Tom's Shoes vs. Sketcher's Bob's Shoes | Authentic brand vs. authentically pathetic attempt

The other day I was at Nordstrom Rack perusing the delights that await one in the shoe section when my eye spied a pair of Toms. I thought it very weird that Toms would end up at the rack since Nordstrom usually carries the classic colors, eliminating the need to send them there. I picked it up and noticed it was exactly like Tom's but called "Bob's" by Sketchers. I could barely believe that Sketchers would so blatantly copy Tom's Shoes so I began examining the shoe looking for proof of a differentiator of some sort, what I found was a tag that said if you buy a pair of Bob's, Sketchers will donate a pair to a child in need.

Really?

I think people should emulate the Tom's Shoes model, I think social entrepreneurship is good for society. But the foundation behind what creates a brand, particularly a socially responsible one should not be a compelling story. The founder of Tom's met lots of children who did not have shoes while traveling in South America and so he started Tom's to help them. Bob's on the other hand is strictly marketing, they saw the success and decided that rather than to create their own authentic brand centered around their own story, they would just copy everything Tom's has done. I think their latest thing is they'll donate two pairs of shoes. Wow revolutionary. Check out their product line. Same price points, same styles, same everything. It really is the textbook example of a lazy branding attempt blatantly grounded in marketing as opposed to authenticity. FAIL.