If you’re walking around the streets of NYC, you can bet that you’re going to see the ultra trendy VEJA shoes a lot. Since their launch in 2005, it seems like everyone seems to have a pair (myself included) of these shoes, even celebrities.

I won’t lie, they look great — even if they are pretty minimal. But at around $175-185 per pair (full range ~$130-210), I think it’s important to look at whether or not these shoes are worth the hype and the price. So, now after having gone through two pairs myself, I feel like I have a pretty good take on this.

But what exactly are VEJAS?

First things first, let’s talk about what they’re made of. According to their website, VEJA shoes are made of the following:

“VEJA uses Brazilian and Peruvian organic cotton for the canvas and laces, Amazonian rubber for the soles, and various innovative materials conceived in recycled plastic bottles or recycled polyester.”

https://project.veja-store.com/en

On their website, VEJA talks a lot about sustainability and environmentalism. And they’ve been included on quite a few lists rating them as “good” for their efforts, with room for growth. As someone trying to be more sustainable in my purchases, I decided to give them a try.

How were they?

So far, I’ve purchased two pairs of VEJAs and before I get into this review, I should note that I wear my shoes OUT. I walk around quite a bit every day, so my shoes tend to take a beating. And as a result, I tend to go through shoes a bit more quickly than other people.

For my first pair, I wore these out to the point of holes at the bottom of the shoe. So, they went through many miles before I had to toss them out. So, going back to when I first put these shoes on, I noticed they looked great. The support was pretty minimal, so if you need arch support, you’d need to get inserts or find alternative shoes. Besides that, they fit pretty comfortably.

SIZING: One thing to note about these shoes is that they don’t have half sizes, do you’ll have to go either up or down. The person who was helping me try them on said that people tend to size down, but I had to actually size up. I’m typically 10.5 or 11, so I ended up going with an 11. I tried the 10, but they ended up being way too tight. So, definitely try them on before you buy because sizing is a bit weird.

WEAR & TEAR: But, I will say, they didn’t last nearly as long as other shoes I’ve had have. After just a few wears, I noticed the cloth at the back of the inside of the shoes began to tear. While the outside still looked great at the time, the inside didn’t seem to withstand the wear quite as well.

At one point, I noticed the rubber lining at the bottom of the shoe started to separate a bit from the shoe. Overall, it didn’t bother me too much and I really only saw it when I was taking a step. So, it was easy to ignore.

LIFESPAN: Once I got holes in the bottom of my shoes, I ended up buying another pair soon after. At that point, I probably had my shoes for around 6 months. On the second pair, the hole at the back of the inside didn’t appear, but the outside lining separated pretty quickly after I started wearing them out a bit more. I’m not super pleased about that, but they still fit comfortably and are getting the job done.

At this point, I’ve had my second pair of these shoes for about 6-7 months and they seem to be holding up much better than my first pair. But since summer has just started and more walking will happen, we’ll see!

Is it worth the cost?

I’m going to be completely honest here and say, they’re OK. They look nice, they’re trendy and they seem to be doing decently well in sustainability, but they don’t have a ton of support and they’re $185 a pair. It’s a pretty steep price for the sake of trendy.

At the end of the day, if you’re in the market for new shoes and have some money to spare, I’d say give them a try. You may find that they’re worth the cost for you. But, they’re nothing you should be dying to get ahold of, in my opinion.