Toms

When I lived in Kenya in 2007, my flatmate, Megan (only one of the most amazing people in the world), wore Toms shoes basically every day. If you don’t know what those shoes are, it’s OK. You’ve probably seen them on some hipster walking down the street before and just didn’t know it. When I visited her this summer, she still had the exact same pair. She made me try them on so that I could see for myself how comfortable they still were after all that time. She also told me that I should invest in a pair to take to Indonesia with me. They’re not really my style, but they are cute and lightweight canvas shoes, and with a recommendation like Megan’s, how could I resist? So I looked at them in the mall. And realized that there was no way on God’s green earth I could afford these shoes. Oh well… No tears were shed.

A few days ago, I saw an Indonesian friend wearing Toms. Basically, anytime you see something you like and ask the person where they got it at, the answer is one of the following: a) America, b) Korea, c) Singapore, or d) Jakarta. So I asked my friend where on earth she got a pair of expensive American shoes. She said, “Oh, right here in town at that store called Marvel!”

So that night, I told Aswan I wanted to go over there and look at shoes. He said, “Me too. I heard they sell Crocs there too. I want Crocs.” I tried to smile through my dry heaves as I calmly asked him, “You….. Like….. CROCS?!” He went on to explain that he likes the shoes they make for men – NOT the rubbery things with holes in them. Don’t get me wrong – I see the usefulness of Crocs. But I just can’t get over how ugly they are. And almost everyone has them here. They seem to be a pre-requisite for living overseas. “You MUST own Crocs in at least 3 colors.”

Anyways, long story short, we went to the store and I bought 2 pairs of Toms for $20 and boyfriend bought his Crocs for $10. Based on the cost alone, I’m assuming that the shoes have to be fake, but they all came with original tags… And when I researched fake Toms online, the ones I bought don’t have any of the telltale signs. Oh well, I don’t really care. I’m just happy to have new shoes! Because what girl isn’t?!







*EDIT* So I've noticed that pretty consistently every week, the number one most read post on this entire blog is THIS ONE! There are visitors coming almost daily after finding the photos above in Google image searches for fake Toms. So if you're trying to figure out whether yours are fake or not by reading this post, let me conclusively tell you that the Toms shown here are FAKE.

Here is how I know.

1. The V on the top of the foot is a lot wider than on real Toms (I put mine next to a friend's who bought hers from a legit shoe store in America. The V on hers looked tiny in comparison).

2. The writing on the inside of the shoe has a typo and no punctuation at all, which I didn't even pay attention to at first. Pretty sure the manufacturers of the real ones can spell.

Call me morally bankrupt if you will, but I have absolutely no problem buying fake Toms. I don't consider it to be stealing shoes from needy children when I would never have bought a real pair anyways - they don't even sell them in the country I live in. And obvious fakeness aside, I think I'm getting my money's worth out of these shoes. They've held up well, and I'm not the easiest person on footwear. Also, they didn't mold at all during rainy season, which is more than I can say for my more expensive shoes I bought in the States.