ocial projects, economic justice and ecological materials. Inside Retail spoke with co-founder Kopp, to learn how Veja has maintained its ethical production while scaling into an international success – without spending a single dollar on marketing. It’s the brand’s in-depth understanding of production that has allowed it to be transparent with consumers over its nearly 20 years in business. It’s an approach to retail that is rarely seen but heavily rewarded. Inside Retail: What are the ethical business practices that have been guiding Veja all these years and how has it been able to scale production while still sourcing responsibly? Sébastien Kopp: Veja’s secret is to go into the field – to know what we’re talking about. To visit the factories, to go on the organic cotton fields in the Amazonian rainforest. Veja sources Brazilian and Peruvian organic and agroecological cotton for the canvas and laces, Amazonian rubber for the soles, and innovative materials made from recycled polyester. The cotton Veja uses is produced by farmers’ associations in Brazil and Peru that cultivate it with respect for people and the environment, according to fair-trade principles. In Brazil, the cotton is organic and agroecological. This agriculture enriches the land after it is cultivated by improving the diversity of species cultivated and the water retention in the soil. In Peru, farmers grow certified organic and regenerative cotton. They receive support in their certification process and receive technical and financial assistance to improve their production. We buy the rubber directly from co-operatives, formed by families of seringueiros (rubber tappers) from the Amazon. In the heart of the Amazonian forest, the seringueiros bleed the rubber trees according to a traditional technique that allows trees to regenerate. This activity contributes to the protection of the forest by avoiding deforestation and intensive cattle breeding. The price per kilo of natural rubber paid by Veja is 3.5 times higher than the market price. Veja uses 100 per cent certified recycled PET from plastic waste to produce the lining of some styles. Since 2023, we have worked with the Catadores from southern Minas Gerais, Brazil, who pick the plastic waste. They are regrouped into co-operatives, 50 per cent of which are women. We buy the PET directly from them at 3.5 times the market price. They play a crucial role in recycling in Brazil, handling around 90 per cent of recycled materials. Together, we are building a recycled polyester supply chain. Since the launch of the Veja project, we have been working on two key aspects of the leather production chain to improve it: traceability and chemical transparency. The bovine leather comes from the south of Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul) and from farms in Uruguay, a country known for its culture of animal husbandry and the quality of its leather. The leather is tanned in Brazil without using any hazardous or prohibited chemicals. Veja uses conventional dyes that comply with regulations. Special attention is paid to water usage during the tanning process. Veja’s secret to transparency and sustainability is to know what we’re talking about. Sustainability is not a Powerpoint [presentation], it is more the mud of the Amazonian forest, understanding the problems of reality. Today, the young generation believes you can set up a project or brand sitting behind a computer. We think this is a big mistake. To meet the people who are making your clothes or shoes, to visit the factories, to go on the organic cotton fields – those are the most inspiring moments for us. It keeps you in reality, and we think that is what our world needs: less talk, fewer words, more reality. We don’t tell others to change, but put all our energy towards changing ourselves. We prefer to tell them to ‘face reality’. IR: Have there been any instances where Veja had to make changes to its supply chain to maintain the brand’s ethics? SK: The difference of Veja is that we always want to know everything: how the sneakers are produced, where the organic cotton comes from, which communities are recycling the plastic bottles to create PET, etc. Veja has always used ships for transport, avoiding airplanes since 2005. In 2017, we launched a huge study of our CO2 emissions worldwide. We realised that we were using plane transport for 1 to 2 per cent of our total production. And we were horrified to see that this 1 per cent of plane transport represented more than 90 per cent of our transport emissions. We stopped all plane transport directly. Some famous fashion stores were buying Veja sneakers directly from Brazil and used plane transport. They wanted to have the sneakers as quickly as possible to sell more. We asked them to stop this way of working. We even said to them that we would stop working with them if they continued. When