(Germany) Viola Weller: Animals no longer have to die for fashion and people work in good conditions. VLACE will be the vegan sneaker brand from Germany.

A quick introduction about what your company does/your values/mission.

Every year, millions of animals are killed to make the shoes we wear. The livestock industry is one of the most polluting industries of all, even ahead of transportation.

Moreover, this industry is involved in the deforestation of our planet’s forests. Veganism is a vehicle for change. It is the key to reducing CO2 emissions, conserving water, and respecting the lives of other living beings.

The fashion industry is the second largest polluter and one of the most opaque sectors. Several million people, including children, work on the clothes we wear and are exploited. This is what we want to change with VLACE, we are revolutionizing the footwear industry.

Animals no longer have to die for fashion and people work in good conditions. We create sneakers for people who share our enthusiasm for attention to detail, customers who really care where their sneaker comes from and have a stake in how the sneaker is made.

People who not only want to underline their individuality with their style, but also express an attitude. Our first sneaker collection is made from grape and corn waste. Grape leather with its grainy appearance is a great vegan alternative to animal leather.

Our GrapeSkin is composed of 55% of wine production residues from Tuscan wineries, 22% of water-based organic PU and 23% of recycled polyester (+/- 5%). Our second collection is made of OrangeSkin from Sicily.

sssssOur material has only been on the market since 2019. OrangeSkin is made from recycled and regenerated materials to give new life and value to what was once waste. The composition is 47% recycled PU, 32% orange peel and 21% organic cotton (+/- 5%).

Tell us about yourself?

My name is Viola, I’m 27 years old and I’m the founder of VLACE. I studied Business Management during my bachelors and International Management in my masters degree. After my master studies I started to work on my vision and established VLACE.

If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?

Trust yourself and your vision and start to work on your dream.

What problem does your business solve?

Every year, millions of animals are killed to make the shoes we wear. The livestock industry is one of the most polluting industries of all. Several million people in developing countries, including children, work on the clothes we wear and are exploited. In addition, 60.1kg of CO2/m2 emissions are emitted during the production of animal leather. We need to change this.

What is the inspiration behind your business?

With V L A C E we are revolutionizing the shoe industry. Animals no longer have to die for fashion and people work under ethically acceptable conditions in Portugal and Italy. We use CO2-saving materials and keep our supply chains in Europe short. We save on average 69% of CO2 emissions with our organic based sneakers compared to an average pair of leather sneakers.

What is your magic sauce?

VLACE sneaker are handcrafted in Portugal, made from a family business with 25 employees. Alls of our materials are from Italy or Portugal, thus our supply chain is short and we don’t produce a high amount of CO2 emissions. All of our upper material is bio based or recycled.

What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?

VLACE will be the vegan sneaker brand from Germany. I want to achieve that the consumer rethink every buy of clothes, regarding the origin.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?

The biggest challenge is the marketing objective. Our product speaks for themselves, but now our challenge is to get the sneakers famous in Germany and Europe.

How do people get involved/buy into your vision?

You can join our journey on instagram or linkedin and of course on our website. We want to collaborate with close minded brands and also change the mindset of the consumer. We would like to sell our sneaker in the main offline stores in Europe.