As mentioned by Diou in her blog, many of us are aware of TOMS and their effort in providing underprivileged children with shoes. More recently, however, our marketing class came across BOBS, a line of shoes which appears to be a blatant knock-off of TOMS. BOBS was created by Sketchers, and similar to TOMS, they also donate a pair of shoes for every pair sold. When I first heard about this during class, I felt that it was quite shady of Sketchers to outright copy TOMS, and Simon Mainwaring agrees with this view in his blog, but my personal opinions have changed after taking a look at their website.
Take a look at this video.
BOBS isn’t hiding the fact that they are using another company’s idea. In fact, they mention TOMS in the video above, and they also state on their website, “[BOBS] isn’t a new idea, but it’s a great idea and we are happy to be part of a charity movement that has the potential to impact so many.” Yes, BOBS stole an idea from TOMS, but is it such a bad thing that more children in the world now have an opportunity to receive a pair of shoes? The answer is obviously no. Let’s take a step back and stop thinking about the business aspect of the two companies and start thinking about the cause. We shouldn’t hate on a company who’s also trying to do their part to help alleviate a global issue. BOBS may indeed be a disingenuous marketing campaign, but at least more children will have shoes on their feet.
One reply on “BOBS Shoes”
This is such an interesting cross point – they stole an idea, but in doing so it benefits them more from a social viewpoint.