Biological rubber for your feet!
Maybe I was a little late in my fashion culture but, when I heard the name Veja for the first time, I imagined a new Spanish energizing soda, or the new Almodovar movie title… Of course I was wrong, this is a lot more original !
Veja is a young French brand of fair and ecological sneakers. Meaning « Look at » in Brazilian, the brand was born in 2005, thanks to Sébastien Kopp and François-Ghislain Morillion, the co-founders.
Those two smart guys went to business school together a few years ago. When they discovered the lack of investment of big companies for their sustainable development policies, a wave of desillusion invade them… But then, their common interest for « sustainable development » products lead them to a new project : create their own collection of fair trade sneakers ! The main reason of this choice, except that they are boys, might be that our two French businessmen are disgusted by the way biggest brands lead this specific market.
The Veja shoe is made with biological cotton from Northeastern Brazil and natural fair trade rubber from the Amanzony. To respect the ecological principle through the whole production process, sneakers are produced in Brazil and they cross the Atlantic Ocean by boat, not by plane.
Let’s talk about how ttheir shoes become famous around the world… You have to know that communication strategy of Veja has a surprising but nice specificity : it doesn’t use advertisment !
Indeed, for the alternative shoes, the creators wanted alternative communication. Still, focusing on an ecological behaviour and a reasonable economic development, the they decided not to have recourse to ads but only to PRs. A lot of press relations, a website, a blog, good word of mouth and here it is ! Every new is followed up online and in press releases, so that customers can be aware of what’s happening for the brand at any time. With this smart choice, the founders manage to create clever cobrandings : with Comptoirs des Cotonniers* in 2008 or Bonpoint* last year for exemple. Moreover, Veja invests a part of its budget in financial support to international art exhibitions on the theme of ecology.
You may wonder how it is possible to rely on a communication strategy without any advertisment actions… Well, it’s true that ads are still the only way to be sure people are in contact with the message. And we know that PRs are a fragile mix of several actions which impact is sometimes unpredictable : nobody’s able to forecast any concrete measurement with PRs.
But in my opinion, Veja creators have the best behaviour to adopt, but maybe the hardest : they keep believing in their convictions ! For the moment, they manage to face the competition on the market. Even if the giant brands have already created their own « responsible collection » like Nike Considered by Nike or Grün by Adidas Originals, Veja has still many challenges to take up and M. Kopp says they are prepared to. Moreover, he explains that, thanks to money they save not using ads, they are able to sell less expensive shoes. That’s the best argument I’ve ever heard !
Now the brand has hugely developed its notoriety and reached the most important cities of fashion in the world. Today you can find shops in Paris, London, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo... And it lately added bags to its collection ! So ladies, let’s buy some biological rubber! www.veja.fr
J.B