Toms founder Blake Mycoskie is back with a new venture, one that is personal and inspired by his own mental health journey.
Enough is Mycoskie’s new non-profit brand, which is dedicated to giving back to mental health organizations.
For the past several months, the Toms founder has been vocal on social media about his struggles with depression he sold the brand in 2014. During his journey and recovery, Mycoskie said he learned that his mental health boiled down to one thing: not feeling like he was enough.
Mycoskie founded Enough as a way to both ignite conversation and show support for others who are also struggling by reminding them that they are enough.
The brand is selling Enough bracelets at Wearenough.org beginning on Tuesday. Sold as a two-pack at $58 in the color green, the official mental health awareness color, the intent is to encourage gifting to a friend as a reminder that the healing journey doesn’t happen alone. The bracelet is handmade in India, where Mycoskie spent time during his own healing process.
Enough is giving 100 percent of the profits from all sales to nonprofit groups that include National Alliance on Mental Health, Project Healthy Minds, and Active Minds.
Mycoskie founded Toms in 2006, and sold 50 percent of his firm to Bain Capital in 2014. He left the company in 2019 after it was taken over by creditors.
Toms, a pioneer in the purpose-driven brand arena, developed a slip-on version of the Alpargata, a popular Argentinian shoe style. The original vision was to provide a new pair of free shoes to children in developing nations for every pair sold in the North American market.
In an interview with Footwear News in 2016, Mycoskie discussed the Toms formula. “It was this cool idea: We could help these kids we’d met on a trip to Argentina and it would be fun. We were focused on that aspect of it. We weren’t thinking it could make money. Then it became the biggest business I could ever start and will ever start,” he said.
As for the Tom’s other social initiatives under Mycoskie’s leadership, the company in November 2018 took a stand on gun control coupled with financial backing and a social media push behind gun violence.