Veja is a luxury brand whose entire brand identity is centered on sustainability, fair trade, and an ethical production and supply chain. It was founded in France by Sebastian Kopp and Francois-Ghislain Morillion. Is Veja Ethical? Veja has an absolute focus on producing ethical and sustainable sneakers.
According to the 2019 McKinsey State of Fashion report, nine out of ten gen-z consumers are future buyers. They have sufficient wealth to be a player in the luxury fashion market, and their buying habits are more value-driven. They want to spend their money on brands that share or at least claim to share their values. The gen-z consumers believe that brands should be transparent about their stand on environmental and social issues. The 2021edition of that same report indicates that two-thirds of the consumers would significantly reduce their shopping at brands they knew were treating their employees or suppliers unfairly. So, these consumers, who are the future of luxury fashion buying trends are willing to pay a premium to know that their money is making the world a better place or at least not making it a worse place.
Is Veja Ethical?
It is fascinating, that the measures they take to practice what they preach. Let’s understand the measures one by one.
Let’s begin with leather; the animal hide must go through a process of tanning to produce leather of sufficient quality to be sewn into sneakers. Typically, tanning requires a chemical solution including a component called chromium, and chromium is bad for the environment. It can find its way into the water supply and have devastating effects on the animals and people living off that water. Veja opts for an alternative tanning process called vegetable tanning which relies on bark, plant tissues, and other naturally occurring substances.
Now, let’s look at their soles, Veja’s soles are manufactured using 20% to 30% natural rubber, which is tapped and harvested by the rubber tree in Brazil. It is an alternative to fully synthetic rubber that costs more energy to produce and is also not biodegradable whatsoever.
Then comes the fabric the cotton used is all organic. That’s important because harvesting organic cotton takes 91% less water and produces significantly fewer greenhouses-emissions, and the mesh material is called hexamers. They are manufactured using entirely recycled practice bottles and organic cotton. Hence these shoes are better for the planet than other available shoes on the market.
Beyond a commitment to sustainable materials, Veja takes great care to adhere to fair trade principles. Fairtrade essentially means ethical and transparent business between buyers and commodity producers. Veja completely cuts out any middlemen in their transaction and buys directly from the consumers. They establish a contract negotiating the price before the materials are manufactured. After the contract is signed, they will pay 50% upfront to the producers before any process has begun. That means those cotton harvesters, rubber tappers, and leather producers are compensated way more when they sell to Veja than when they sell to other popular sneaker brands. If all this is true, then how is this viable business model? They say themselves on their website that delivering a Veja sneaker costs five times more than their competitors and charge comparable prices.
Veja’s margin is maybe low. They spend nearly 0 dollars on marketing as they do not run ads in prints, don’t run ads on television, don’t run ads on social media, there are no billboards, there are no brand ambassadors. What would be used on marketing is used in buying the most sustainable resources possible and fairly compensating their suppliers and workers. That is a rarity, as most brands reinvest about 70% back into marketing to build hype and brand awareness, Veja lets their product do the talking. Veja is taking over the market and creating a new identity for itself.
Conclusion:
A luxury brand is expensive for two reasons: quality and the brand name itself. Consumers are already beginning to tire brands that stand for little more than elitism and exclusion but look to brands that have mission, purpose, character, and values and follow through with the claims they make. So, if you’re buying from a famous luxury brand, you’re paying for high-quality shoes, you’re also paying for the allure of owning these luxury brands with others don’t. But, when you buy Veja sneakers, you’re paying for high-quality shoes, you’re also paying for the knowledge that your purchase is not contributing to the demise of planet earth. It is okay to flex the luxury brands but the insane amount of waste, harsh labor conditions, and ridiculous resource utilization to produce those brand pieces is getting hard to ignore. Consumers are taking note and adjusting their behavior accordingly. At the end of the day, it is a free market and the buyers are calling the shot.
