VEJA, THE SUSTAINABLE ROAD TO SUCCESS
« We decided to make sneakers, because this product is a symbol for our generation and our era. It's also a product that crystallizes the major issues of globalization through its production, dissemination, and usage. »
Veja, the favorite brand of the founder and curator of Another Story, Maryse Kraatz, introduced for the first time in Thailand by Another Story, 5 years ago, has an incredible story to tell.
Environmentally friendly sneakers, made with raw materials sourced from organic farming and ecological agriculture, without chemicals or polluting processes.
Since 2005, VEJA has been making sneakers differently infusing each stage of production with a positive impact. The idea behind a pair of VEJA: standing up with one foot in design and the other in social responsibility
The idea behind a pair of VEJA: standing up with one foot in design and the other in social responsibility.
Fair trade is one of the three fundamental pillars VEJA is build on. Cotton and rubber are purchased directly from producers in Brazil and Peru. We sign 1-year contracts with them and set a market-decorrelated price. It's one of the ways to ensure more equitable and dignified commercial transactions. For VEJA, it means working directly with producers and thus cutting out the middleman. We increase producers income.
« VEJA is a maverick. The creation of VEJA, in 2005, happened during the Internet bubble: a lot of our friends were working either for start-ups or Internet-related businesses. This collective infatuation with the virtual pushed us in the opposite direction, towards the reinvention of a "brick & mortar product". »
VEJA is Brazilian for "look", looking beyond the sneakers, looking at how they're made.
Bia Saldanha, Dudu, president of the Curralinho wild rubber producers' association,
meeting with rubber producers.
It collaborates incredibly closely with the factory that produces its sneakers to ensure the best work practices and has unique and direct partnerships with each producer of each raw material need to create their sneakers.
Veja sources natural rubber directly from seringueiro communities in the Amazon rainforest to save on water, energy and harmful emissions. Discover their amazing and unique story here: https://project.veja-store.com/en/intro/
Since 2004, Veja have set the price of our organic and agroecological cotton in advance, in agreement with producer associations from Brazil and Peru.
Since the price is completely decorrelated from the market and its fluctuations, the contracts therefore ensure the producers a greater financial security. This security is all the stronger since they know how much they are going to earn from the cotton before they even plant it.
PRICE TRANSPARENCY
VEJA sneakers cost 5 times more to produce than big brand sneakers. Because we use fair trade and organic raw materials, because they are more economically equitable for all parties involved in the production chain, because we invest in research and new technologies.
The Veja production mapping
From special agreements with Amazonian producers to the logistic team in France, handled by Atelier Sans Frontières (which promotes the professional integration of people who are excluded from the labour market, by offering them a suitable paid job, personalized social support, and helping them develop a career plan)
The goal of our design studio is simple: create sneakers that will stand the test of time.
We take longer to design our shoes than other big brands.
We love designing sneakers that we'll be proud to wear in 10 years. The attention we bring to each step of the manufacturing process is thorough. We weren't designers at first, but we simply put in the time and that's what we became.
READ THE ARTICLES ABOUT VEJA
- Press review from Dooddot Lifestyle Magazine
- Press review from The Big Chilli
- Press review from Sanook
SHOP THE VEJA COLLECTION
