These might be world’s most sustainable sneakers

Veja is a French fashion brand that claims to manufacture sneakers that could possibly be the world’s most sustainable ones. The company sources raw materials from organic farming and ecological agriculture. Co-founders Sébastien Kopp and François-Ghislain Morillion say they purchase organic cotton directly from farmer associations in Brazil and Peru at a pre-set price, all while respecting fair trade principles.

For the last five years, Veja has used “fish leather” from tilapia in their shoes. Usually discarded by freshwater fish farms, the skin gets upcycled through a handcrafted process involving vegetable dyeing.

Other examples of upcycling include B-Mesh fabric made entirely from recycled PET plastic and J-Mesh fabric from a combination of jute, recycled cotton, and recycled PET. On an average, it takes three plastic bottles to make one pair of sneakers.

The company even conducts a social audit annually “to make sure our factories respect our values and meet our criteria, and to identify the areas where we could still improve and do better.”

Read more here: https://www.environmentalleader.com/2018/11/veja-sneakers-sustainable/