The Dekkan Alveomesh, where Veja’s environmental credentials are bolstered with Vibram’s practicality.
Veja has subtly pioneered environmental commitments within footwear since its inception in 2006.
Three years before that, Sébastien Kopp and François-Ghislain Morillion met with a group of wild rubber tappers in the Amazon, known as Seringueiros, to establish a supply chain that could provide them with a sustainable source of rubber. The Amazon is the only place in the world where rubber grows naturally, which makes the fact that 90% of the world’s rubber comes from Asia all the more peculiar. That’s until you realise that almost all of Asia’s forests are amongst the most threatened forests in the world, chiefly from agriculture, including rubber farms.
Small changes are better than none, so instead of relying on mass-produced rubber, Veja wanted to negotiate smaller deals with existing communities, forming reciprocal relationships that helped the Seringueiros as well as Veja.
Besides the rubber supply, Veja works with vegetable-tanned leather, cutting out the impacts of chrome-tanning’s pollutants on ecosystems, utilise recycled plastic, and in 2012 they were given various design awards for their impacts: The Guardian Sustainable Business Award, and The Observer Ethical Award, in conjunction with Vogue UK.
For a SS22 release, Veja has collaborated with Vibram for the Dekkan Alveomesh, named after Veja’s in-house recycled polyester Alveomesh material. But that’s just the beginning: the rest of the shoe’s materials reads like products from a health store.
The panels are rubber and T.P.U, the logo is rubber and rice waste, the insole 57% sugar cane, the midsole 70% sugar cane, the outsole Amazonia rubber and rice waste.
Veja’s innovations are exactly what the planet needs, and Vibram’s technology keeps the shoe modern and current.
