Veja

Production locations

• Brazil (the north-east around Fortaleza and the south around Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul)
• Portugal (Felgueiras)
   

Working conditions & wages

VEJA has produced in Brazil since it was founded. According to its website, the brand has worked with the same main factory since 2005. Further factories were added in 2018, 2019 and 2020. Since 2023, VEJA has also produced in Portugal as part of The Aegean Project, specifically for the European market. More than 100,000 pairs have been made there to date.

According to VEJA, Brazil has strict labour laws, with social security, pension funds (INSS, FGTS) and freedom of association. Even so, there are known risks in Brazilian agriculture and in the deeper tiers of the supply chain. VEJA addresses these openly in its Modern Slavery Statement 2025.

What VEJA says about its own factories:

• Two Brazilian factories are Fair Trade Certified™ (Fair Trade USA). According to VEJA, they account for 75% of production. 1% of the cost of each pair goes into a fund that the workers decide on themselves.
• Manufacturers and subcontractors are audited externally every year according to SMETA 4‑Pillar. If shortcomings are found, a corrective action plan follows.
• The working week is 44 hours, with two days off per week and four weeks of paid holiday. Overtime is paid and, according to VEJA, is usually limited to a maximum of two hours per day during peak season.
• Around 12% of employees are union members. Two factories have an annual profit-sharing scheme.
• In 2024, the average wage on the production line was R$ 2,015 per month. This is higher than the 2024 Brazilian minimum wage (R$ 1,412).
• In Portugal, the average wage according to VEJA is €1,150 per month for a 40-hour week. VEJA does not compare its wages with a recognised living wage benchmark. Whether the wages are enough to live on cannot be confirmed.
• The code of conduct is displayed in all factories, together with contact details for complaints. Subcontractors are only permitted with VEJA’s written approval, and further outsourcing is prohibited. For 2025, VEJA reports no confirmed cases of forced or child labour.
• The brand buys directly from cooperatives, signs multi-year contracts and pays up to 50% of the harvest in advance:

Cotton: According to VEJA, in 2024 it paid R$ 29.59 per kilo, roughly three times the market price. Around 1,350 families in Brazil and Peru supplied cotton.

Rubber: According to its website, VEJA pays R$ 25.45 per kilo. In July 2025, the market price was R$ 4.79. The price includes bonuses for quality and environmental performance. The rubber has been Fair for Life certified (Ecocert) since 2019. According to VEJA, more than 2,500 families are part of the project.

Logistics in Europe are handled by Log’ins, a social inclusion company in France for people with disabilities. According to VEJA, Log’ins has supported more than 300 people since 2020, more than 150 of whom have gone on to find permanent jobs.

Within its own team (more than 500 employees), VEJA says 60% of managers are women. Its score on the French gender equality index in 2025 was 90 out of 100. Fathers receive three months of parental leave and mothers five months. VEJA has been B Corp certified since 2018. We do not have its current score.

Materials

• Organic and agroecological cotton (Brazil, Peru)
• Wild Amazonian rubber (Brazil)
• Cowhide leather: smooth leather, ChromeFree leather, suede, nubuck and O.T. organic leather (Brazil, Uruguay)
• C.W.L. (Cotton Worked as Leather), a vegan leather alternative
• Recycled polyester from PET bottles (B‑Mesh, lining, laces)
• Blended fabrics: Hexamesh (70% organic cotton, 30% recycled PET), J‑Mesh (jute, recycled cotton, recycled PET), flannel (recycled cotton, recycled polyester)
• Running shoes: EVA containing sugarcane, rubber containing rice waste, natural latex (L‑Foam), Pebax® Rnew® (62% castor oil), TPU. Read more about Veja’s sports collection here.
• Metal eyelets (nickel-free, according to VEJA)

Cotton: The cotton from Brazil is certified through the Brazilian Participatory Guarantee System. This is a state-recognised system in which smallholder farmers certify each other. It is therefore not independent third-party certification. According to VEJA, the cotton is grown agroecologically alongside maize, beans or sesame, without chemical fertilisers or pesticides.

Rubber: According to VEJA, the soles consist of up to 50% wild Amazonian rubber, and 30 to 32% for the running shoes. According to the product page, the rest of the sole is made from materials including synthetic rubber and mineral silica.
The brand states that Amazonian rubber produces around 91% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than synthetic rubber. This is based on its own emission factors, and the study is not publicly available.

C.W.L.: According to VEJA, C.W.L. is 54% bio-based. The base is an organic cotton canvas coated with PU, castor oil and corn starch. VEJA itself states that 45% is still petroleum-based.

Recycled polyester: According to VEJA, B‑Mesh is made from 100% recycled PET. VEJA refers to certificates for recycled materials, but the information does not specify which standard. Good to know: recycled polyester from bottles is fossil-based plastic and can shed microplastics when worn and washed.
 

Packaging

• Since 2005, VEJA has used shoeboxes made from natural kraft paper with minimal printing ink. According to VEJA, all boxes are FSC™ certified. There are 19 box sizes so that no material is wasted. The packaging is not yet completely plastic-free.
• VEJA does not say how it packs online orders.
   

