kids were doing well and in this great school and everyone looked at me like, ‘Man, you’ve had the greatest life since you sold TOMS.’ ”
But inside, Mycoskie says, “I just felt so alone. I remember dropping the kids off at school and then going to a park and crying and not answering anyone’s calls,” he says. “The scariest part is it’s in your head and when you get sick, it takes over. That’s why, unfortunately, we lose so many people to suicide. They just can’t get past those neverending horrible thoughts. I was there and I felt it.”
The Enough bracelets come in a two-pack, with the second bracelet intended for a friend or loved one.
Ridgeline
Mycoskie shares that the “best thing” he did was tell people, “‘Hey, I’m struggling. I can’t control my thoughts. I’m having really bad ones. I’m not sleeping.’ ” With support, “I got help,” he says. He worked with a psychiatrist and psychologist and did “a lot of therapy where we looked at every little step of my life.”
And in December 2024, Mycoskie had a breakthrough. He realized, “I have never felt that I’m enough. I’ve been constantly trying to prove to myself and to the world that I’m enough.” It started in his youth when he was a competitive tennis player. “I always worked harder than anyone else. My drive was insatiable, and I beat myself up so bad when I lost tennis matches.”
With TOMS, Mycoskie said he thought if “I start a business that helps the world and I give 100 million children shoes, then I’ll be enough. I did that and I still didn’t feel enough. I sold the company and I had all this money and this family and this house and all this stuff and still didn’t feel enough.”
That feeling, he says, “has been at the root of all my depressive symptoms and all the things that I’ve been experiencing for the past seven years.
He was advised to meditate for 40 days, telling himself “I am enough” — a practice he “hated.” He says it felt like “the dumbest thing I’ve ever done.” He wasn’t feeling better; he felt silly.
All proceeds from Blake Mycoskie’s Enough bracelets will go to mental health organizations.
Chris Orwig
But on the 28th day of meditating, “I felt lighter in my body.” A few weeks later, he was in India to meet with another man who struggled with severe depression, and “had this very clear, calm vision,” he says. “I’m not the only person that suffers from this. This is actually a cultural sickness. Our whole culture is designed to make us not feel enough, whether it’s social media or it’s capitalism or it’s ‘If you buy this, you’ll be enough. If you have this relationship. will be enough.’ ”
“God answered my prayers. The suffering that I went through, everything I experienced, all that pain. was so that I could feel it, so I could help other people maybe not feel it,” he says.
That’s w he and a friend came up with an idea.
The Enough bracelets come packaged with a poem.
Ridgeline
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“I wanted to have something I could wear every day that I could touch and hold on to and say, ‘I’m enough. I’ve always been enough,’ whenever I find myself with anxiety or struggling. And I wanted to be able to give that to others.”
And so, the Enough bracelets were born: The handcrafted leather and glass bead bracelets are sold in pairs, with the idea being that “you get one for you and one to give … It’s about sharing this message with someone else.”
All of the profits will be donated to mental health charities and organizations. The bracelets sell for $58 a pair and are emblazoned with the word “enough.”
Mycoskie hopes they can inspire a feeling of community: “I see you’re wearing the bracelet, and I’m wearing the bracelet, then we’ll feel more connected. And I think that’s what we need in the world right now, is to feel more connected, that we’re all in this together.”