Mycoskie, an “Amazing Race: 2” contestant who fell four minutes short of winning the million-dollar prize, decided to relieve his sorrows by traveling back to the places he’d seen on the show. While hanging out in Argentina a few years ago, he saw volunteers collecting ratty old shoes in Buenos Aires for people in poor villages who suffered from wounds and infections because they had nothing to put on their feet. Mycoskie decided to tag along on one of the volunteer missions, and he witnessed the desperate need firsthand. He also noticed that the polo players he was hanging out with were wearing alpargatas—rope-soled canvas slip-ons that sheep-farmers had been wearing for hundreds of years. He thought the shoes were cool enough that he could sell them to boutiques in L.A. (where they now retail for between $42 and $98 a pair). With the profits, he would donate new shoes to kids in the villages. That’s how his “One for One” program was born.

In 2006, Mycoskie did his first TOMS shoe drop, donating 10,000 pairs in the Argentine village where he was first inspired. Through word of mouth and top placement in stores like Kitson and Bloomingdale’s, his retail business exploded. To date, the company has donated more than 115,000 pairs of shoes in Argentina, Ethiopia, South Africa and the U.S. Mycoskie has plans to do similar work this year in Haiti with the help of the Clinton Global Initiative. His goal for 2009 is to put 300,000 pairs of TOMS on kids’ feet around the world.

HEMISPHERES: What do you remember about your first shoe drop? How did the children in the village react?

BLAKE MYCOSKIE: I remember it like it was yesterday. It was the same village [in Argentina] I initially went to, and I’d told them I wanted to return and bring 250 pairs back with me. They didn’t believe I’d ever come through, but we did. I immediately knew it was something I really wanted to continue doing and make succeed in the coming years.

What’s been the most memorable thing about this venture?

Seeing the children in these cripplingly poor villages has taught me a lot about life. They don’t have any possessions or running water, yet they’re so happy. It’s a very interesting study, to see how they can be so full of joy with so little. During our first shoe-drop, three boys took me to a field where they loved to play soccer. It was full of rocks and glass, and they’d been playing there barefoot for years. When they got the shoes, they were so excited that playing soccer would now be easier, and they’d finally have some speed.

What’s next for TOMS?

The company is built on a passion to give, and so our primary goal is to continue the mission of helping others. I want to expand our One for One business model to other products and services. But in the meantime, I also want to improve the fit and comfort of our shoes and expand into other styles. I honestly believe we can become a successful footwear company worldwide, and one day give a million shoes to children in need.

You also have a tour program?

TOMS Tours was created as a fun and exciting way to invite our consumers to participate in the mission and witness the One for One model firsthand. I believe life should be about charity as well as fun. So on these tours you spend five days in Argentina visiting villages in need and bringing new shoes to them, and then three days immersing yourself in the culture—we do wine tasting in Mendoza, polo lessons in Buenos Aires and hiking to Iguazu Falls.
A pair of TOMS

How often do you wear the shoes yourself ?

I live in California, so I wear them every day. It’s great not having to go to the office in a suit. All of my employees are able to express their own personal style and work in a relaxed, comfortable environment. I love it.

What do you do in your free time?

It’s pretty rare for me to even have free time. But when I do, it’s usually spent reading business books so I can learn new and creative ways to run this company. This whole thing started as a project and has since become my life. I can see myself doing this forever.

Any advice for other entrepreneurs looking to start a similar charitable venture?

Create a company you’re excited about. Be passionate about your mission and never lose sight of the bigger picture. Take my word for it—do this, and you’ll never look back or want to work for anyone else.

How do you propose other companies remain charitable while still turning a profit in an economic downturn?

I think a lot of consumers are looking for some kind of added value when they buy things these days, and our One for One model creates a benefactor with every single purchase. So that really supports a continued relationship between the consumer and the company. There’s certainly a value in operating on a match program like ours. I can only hope other companies see that in us, and would consider implementing something similar.

What was it like being a reality TV star?

It was awesome. Of course it was pretty weird at first, but then you kind of forgot the cameras were there. The show exposed me to places I had never seen, and because of that I wound up doing TOMS.

This article was published in United Hemispheres.

