With no advertising, no celebrity seeding, and a focus on sustainability well before it seemed sexy, the French company has managed to turn itself into a player in the hyper-competitive footwear game
There’s a funny story about the rise of Veja that turns out to be only half true. I’m standing on a street corner in the once-seedy Pigalle neighbourhood of Paris with Sébastien Kopp, co-founder of the hot French sneaker brand, and we’re talking about Meghan Markle.
It was a tall order. Neither Kopp nor Morillion knew a thing about design or production. But they put in the work, meeting with rubber tappers in the Amazon’s Chico Mendez Reserve and talking with organic cotton cooperatives in Northeast Brazil. In 2004, they emerged with their first collection—minimalist, canvas sneakers that could be made responsibly. But sustainability was not the selling point they’d imagined. Recalls Kopp: “People said,“Professional buyers didn’t care,” Morillion says.
Kopp is married with four children. Morillion and his boyfriend recently saw Harry Styles play Madison Square Garden. While Kopp was always the more extroverted one, he has recently noticed himself turning inward. He used to live in the Marais neighbourhood, he tells me, but he decided to move after Veja took off. “There were too many people from the fashion industry,” he says. “I was going to buy bread; I was taking two hours.
I ask Kopp if his friend is a good teacher. He smiles, saying: “I don’t know. He started last week. I’ve never been to his class. But he’s very good at transmitting. He has a gift.”
Belgique Dernières Nouvelles, Belgique Actualités
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