In the great hierarchy of Parisian fashion, it is difficult for a brand to stand out. Especially the one whose master strike – white sneakers that go with everything. Yet, 20 years after Veja first started selling eco-friendly shoes, it has become the go-to brand for scooter-owning moms, sustainable millennials, and influencers who want to wear their values on their ethical leather feet.
Veja co-founder Sebastian Kopp says he doesn't know whether people buy his sneakers because of the way they're made or the way they look. The company is meticulous about social policy and fair trade principles, “but because we don't do surveys, we don't do marketing, we just don't know this information,” he says, speaking from Veja's Paris headquarters.
He also doesn't do freebies. When actor Emma Watson wanted a pair, she did what no celebrity had ever done, “and bought it.” Meghan, Duchess of Sussex did the same. “I received an email from [palace] I asked about them, but thought they were fake, so I didn’t answer.”
Actor Marion Cotillard once listed it among their favorite brands alongside Valentino and Alexander McQueen, and it was reported that the company even received a request from its maximalist suit department Emily in Paris (Vedzha prefers not to comment on this matter).
What Veja does know is that almost 15 million pairs have been sold worldwide. Its success depends on several factors. How Daunts tote bagor even LabubBranded accessories have become a material signal of taste or interest, a way to wear one's valuables.
“The Veja V tells the world that this sneaker is designed and produced responsibly, and that you care,” says Ima Shah, director of trend forecasting site Stylus. Fashion also helped. Nowadays, oversized clothing is popular, but in essence it is casual. “Big trousers and big shoes don't work. Pointier shoes formalize this look—they make it more elegant,” she says.
Veja makes athletic shoes, but the earlier models that are the most popular are essentially sneakers for people who don't want to wear sneakers.
However, these are strange times for footwear. Of the 23 billion sneakers produced each year, about 60% are sneakers. But according to Katie Lubin, vice president of brand and communications at fashion marketplace Lyst, “demand for sneakers is currently down about 30% year over year.” Trend forecasting agency WGSN said demand for sneakers is also expected to decline next year. “People want boots and loafers,” Lubin says.
It doesn't help right now that no one sneaker style is dominant. Earlier this year, the New York Times announced the end of Dad's coaching practice, but according to List, New Balance 204L one of the hottest coaches of the year.
Gen Z wears skinny shoes like Puma Speedcats, while millennials like Chanel creative director Mathieu Blazy still wear Nike sneakers (Blazy wore them in his debut Chanel look).
You'll see Cecilie Bahnsen's Asics on the runway, and Prada has gone so far as to create its own design. And despite Rishi Sunak's best efforteven the Adidas Samba has risen from the dead.
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And yet white sneakers prevail. According to Lyst, Veja's most popular sneakers are the Campo. As understated and elegant as its noughties predecessor, the Stan Smith, and much like the “quiet luxury” and no-makeup makeup trend, its emptiness is also its appeal. The main difference is the client.
“The Stan Smiths are comparable, yes, but they were always younger,” Shah says. While Stan Smith had a cultural cachet—Jay-Z once read about them—Veja's “values are more about responsible shopping than trends.” It also helps that they are French, which gives them a certain chic.
Until 1980, Veja's Paris headquarters was the printing house of the French Communist Party. Updated with concrete floors and a Bauhaus staircase, there is a vegetarian dining room, although like some of the shoes, even that used to be vegan.
Veja began phasing out vegan sneakers because “the more we looked at leather, the more we realized that natural materials track better,” Kopp says. Vegan leather is often just polyester or plastic. “I know Stella McCartney is an icon [in the UK] but vegan PVC shoes. For me? No.As for the cafeteria, it stopped being vegan because the staff allegedly missed the cheese.
Kopp launched the brand with his childhood friend François-Ghislain Morillon (they both worked in finance) after noticing a lack of shoes that promoted ethical practices and traceability in the manufacturing process. The company now employs 500 people and has produced 14 million pairs of sneakers, achieving the kind of commercialization and ubiquity it may have once resisted.
The stumbling block to the ideal model of sustainable development, which promotes a “don't make, don't buy, don't throw away” approach, is that jobs are also at stake. For this reason, Kopp believes the problem lies with consumer moments such as Black Friday. “It creates a bad economy and mindset.” Veja is not participating. The company's website discloses the contracts of its manufacturers and the wages of factory workers.
Greenwashing is also a problem, Kopp says. “The word recycling was borrowed,” he says. This is especially true for footwear, where one pair of sneakers can contain up to 40 different materials.
“It's not just difficult to recycle, it's practically impossible,” says Daniel Schmitt, Veja's head of repairs. For this reason, he now employs several shoemakers, the idea being that one pair can be recycled—“or revived,” Schmitt says—up to five times.
As the luxury capital of the world, recycling isn't something you'd associate with Parisian fashion. But this is not fast fashion, and yet Shein opened a store in the French capital last month. “It's not crazy at all,” Kopp says. There is Primark, there is Zara. No one can stop consumption and no one is actually trying to stop it.”
That her practice “shows what's right with our supply chain and what's wrong with the supply chains of others” is how it goes. “We’re the grandfathers of this industry, we’re from a different era,” Kopp says.
