10.28.2008

viva la Veja!

Veja is really one of the most amazing companies I have worked with so far, they are made up of a group of talented and thoughtful young people, who boldly ask..."is another world possible? Pollution, black tides without responsibility, destruction of the ozone layer, exacerbated individualistic consumption: how long can we go on like this? How long with the survive to our lack of empathy?" --why don't we try to change the world, even a tiny little bit.

You can see in their statement that the veja project is well thought out and includes a clever bunch of people behind them, because not only do they have the production chain covered in a fair trade way, but their products are the coolest sneakers I have ever seen! Production of each of the components is totally fair trade AND organic...this is not an easy task, the organic cotton is from the region Ceara, in Northeast Brazil where they work with local farmers, the fair trade latex is harvested in Amazonia, and in the assembly the labor conditions and wages are above Brazilian national standards in Southern Brazil near Porto Alegre. Because of the premium paid for wages and latex, Veja is working on developing a social project which is to start an in-house education program for the remote families that would usually have to walk hours to get to the nearest school. Please don't hesitate to visit the Veja website to find out more and see more of their production project.
The design is by a Brazilian shoe designer and the founders of Veja, they are inspired by the old-school Brazilian volley trainers... whatever they are I love them, I ask them in just about every time that I talk to them if I can please sell the adult collection, but no, they are more concerned with doing it right and not expanding production until they are ready, so for now...only our kids can style their way to a new world in their Veja sneakers. I say that just wearing them will make you feel better about the world!
Thank you Veja, for teaching us all how to do it right, well and honest!

visit the Veja website
visit the Veja Blog
baby and kids collection available at nonchalant mom