Case Study: footwear brand Veja

French ecological footwear brand, Veja, was set up in 2004 as a way to engage directly with small cooperatives across Brazil, providing disadvantaged communities with real, fair and sustainable work.

Founders, Sébastien Kopp and François-Ghislain Morillio, built the unique supply chain literally from the ground up, creating solutions and building capacity when other options didn’t fit the ecological, fair trade vision.

Using organic and fairly traded cotton from around 320 family farmers, wild Amazonian rubber and veg-tanned, chrome-free leather, the cotton in Veja products is certified by both Fairtrade (FLO-cert) and Instituto Biodinâmico for Rural Development (IDB).

Veja trainers are made in a factory located in the Vale dos Sinos in southern Brazil, where 80% of it workers are union members. Workers are paid almost 10% above the normal wage as well as a premium at the end of each year with 4 weeks’ paid holiday.

Veja has set up a unique process for logistics partnering with Atelier Sans Frontières association (ASF), who supports people facing social exclusion to find work. Veja has contracted ASF to store, prepare and dispatch all their products, internationally.

Optional Further Reading

Sourcing from Developing Countries: Essential Do’s and Don’ts Part 1

Sourcing from Developing Countries: Essential Do’s and Don’ts Part 2