Heart and Sole
One alumna finds a shoe that fits and then some
Fatigued from job hunting, Leah Albertson ’06 went shoe shopping.
“I was burnt out on the job search,” Leah recalls, “and I decided, ‘I’m just going to look for shoes right now.’”
The pair she went looking for online was made by TOMS Shoes, a three-year-old footwear company and social initiative founded on the principle that with every pair purchased, a pair will be given to a child in need. On their website, Leah stumbled upon her new pair, which she bought and wore for six months straight, and also a pop-up declaring that TOMS needed interns.
Keen to leave her position at a paper shop and do something that benefited people, Leah applied. She landed the internship, moving her from hometown Seattle to TOMS’ Santa Monica, CA offices. There she put her communications degree into action, sending shoe samples to magazines, editing press releases, and planning major events for prominent retailers like Fred Segal.
Although Leah felt she’d found her perfect fit, when the internship ended, there were no openings at the company. “I worked temp jobs for two months,” she says. “I didn’t know if I would ever find another job like TOMS.” As providence would have it, the minute she made alternate plans, she got the call she’d been waiting for. “I was becoming disillusioned and decided I would apply to grad school in Norway,” says Leah, “but the day I printed out that application, someone from TOMS asked me to apply for a job.”
Leah returned to TOMS as personal assistant to founder and Chief Shoe Giver, Blake Mycoskie. But it was in retail marketing — helping boutiques and department stores tell the compelling story behind their brand — that she eventually found her footing.
If the world were a village of 100 people, 40 would have no shoes.
“There’s a quote on one of our shoes: ‘If the world were a village of 100 people, 40 would have no shoes,’” explains Leah. “It has inspired me to consider how important it is to tell others that sores and soil-transmitted parasites are the leading cause of disease in developing countries — countries where most children walk around barefoot.”
That cause, and delivering shoes to the kids who need them, which she’ll do in Argentina this fall, have made her work more love than labour. “At twu, I saw all these people doing amazing things,” says Leah. “I never expected to get a job that was a story worth telling too.”
by Joy Pecknold '03
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