What French style icons do you find inspiring?
One of our style icons is Marion Cotillard. She’s wearing our shoes with a Dior dress, and we find that pretty cool. It’s kind of a bohemian thing. She’s chic, but she’s not dressed up—that’s very Parisian. In London, the girls are very dressed up. In Paris, they’re a bit more relaxed, and they can wear sneakers with a dress. There’s no problem with that.
What artists inspire the different textures of each sneaker?
Lots of artists. My favorite artists are Rothko and Richard Serra. I love the thickness of Serra’s materials. For shoes, it’s not only visual, you have to touch it. In a way, it transmits an energy. You always have some shoes that you prefer to others, and it’s not always because they’re more beautiful. It’ also because when you touch them, they’re nicer.
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Why is it important for your brand to be sustainable?
We created this company with this ideal: To be able to make really beautiful pieces that respect men and the environment. Then, it really started to be a game—to be able to innovate and always go forward. Two years ago, we launched shoes using fish leather. We always want to be the leaders in the market and be really ahead of the others. It’s fun, to be able to get rid of plastics. It’s really something that the big brands are also working on. But they’ll be doing it more in five or ten years.
All of the shoes are made in Brazil in a factory that respects the rights of workers. We do social audits every year to be sure that the social rules are respected. That’s different. All our raw materials come from Brazil. The rubber comes from the Amazon forest.
What’s the most groundbreaking thing you’ve done in terms of sustainability with your sneakers?
We are working on a way to get rid of leather. I’m not able to talk about it much yet, because it’s a big research project, but we’re working on it with scientists. Leather is still not so sustainable. It’s a product of the meat industry. It’s not our dream material. For now, we have not found a material that is as beautiful as leather. The main thing is the texture and the way it wears with time. If you use synthetic leather, it’s actually plastic and it doesn’t age.
