“We eradicate marketing, we eradicate advertising, we eradicate sponsoring, we eradicate partnerships with celebrities, basketball players, soccer players, baseball players. And all of these resources that aren’t used are put into production [costs]. We produce sneakers that cost 3 to 5 times more than it would if we made them with poor, raw materials in factories that don’t respect workers’ lives. Our sneakers land on the market at the same price as the other big brands because we don’t do marketing.”

“Good projects take time. You don’t have to build a brand in 1-2 years and switch to another one.” – Sébastien Kopp

Sold in more than 40 countries and stocked in the likes of Net-a-Porter and Printemps, sustainable sneaker brand VEJA is gaining international acclaim for its revolutionary business model that prioritizes a safe and sustainable production chain while maintaining profitability.

Founded by Sébastien Kopp and François-Ghislain Morillion, the brand manufactures its products in Brazil, and the shoes are made of organic cotton, wild rubber, and recycled polyester fabrics. They have purchased more than 200 tonnes of wild rubber from the Amazon rainforest, which has resulted in the preservation of approximately 90,000 acres of rainforest.

In this podcast, Kopp speaks to Sean Lee-Davies about how he and his co-founder make VEJA sneakers profitable despite costing 3 to 5 times more to create compared to the average sneaker because of VEJA’s transparent supply chain and cost of sustainable materials.