VEJA

VEJA is brazilian for "look", and inspires us to look beyond the sneaker, looking instead at how they're made.

Refusing to choose between design and social responsibility, VEJA was founded in 2005 by deciding that this iconic symbol (the sneaker) was the ideal product to bring to light major issues of globalization like production, dissemination, and usage. Taking nothing for granted, the VEJA team started from scratch with the simple goal of making sneakers that will stand the test of time.

VEJA engages in fair trade as a means of restoring balance in global trade, while the shoes are made in factories that respect workers' rights. It means they pre-finance raw material harvests as much as 40%! What sets VEJA apart is working directly with organic cotton producers thus cutting out the middleman, buying their cotton at a market-decorrelated price and that the wild rubber harvested by the seringueiros, the rubber tappers, utilise technology that serves the interests of the Amazon Rainforest.

"A pair of VEJA costs 5 to 7 times as much to produce, but since there are no advertising costs, they are sold for the same price. Instead of relying on marketing hype to have an impact, we'd rather rely on collective intelligence."