At the age of 8, Samuel Bistrian, along with his 11 brothers and sisters and parents, packed their bags and said goodbye to a communistic and impoverished Romania for the land of opportunity…America. The Bistrians taught their children to be thankful in all things and to be ever-mindful of looking for a way to give back to others.
Over a decade later, Samuel graduated from Dallas Baptist University. He traveled with various missions groups to reach out to impoverished people and eventually returned to Romania for the first time since his childhood. The country is no longer under communistic oppression, but the country is still stricken with poverty.
What Samuel saw wrecked him. Orphans—streetchildren—everywhere tramping through snow, mud, and slush completely barefoot. This was the normal in Romania. This was the excepted, the accepted, and the heartbreaking-commonplace. He knew he had to do something. And he tucked that memory carefully away.
Back in America, Samuel’s drive for fashion and sales had led him to a prominent job at Neiman Marcus. It was here that Samuel met the infamous Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS. Samuel instantly loved the vision of tomes and was incredibly inspired by Mycoskie’s mentorship. He decided to blend his love for fashion and his compulsion to aid the impoverished by founding a rain-boot company with a similar one-for-one vision: Roma.
Roma spells out amor backwards. What’s more, Roma is also the slang name of one of the most impoverished Romanian gypsy people groups. Roma’s vision is to spread love and eradicate poverty. So, why rain boots? This shoe is the most practical answer to the mud, snow, and slush many kids tromp through on a daily basis. The shoes last longer than TOMS and provide more coverage.
Today Roma offers a wide range of rain boots and is growing in popularity, largely due to their latest genius marketing move to have the Duck Dynasty star, Sadie Robertson, represent their brand.
Pause for a moment. What do you observe? Samuel’s respect and the inspiration he received from TOMS is evident by the fact he sports a pair of classic cordones. What a guy.
Photo from Roma.com
This is fabulous because I’ve heard from some of my friends who’ve been involved with missions that TOMS are not very competent footwear for the lifestyle of many impoverished people. These however make a lot more sense. I love the personal connection to these people that is part of his story and motivation.
Exactly like Caroline said, TOMS are really not that durable. I’m glad to see a company that creates quality footwear for impoverished communities, and it’s a cause that strikes him personally. I also love the styles of his boots! There are different collections of boots, which gives it a higher fashion feel than your average rain boot. When I need a new pair of rain boots, I’ll be looking at Roma.
I loved reading this Sophie! It’s both inspiring and encouraging to hear how companies make it their mission to reach out to the impoverished. What’s even more beautiful is how there’s a personal connection for Samuel to the people of Romania. It’s these kinds of companies that are making a real difference in the world.
I love how he took an existing idea/ concept and improved it and made it his own. This is innovation on innovation. He saw what TOMS did to help solve a problem, and found a problem with their solution. He then solved the problem of impractical design by making rain boots. I also checked out the website and the slogan “give poverty the boot” is fantastic!
I love this company and what it stands for! I’ve always loved the idea of TOMS but after reading about Roma, I love this one even more. Similar to Greg Vetter, the founder took an idea concept that already worked and a passion of his and merged those. However, he also noticed what didn’t work in that company concept and changed his vision to fufill the problems that remained. Next time, someone I know or myself needs a pair of rain boots, I will be buying them from Roma.