Industry Footwear Founded 2004 | Headquarters France Brazil | |
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Products Trainers ; Bags ; Small Leather Goods Profiles | ||
Veja is a brand of ecological and fair trade footwear and accessories. Veja works with cooperatives of small producers and social associations in Brazil and France.
Contents
History
2004
- Veja’s founders Sébastien Kopp and Ghislain Morillion meet with organic cotton farmers in North Brazil and wild rubber tappers in the Amazon
(Seringueiros) to establish the production chain behind Veja in Brazil.
2005
- Veja’s official launch at Palais de Tokyo, Paris (February).
2006
- Collaboration with French designer Agnès b begins.
- Veja develops its first collection using vegetable tanned leather.
2007
- Veja curates the photography exhibition Novo Mundo(s) at Wanted Gallery, Paris.
- Collaboration with French label Comptoir des Cotonniers begins.
- Launch of Veja + Christine Phung collection at the Pompidou Centre Design Shop, Paris.
2008
- Launch of Veja Small, Veja’s line of children’s trainers.
- Veja opens its London studio.
2009
- Veja launches its new style, the Veja SPMA.
- Veja organises the first talk of a series of conferences entitled La Canalisation: Does Advertising Pollute the Economy?
- Veja Small and French childrenswear label Bonpoint begin their on-going collaboration.
- Launch of Veja’s bags and accessories line ‘Projet Numero Deux’.
- Veja curates São Paulo, Mon Amour at Maison de Métallos in Paris, featuring ten young artists from São Paulo, Brazil.
- One-off collaboration with Paris bike atelier Cyclope on a trainer style.
2010
- Exclusive Veja style released for Parisian concept store Merci.
- Veja Indigenos style is launched.
- Veja opens Centre Commercial in Paris.
2011
- Veja Méditerranée style is launched.
- Collaboration with Parisian label FrenchTrotters begins.
2012
- Veja and Brazilian designer Regina Dabdab collaborate on a line of accessories.
- Veja wins 2 awards in the UK : The Guardian Sustainable Business Award (Supply Chain Category) and The Observer Ethical Award (Fashion Category, awarded in association with Vogue UK).
2013
- Inspired by Professor Greg Asner's aerial maps recording forest cover and biodiversity in tropical forest ecosystems, Veja releases a capsule collection of printed trainers.
- Centre Commercial Kids opens in September on rue Yves Toudic, 3 years after the opening of Centre Commercial on rue de Marseille.
- Veja creates a trainer in commemoration of the release of French director Luc Jacquet new film Once Upon a Forest.
Ecological Materials
The Veja trainers and accessories are made of organic cotton, wild rubber from the Amazon and vegetable-tanned leather.
Organic Cotton
Veja works in the North-East of Brazil with a co-operative of organic cotton farmers. Over 320 families have adopted the agro-ecology farming model with the technical support of the local NGO, ESPLAR. Cotton and food crops are cultivated without chemicals or pesticides. Veja buys organic cotton at around twice the market price.
Wild Rubber from the Amazon
The soles of Veja trainers are made from wild rubber from the Amazonian Rainforest. The Amazon is the only place on earth where rubber trees grow in the wild. Veja buys Amazonian rubber at a premium. This allows the rubber tappers to live decently from rubber tapping, reducing the financial appeal of land clearance. This is an economically sustainable way to fight against deforestation.
Ecological Leather
Since 2006 Veja has used vegetable-tanned leather. Vegetable-tanned leather is a chrome-free leather tanned with organic compounds only. Leather is usually tanned using heavy metals, like chrome, which generate high levels of pollution in the waters close to tanneries. Veja has replaced heavy metals with acacia extracts, a natural tannin.
Manufacturing
The factory where Veja trainers are made in South Brazil respects the standards of work established by the International Labour Organization. 80% of workers at the factory are unionized.
Logistics
Veja footwear and accessories are transported by ship from Brazil to Le Havre in France, where they are then taken to Paris by boat.
Logistics are managed by Ateliers Sans Frontières, a French social association which enables people who have been unemployed to return to the workforce through training.