Brand Spotlight: VEJA
Veja was born out of the idea that there has to be a better way to create. A more sustainable way. One that doesn’t waste, use harmful materials, or require immoral working and living conditions for employees.
This may sound like the silly fantasy of two idealistic 20-something-year-olds who just wants to save the world. Actually, that’s exactly what it was.
Founders, Sebastien Kopp and Francois-Ghislian Morillion were recent college graduates with degrees in economics and philosophy, who at 25-years-old, found themselves face to face with the evils of globalization. After visiting a Chinese factory, where they witnessed the poor living conditions of the employees, they suddenly felt they had a purpose. To make a product that doesn’t sacrifice moral integrity for profit.
Now this sounds like a big, seemingly impossible, feat for two young men who admit that, at the time, they “knew nothing about nothing.” And it WAS big — but it wasn’t impossible.
First they had to ask themselves what they wanted to create.
And their answer? Sneakers.
Sneakers are, and always have been, more a necessity than a commodity. A staple in pretty much everyone’s lives. The question isn’t, ‘Are you going to buy a pair of sneakers”, it’s, “Which pair are you going to buy?”
In the 90’s, sneakers evolved. No longer merely for athletic apparel — they were taken to the streets; they became fashionable.
For these reasons, the young men knew they could make a business out of the shoe game. Or were at least ready to try. And so they started their research.
They found that advertising was the one place that most of the industry leaders were spending most their money. More so than production.
In fact, for large sneaker brands “70% of its costs goes to advertising and communication. And only 30% goes to raw materials and production.”
This was when they saw the light. If they cut advertising costs, they could invest that same money towards more sustainable, and more expensive, materials and procedures. And that, if they did this, they could produce a shoe that costs the same as the big brands, but with a bit more integrity.
The men began in South America — Brazil specifically — because here they had access to the raw materials, and the factories that practiced fair treatment of their employees.
Their mission was to reinvent the wheel. They wanted to take an everyday product, that had already set the standard for production in its industry, and turn it upside down. They needed to start at the beginning, so they would have the clearest path forward in producing the most sustainable product imaginable.
They needed to start with the raw materials.
This is when they found themselves in the Amazon rain forest. Among communities living in peaceful coexistence with the environment around them. Living in harmony, rather than distress.
The task was anything but easy.
“At first, it is a bit complicated, we’re gringos who barely speak Portuguese, and we are in the middle of the jungle. Everyday gives us 1,000 reasons to lose hope, but we keep going.”
From this persistence, the men formed a relationship with the community and began to harvest wild rubber from the rubber trees. This became the soul of the sneaker. But literally, this rubber represents 40% of the sneaker soles they’ve made since this discovery. So, pun intended.
The men continued the momentum and partnered with an organic, agro-ecological cotton farm by the Atlantic coast, where they would use practices that would actually enrich the soil after the harvest, rather than depleting it. (Big win.)
Their next stop was the south of Brazil, where they visited a manufacturing company where employees worked reasonable hours, in safe conditions. Here is where they decided to manufacture.
They eventually linked with a social reintegration organization that took over logistics, located in the charming suburbs of Paris. This non-profit organization helps those who are vulnerable when it comes to finding a job, some, who have been previously incarcerated, and provide social and financial stability.
A few years later, the men began using leather that was100% vegetable-tanned and started using the fish skin from tilapia — which was, then, typically wasted. They discovered a factory in San Paulo that was developing a fabric made entirely out of recycled plastic bottles.
In addition to having created a sneaker made from recycled, eco-friendly materials, out of factories with proper working conditions — the men were determined to the continued idea of holding themselves under the microscope; At a sort of heightened transparency.
In 2009 they created a section on their website called Limits, which shows the public everything they’re doing wrong — like how up until 2015, they were using vegetable tanning for their leather, but as cost increased, and quality has declined, they were forced to turn back, and rethink. Now, they use leather that meets REACH standards and regulates the amount of chemical substances used in production.
“Everything we do wrong, we post it, we publish everything. And we love it. And that’s precisely what we’re going to continue doing in our future projects; keep improving, step by step, and stay faithful to what we are and to what we’d like to see happen in the world.”
If you’re reading this and find yourself in awe of these two men, well, same. They reinvented the sneaker, sort of. They pushed the boundaries. Whether that was exploring places they never even thought of, in search of resources that aren’t destined to harm the environment we all share, or admitting their mistakes and quickly changing course. They started, stopped, redirected and started, over and over again, until they got it right. Even today, they are still holding themselves to that same moral standard. Even — especially if — that means they may have to stop, start, redirect, and start over, again.
