Why are we launching this brand?

But what brand are we talking about?

MEEKO is a brand of timeless sneakers for lovers of nature and the city; those looking for a more responsible way of life, without wanting to go barefoot. Sorry Yannick...

Our primary goal is to contribute to the environmental cause, in particular to the preservation of endangered animal species. We hope to achieve this through commitment (human, financial) and positive communication. To do this, we market sneakers that we can be proud to wear for a long time, while minimizing the harmful effects inevitably linked to our activity.

From Picsou Magazine to a sustainable sneaker brand, our journey

MEEKO was born out of a desire to fight against the rapid disappearance of our planet's fauna and flora. To this desire was added a great interest in entrepreneurship, the creation of a product, the response to a need, to make life more beautiful or simpler. Then came an observation, a conviction, that to do beautiful things one must first achieve a balance in life, be fulfilled, happy and in line with one's values. To help preserve endangered species, what options were available to me? I'm not a scientist, I'm not a ranger, and I don't have the guts to go on board a Sea Shepherd ship indefinitely or deep in the Amazon rainforest (although I've done it before). , supporting evidence !).

I need to be close to my family, my friends, my city, my sport, to be able to give the best of myself. Inspired by others before me who proved that “business” was not a bad word and that it could even sound good next to “ecology”, I thought about this project.

9 years ago, in my ^2nd year of business school, during an entrepreneurship course, I proposed a brand of urban clothing, each line of which would carry a discreet logo representing an endangered species. The production should be as clean as possible, like a Patagonia , and part of the sales should be donated to associations protecting these species. I got a bad grade probably because of the financial projections made at random (I should have followed my bestie and her superb idea of ​​a ball suitcase), but I always kept this idea in a corner, telling myself that it would be great to combine ecological commitment with the excitement I felt at the idea of ​​creating and developing a brand.

A few years later, I noticed that I couldn't find ethical and sustainable sneakers that I liked as much as the big classics like the New Balance 574, the Gel-Lyte from Asics or other running shoes from big brands. Whether in terms of design (classic, easy to wear but sought after), comfort, price or sturdiness, it didn't match. Most of the clean alternatives are either too expensive for me, full of ethnic patterns that I'll get tired of quickly, flimsy, or aimed at a target I don't relate to (older, more serious).

Very few (if any) of these brands have succeeded in attracting me into their universe and making me want to belong to their community, to make me feel more than a customer by taking part in something bigger, more rewarding. The more I talked about it around me, the more I realized that I was not alone in this case. So I decided to make sneakers, a product that stimulates me more than textiles and which symbolizes the excesses of the world of disposable fashion in my eyes.

Then I met Maxime with whom I worked for two years in a Parisian start-up. He was very interested in MEEKO, I was looking for someone to join the adventure (two people are more fun) and his skills and character matched the project very well. Today we are both fully behind this brand of sneakers like no other, sharing the same vision that we tell you about in the following article .

I see us pretty much like that, Maxime being the smarter of the two...

Thank you for reading this article and don't forget, the best gift you can give us if you appreciate our approach is to talk about it around you. 😊

PS: You can also follow us on our different social networks here , here and here .

See you soon,

The MEEKO team