Haribo Gummy Frogs represent the summit of my candy obsession, the item against which all other candies are compared. (Once spotted mainly in France and Germany, these lovable amphibians have now, like Toblerone, colonized the States) They are probably also the main culprit in my tooth decay. Every year we lived abroad, we made a summer trip to the States, where our dentist lay in wait with his whirring drill. At last count, I have nearly as many fillings as I have teeth.
We also roamed beyond Europe— broadening our sweets horizon to include even more inscrutable confections. My dad often did business in Africa, so during school breaks we went with him on work trips to places like Egypt, Zimbabwe and Kenya. I’ll never forget visiting the pyramids, but what I remember most clearly about Egypt is the mysterious Arabic scrawl on the M&Ms bags I found in a dusty market in Cairo. I can still practically taste the Chiclets I bought in little packets from kids who swarmed us on the streets of Harare, Zimbabwe, and the intriguing Chupa Chup flavor, chocovanilla, that I spotted in a gas station in Kenya.
When I was 14, we moved to Tokyo and spent a month living out of a hotel, which meant ready access to a gift shop. Tokyo added a whole new twist to my sweets obsession. To start with, Japan is the world capital of strange candy. My sisters and I puzzled over the selections for hours. Was that Sweet Tart–like object a steering wheel or a space ship? A horse or race car? Japanese confectioners are fond of hilarious marketing schemes and seem to possess questionable transliteration skills, so it was often hard to know exactly what we were getting. But who could resist a package proclaiming “Happy Good Choco Fun!” with a koala on the wrapper? Some local flavors (sour plum, for instance, and milk) were too odd even for me. Among my favorites: creamy Chelsea toffees, grape Hi-chews, green tea, cola, lychee and melon gummies, and a sugarcane hard candy that tasted exactly like hardened Karo’s corn syrup.
I’m a grown woman now, and though I can easily purchase all the candy I could choke down, my tastes, thankfully, have matured. I’ve come to learn that we live in a world of consequences—Type 2 diabetes, for instance, and candy-induced obesity, and my own mouthful of vintage fillings that sparkle like tiny metal bonbons when I open wide. My obsessions these days lean toward snowboarding and mountain biking. Occasionally, I’ll indulge my old habits at home or work, but now mostly I’m only tempted when traveling—the cravings perhaps triggered as much by nostalgia as appetite.
Early last summer, my boyfriend and I went to a wedding in a quaint seaside town in Somerset, England. When he suggested we have tea, I spied a candy shop and, almost by reflex, cried, “Scones can wait!” Within minutes, I was dipping a black licorice stick into a tube of tangy sherbet powder and licking the end. In a Proustian flash, I was transported back to a class trip to London when I was a girl, licking the same sherbet powder off the same black licorice stick. Sweet!
I’m often teased about my habit, but I don’t mind. Shopping for local sweets still somehow brings me a more intimate understanding of a foreign place than anything else. There’s something deeply primal about a nation’s confections. They offer clues about the psychology of a place, its particular notions of pleasure and joy and fun. More important, perhaps, is the way such simple indulgences transcend politics and borders. Sweets are universal. Come to think of it, some candy diplomacy might be just the balm for the various conflicts bedeviling the world these days. Anyway, just something to chew on…
A contributor to Rolling Stone, Maxim and Details, Gillian Telling currently owes her dentist $4,000.

This article was published in United Hemispheres.

Ask any New Yorker who that white-haired man is saying hello to everyone on the corner of 6th Avenue and Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, and they’ll tell you Silvano Marchetto of course, owner of Da Silvano. The New York institution has been around for 30 years, with Silvano himself at the helm. Now, his 29-year-old daughter Leyla has opened a restaurant of her own across the street, called Scuderia.

“We figured if there was an open space across from us, we’d rather be our own competition than go head-to-head against anyone else,” says, Leyla, who is making her first foray into the business even though she grew up at Da Silvano, rollerskating through it after school and meeting its regular celebrity patrons on a regular basis.

Her partners include Alessandro Bandini, the GM of Da Silvano for 10 years, Fabrizio Sotti, a music producer, and executive chef Claudio Cristofoli who has helmed the kitchens at Cipriani Downtown and Cipriani Hong Kong. Cristofoli brings his Venetian roots to the Northern Italian menu, so expect dishes like grilled rabbit with fried artichokes, and mini pizzas with prosciutto, basil and a soft-fried egg. “Of course, I had to have the perfect burger on the menu,” says Leyla. “The entire menu consists of things I always want to eat.”

SCUDERIA 10 DOWNING ST./ BLEECKER, 212.206.9111

Thanks to the Office’s popularity, Gervais had no trouble recruiting stars like Winslet, Ben Stiller and Samuel L. Jackson. “I would hear that it was David Letterman’s favorite show, or Ben Stiller’s,” he says. “When the time came, I just rang them up and said, ‘OK, put your money where your mouth is.’” Recently, Madonna approached him, claiming to be his biggest fan. “She said she’d do anything I wanted,” he notes. ”But then, she’s forty grand an hour, and she doesn’t make the beds.”

As with ‘The Office, Gervais is planning just two six-episode seasons, though he knows the fans want more. ”Yes, but I know what’s best for them,” he says. “And I don’t want people to get sick of me.”