(Photo: Inside Veja’s store in New York City. Credit: Veja on Facebook)[/caption] French sneaker brand Veja’s first US store opened in New York City this week with a design that the company says limits waste. The new store on Mulberry Street also relies on 100% wind energy.
Veja makes sneakers with raw materials like natural rubber and cotton that are sourced from organic farming and ecological agriculture. Transparency and sustainable sourcing are key for the company. Sébastien Kopp and François-Ghislain Morillion started the brand in 2004, and stay competitive on price by relying on word-of-mouth for online sales rather than advertisements.
In Manhattan, Veja tried to retain as much as possible from the original store, Vogue’s Emily Farra reported.
“It’s difficult for me to want to enter a space and destroy everything and just throw it in the garbage,” Kopp told the outlet. “The wooden floors were a bit destroyed, but we said it’s okay, we’ll stain them. The walls were a bit worn, but it’s fine. And we didn’t use any paint at all, except for the windows.”
The New York City store opened just three months after Veja opened its flagship store in Paris. Located in the Marais, that store used reclaimed wood for the parquet flooring, recycled paper and plaster for the shelving, and LED lighting, Veja co-founder Sebastien Kopp told Footwear News in November.
“Even the electricity is green, powered by French cooperative renewable energy provider Enercoop, which uses only energy from hydraulic, wind turbine, solar, and biomass sources,” the outlet reported. “The partnership was a no-brainer, said Kopp, noting that the energy company has supplied the Veja HQ since 2008.”
In April, Veja plans to open a new sneaker recycling workshop in Bordeaux, France. Vogue reported that the shop will accept sneakers from any brand in an effort to keep plastic, rubber, and leather parts from going into the landfill.
