Sébastien Kopp of Veja
Business of HYPE
HYPEBEAST
4.8 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 1 June 2020
⏱️ 85 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sébastien Kopp is the Co-Founder of popular French footwear brand Veja. The brand is known for its slate canvas body with a distinctive “v” logo, which has been worn by numerous figures from Meghan Markle to Eddie Redmayne, and sold in stores across the globe. Alongside François-Ghislain Morillion, the two founded Veja in 2004 with the intent of finding economic balance within their business. Kopp, a former investment banker, quit his job to work with nonprofits only to discover the dark side of globalization. This prompted Kopp and Morillion to challenge themselves with creating a product that could be made without greenwashing. What became months of searching the Amazon for agro-ecological cotton, respectable factories and raw rubber, Veja was born.
More than 15 years later today, the company operates globally with over 180 employees worldwide. Their team is still heavily involved in the process from working out of Brazil to source natural materials all the way till the end where they are distributed online or in various retailers. Kopp tells us that he has never been in a rush to accelerate his business, but rather focuses on a slow growth where he can maintain the business from managing complex human relationships to creating a business built on Fair Trade and economic balance. Keeping transparency in mind, he details issues of deforestation, ecological impact, partnering with NGOs, economic disparity and much more.
No advertisements, no sponsors, no investors and only 12 simple styles, all made with economic justice in mind, Veja stands as one of the forerunners to fashion's ever-growing sustainability movement. Despite all his merits, Kopp reminds us that "[Veja isn’t] changing the world, but just proposing a small solution to this disparity.”
Thank you so much for tuning into the Business of HYPE. As always, thank you for tuning into HYPEBEAST Radio and Business of HYPE. Please don't forget to rate, comment and subscribe to our other shows. This episode was recorded prior to COVID-19 with the interludes recorded during. We hope you guys stay safe, wash your hands, practice social distancing and find ways to still stay inspired during this time.
For more info: https://hypebeast.com/2020/6/veja-interview-founder-sebastien-kopp-business-of-hype-jeffstaple-episode-75
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| 0:00.0 | From Hype Beast Radio, I'm Jeff Staples, and this is the business of hype, a show about creative entrepreneurs, brand builders, innovators, and the realities behind the dreams they've built. |
| 0:43.3 | Back, back, back in the days, my brand staple used to exhibit at a trade show called Capsule that was based in Paris, and our cramped 10 by 10 booth was flanked by another 10 by 10 booth |
| 0:49.5 | with kind of odd-looking shoes at the time with a V on the side. |
| 0:53.6 | Well, we grew and eventually stopped |
| 0:55.5 | showing at that small booth and I lost touch with that sneaker brand. And then all of a sudden, |
| 1:00.8 | seemingly out of the blue, I see this V brand of shoes everywhere and it's always on the right |
| 1:07.3 | people, if you know what I mean. Stylish, trend-setting, hip, conscious, eco-friendly, all the right people, if you know what I mean, stylish, trend setting, hip, conscious, eco-friendly, |
| 1:13.6 | all the right marketing demographics. Chances are you've probably seen it too. If not on people's |
| 1:19.3 | feet, then at the right retail stores. That clean silhouette and that ever-distinctive V logo on the |
| 1:25.5 | side. And maybe, sometimes you wonder how to pronounce the name of this brand. |
| 1:30.8 | By the way, you pronounce the J. |
| 1:33.1 | It's not an H. |
| 1:34.3 | It's Veyha. |
| 1:35.8 | It's Vesha. |
| 1:37.4 | And while many other brands are now restructuring for a more sustainable approach, |
| 1:42.0 | Vesia was born this way. |
| 1:44.1 | But their approach is fascinating. |
| 1:46.6 | It doesn't come from a laboratory through high-tech science. It came from both figuratively |
| 1:51.7 | and literally the roots of shoemaking. Vesia operates on being present and real. The founders |
| 1:59.1 | have spent years physically venturing out into the Amazon rainforest, |
| 2:04.1 | not only to find the perfect cotton and rubber, but also to understand how it is sourced. |
| 2:10.6 | Who does the sourcing and why they do it? They work alongside the Brazilian factory workers |
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