Water use & chemicals

VEJA has its own Restricted Substances Policy (version 6.0, March 2026). It applies to all shoes, clothing and packaging. Every material must be tested in an approved laboratory (SGS, Intertek, IBTEC) before it is approved. If a test fails, production stops. According to VEJA, the limit values are always based on children’s shoes, meaning the strictest values. The list is based on AFIRM, REACH and California Proposition 65. 
(Important: complying with REACH is mandatory in the EU.)

In March 2026, VEJA published a self-declaration on PFAS: according to VEJA, no PFAS are added to its products. The document refers to laboratory reports, but it is not an independent certification.

For its ChromeFree leather, VEJA states that 40% fewer chemicals and less energy, and 80% less water and salt, are needed. VEJA does not explain what this is compared with, so COSH! cannot confirm these figures. According to VEJA, the tanneries are certified by the Leather Working Group (LWG). Among other things, LWG assesses water and chemical management.

Circular product design

A VEJA sneaker is made from many different materials: cotton, rubber, leather, PU, recycled polyester or EVA. These materials are glued or vulcanised together, which makes recycling at the end of life difficult.

VEJA uses recycled materials in part, and the shoes can be repaired in its own workshops. VEJA does not communicate whether the shoes are deliberately designed to be easy to take apart.

VEJA tests durability using machines, for example for sole abrasion and seam strength.
 

Circular business model

The ​“Clean, Repair, Collect” project has been running since 2020:

• According to VEJA, at the end of 2025 there were 11 repair stations in Paris, Bordeaux, Marseille, London, Berlin, Madrid, Brooklyn, Los Angeles and São Paulo.
• More than 62,000 pairs have been repaired there, including shoes from other brands.
• Shoemakers and a tailor work at the VEJA General Store in Paris, which also offers more than 5,000 care and repair products.
• The stations have collection boxes. According to VEJA, VEJA pairs that cannot be repaired are recycled. The brand does not explain exactly how. Shoes from other brands are donated or used for art projects.
• At VEJA x Darwin in Bordeaux, prototypes, pairs with minor defects and older models are available at lower prices.
• According to VEJA, a mobile repair container at Log’ins repairs more than 500 pairs with minor defects every month.

Distance & complexity of the supply chain

Production locations:

• Brazil: assembly (north-east and south), cotton (north-east), rubber (Acre, Amazonas, Rondônia, Mato Grosso, Pará), leather and tanneries (Rio Grande do Sul), recycled polyester (São Paulo, Minas Gerais)
• Peru: cotton (Chincha)
• Uruguay: leather
• Portugal: assembly (Felgueiras)
• France: logistics (Île-de-France)
• VEJA’s headquarters are in Paris, France.
   

Transport

• In the supply chain: According to VEJA, raw materials travel by lorry and ship within South America. Finished shoes are mainly shipped to the warehouses by sea. According to VEJA, only 0.2% of pairs from Brazil were flown in 2024. However, this small share still accounted for 48.2% of transport emissions. In 2019, the air freight share was still 19%.
• In e‑commerce: European logistics are handled by Log’ins. The brand does not say which delivery services or modes of transport VEJA uses for online orders.

• Cowhide leather (smooth leather, ChromeFree leather)
• Suede
• Nubuck
• O.T. organic leather
• Origin: southern Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul) and Uruguay, mainly from the Pampa biome according to VEJA

VEJA describes the leather as a by-product of the meat industry. According to its website, the cattle live free-range, without genetic modification and without antibiotics. In addition, no leather is said to come from deforested areas of the Amazon. To ensure this, VEJA maps its direct partner farms. The indirect farms have not yet been fully mapped.

According to VEJA, the O.T. leather from Uruguay is ​“100% organic certified”. VEJA does not name the label. There is no animal welfare certification. The Leather Working Group assesses environmental issues in tanneries, not animal welfare. COSH! has not found a dedicated animal welfare policy (for example on fur or exotic leathers).

According to VEJA, around 10% of the collection is vegan.

Product design

VEJA makes sneakers for women, men and children, as well as running and training shoes. According to VEJA, the range also includes sandals, clothing and accessories.

The designs are modern yet timeless. According to VEJA, only 37 models have been created since the brand was founded. The brand aims to design sneakers that people will still enjoy wearing in ten years’ time.
 

Slow fashion processes

Every season, VEJA presents new lookbooks for spring/​summer and autumn/​winter, usually featuring new colours on established models. VEJA does not communicate how many new models are added each year.

According to VEJA, it does no advertising and instead invests the money in fairer prices for producers.

On its own website, VEJA openly addresses the problem of overproduction and questions how many shoes we really need. At the same time, VEJA has sold more than 17 million pairs of shoes since 2004.

Product transparency

On its product pages, VEJA shows the material composition of each component. The country of production is also stated. Customers will also find care tips and information about the repair service. However, customers are not told which factory made their pair.
 

Process transparency

VEJA goes considerably further on transparency than many other brands. On its project website, the brand publishes its contracts with cotton producers and the prices paid, along with a list of rubber cooperatives and their locations. 

Anyone interested in chemicals will find chemical test results, the Restricted Substances Policy and a PFAS declaration there.

VEJA also shares the audit report of one factory and its Modern Slavery Statement 2025. Its carbon footprint also covers Scope 3, meaning emissions across the entire supply chain (2024: 79,727 t CO2e). VEJA is open about what is still missing from the calculation. 
On a dedicated page called ​“Limits”, the brand also discusses its weaknesses.