Wild Amazonian rubber. Recycled plastic bottles. Organic cotton. Vegetable-tanned leather. Transparent supply chain. With all of these being the core of Veja, would say yes, they are possibly the most sustainable sneaker in the world. But, how?
The magic is in what they do not do, and that is advertising. The founders saw a discrepancy with other shoe brands, in that other brands allocate around 70% of their money for advertising. Veja started out with absolutely no advertising at all. Rather than allocating money for advertising, the company puts it into creating a sustainable product, and paying their workers fair wages. This allows for them to still provide a reasonable price point, and have a sustainable product. “The heart of the VEJA model: reinject the amounts normally allocated to advertising into the phase that comes before the assembly line.”
It is truly a feat that the founders were able to build an entire company without advertising at all. This also creates the anomaly that most people who purchase Veja are not aware of the sustainable nature of the brand until after their first buy.
Advertising aside, the other great aspect of Veja is their transparency. “Every year, we [Veja] perform a social audit to make sure our factories respect our values and meet our criteria, and to identify the areas where we could still improve and do better.” And, all of their audits are made public on the Veja website for anyone to review. The company is doing a commendable job in changing the conversation about the fashion industry.
These are all the reasons why Veja is now offered on our website! With missions that align perfectly surrounding sustainability and fashion, it only seemed right. Click here to shop our Veja shoes today and make a difference.