we showed them the figures for plane transport, they agreed to stop sending the sneakers by plane. We do not use planes anymore, it is prohibited. Today, 12 per cent of the total carbon footprint of Veja comes from transport. That’s also why we decided to conduct a study about our CO2 emissions to get even deeper into the reality of Veja. We tried to make our results accessible for everyone while going deep into a supply chain that we already knew intimately. We believe the only way to defeat blind spots is to calculate everything and release everything. IR: When did Veja first make the commitment to spend nothing on advertising and how have you maintained that while successfully scaling the brand? SK: We love sneakers. We’ve worn them since childhood and it’s with our generation that sneakers went from the sports field to the street. It’s also the product that has the highest advertising costs. Usually, 70 per cent of the budget of a sneaker is dedicated to marketing, advertising campaigns etc, versus 30 per cent for raw materials and production. By cutting down advertising, we knew we could make a sneaker that would cost much more to produce – between 5 to 7 times – but respect the environment and the people in its production chain. Our zero-celebrity policy and zero-advertising never stopped us from spreading the word. IR: Why do you think the product itself and brand story resonate with customers all over the world? SK: Veja is walking on two feet: sustainability on one side, design on the other. We don’t benchmark, we just create pairs we like. Most of our customers are not interested in Veja for its ecological and ethical project but because they like the style of our sneakers. But we also believe in the impact of transparency and innovation because they create value and difference. That’s why we share everything on our website. IR: Can you pinpoint a moment in time when Veja found momentum and you could see the brand taking off? SK: Our first production run was 5000 pairs for the whole world. In the beginning, Veja wasn’t a business, it was more of an adventure. Everyone promised us hell and told us it would never work, and there was no web back then. We sold our 5000 pairs to a few stores, but within three days the stores had nothing left and wanted to restock. We refused, saying, ‘No, that won’t happen for another six months.’ Then we grew, little by little, controlling our development as we were limited in raw materials. Of course, we doubled our production of organic cotton every year, but we couldn’t multiply it by five or 10, so for years we fell short of demand. This enabled us to progress at our own pace without making any mistakes. After 3-4 years, we knew it was the project of a lifetime. There’s a lot of what we believe in that’s in Veja: no investors, no advertising, no sales or very few. We produce on demand, so we have no stock. We’re 20 years old this year and we have only nine stores; we open one or two a year and that’s fine. We put a lot of love into each project we launch, and that’s what we like, to go at our own pace. IR: Veja has been reinventing sneakers for almost 20 years – what prompted the brand to reinvent slides two decades later? SK: Since Veja raised in 2008-09, everybody has been asking us: ‘OK, you do cool sneakers, but why don’t you create cool loafers or cool sandals?’ So we have been thinking about it for a while. Moreover, we produce everything in Brazil. It is the country of sandals and flip-flops, a country of never-ending summers. So, it is supernatural for us to create a sandal that is a tribute to Brazil, with a sole made of ecological wild rubber that we source directly in Amazonia. It’s a natural extension: We’re using the same supply chain, the same ecological materials. Most sandals today are made with plastic or with bad raw materials. We wanted to challenge that by creating a light and comfortable product without compromising on materials nor ecology. Etna’s upper is made from leather. Sourced from farms in Rio Grande do Sul, this leather is tanned in Brazil without hazardous or banned chemicals. The sole is made with wild rubber from Amazonia, the same that is used in every one of our sneakers. It represents 40 per cent of the sole. We wanted to offer a summer shoe, a sandal that we can wear everywhere: at the beach, in the mountains and of course in the city. That we can wear with jeans, shorts or even a swimsuit. It is a new world for us, but the Brazilian side of Veja is super at ease with the sandal. Veja took an important curve five years ago: We launched running shoes, and it took us years to reach a high-performance level. We succeeded last year with the Condor 3 advanced, now used by many people in semi-marathons or even in marathons. It is super important for us to reinvent ourselves, always, to surprise everybody, and to create the shoes we want to wear.