Our Founder was featured this week in SHOUT OUT LA!
Here is a snippet of the article:
We had the good fortune of connecting with Desiree Dupuis and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Desiree, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit, and I had been running my own insurance businesses for 10 years before Voes & Co was created as a solution to a problem I had been personally facing as a vegan woman. When I first had the idea to create a global fashion brand in 2016, two things had been culminating in my mind. First, was the lack of designer footwear available not made of leather, suede, or alternatively synthetic petroleum based material like PU and PVC. Second, I realized that there wasn’t (and still isn’t) a global brand that represents the movement based on love and compassion known as Veganism. So let’s back up a bit. When I first learnt about the atrocity of the animal agriculture industry in 2008 I stopped eating and wearing animal products. Over time, I began to be increasingly frustrated and disappointed with the lack of options for designer footwear and as I began to learn even more about the devastating harmful effects animal agriculture has on the planet, I realised I didn’t want to trade one harmful product for another, saving animals by not buying leather but then harming the environment by purchasing synthetic leather. As a woman who loves fashion and footwear it was my frustration and the lack of options available that inspired me to take it into my own hands and create my own brand that could represent Veganism, starting with ethically made, sustainable designer footwear made with next generation plant based materials.
