A revolution is sweeping through the fashion industry. Many clothing items are manufactured overseas where costs and wages are lower, and the items are then wildly marked up to increase profits. Toms Shoes, based in Santa Monica, California, is challenging that business model.

The founder of Tom’s Shoes is Blake Mycoskie, an entrepreneur from Texas. After visiting Argentina and seeing how many families couldn’t afford shoes for their children, he decided to start a shoe company. He began selling shoes, based on the Catalan Alpargata design, out of his home. He put a rubber sole on the shoe and made them with bright colors.

To promote his company and the welfare of the children of Argentina, he promised to give away one pair of shoes for each pair he sold. Many business leaders scoffed at his unique idea. Today, Tom’s Shoes has given away over 600,000 pairs of shoes and is giving 100,000 shoes to Haitians as part of the earthquake relief.

Tom’s Shoes are manufactured in Argentina, China, and Ethiopia, and the company requires each factory to sign an agreement to pay fair wages and to follow local labor standards. The company that is giving away shoes does not allow its products to be made made under slave-labor conditions, and it regularly sends representatives to check on the status of the working conditions.

Two stores within six miles of Boston carry Tom’s shoes: Berks at 50 JFK Street in Cambridge, and Newbury Comics/Hootenanny at 36 JFK Street in Cambridge. Tom’s Shoes are also available in stores across the United States. The company has surprised the leaders of industry who thought that selling and giving couldn’t be mixed. The combination of humanitarianism and profit has paid off, to the chagrin of the investors who passed up the opportunity to support  Mycoskie’s dream.