Why Veja’s Environmentally Conscious Sneakers Are A Cult Favorite
French footwear label VEJA was launched in 2005 with a bold mission: to make sneakers in a radically new, environmentally friendly way. Since then, the brand has become a positive force for change in the fashion industry
To call Veja’s co-founders Sébastien Kopp and François-Ghislain Morillion business partners would only serve to devalue their relationship – in fact, they consider themselves to be brothers. The two first met when they were just 14 years old, forging an enduring friendship that would carry them from school to university, through fledgling careers in finance and eventually into the world of fashion. They quickly decided the corporate world wasn’t for them and set up their own NGO, focused on the issue of corporate social responsibility. This joint venture took the pair to countries including China, Brazil, India and Bolivia, and it was these fields trips that inspired Kopp and Morillion to launch their footwear label Veja in 2015, when they were still just 25 years old. The logic might not seem linear but, as Kopp puts it, “we saw firsthand that most companies’ actions just didn’t line up with their rhetoric; they weren’t ready to make change.” This unethical approach to business simply didn’t align with the duo’s values: “We wanted to create a project that would be based on action, not empty speeches,” Kopp adds. “Veja was born.”
“We started Veja like an adventure, we just wanted to create a sneaker that would respect both the planet and the people who made it
”Sébastien Kopp
Since then, the brand has achieved staggering success. A fact made all the more impressive when you take into consideration the fact that Kopp and Morillion had no prior knowledge or experience of the fashion industry when they founded Veja. However, rather than succumbing to fear, they were exhilarated by the challenge that lay ahead. “We started Veja like an adventure, we just wanted to create a sneaker that would respect both the planet and the people who made it,” Kopp explains. The duo, who serve as creative director (Kopp) and sourcing director (Morillion) of the company, simply started from the beginning and went from there. “We thought the key was to know where and how each piece of a sneaker was made, and to change it step by step,” Kopp says. This total reimagining of how a sneaker could be made and more specifically what from – in this instance, organic Brazilian cotton and Amazonian rubber – even led the pair to develop their own innovative materials, including their signature B-mesh leather, which is crafted entirely from recycled plastic bottles. Ultimately, this pioneering approach gave the brand its name, too, with the Portuguese-Brazilian word Veja translating to ‘look’ in English; it means “look beyond the sneakers, look at how they are made,” Kopp explains.
However, as any sustainability advocate knows, the materials are just the tip of the iceberg; to make good on their mission, Kopp and Morillion realized they needed to do more. “The goal of Veja is to change every step of the production chain, from the raw materials to the stores. We work with a professional social-inclusion company to take care [of] the logistics of Veja.”
But, ever the innovators, Kopp and Morillion aren’t content to rest on their laurels. “The main challenge and goal for Veja is to push the limits of transparency and to find new innovations for our materials,” Kopp shares. “Veja is still a project that needs to be better. We are trying to offer to the team the company we would have dreamt to work for.”
Now, not only have Kopp and Morillion turned this fantasy into a reality, they have also transformed the fashion industry – setting the gold standard when it comes to marrying style with sustainability, and creating one of decade’s most defining pieces and sought-after sneakers in the process.