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leather goods

I was just wondering, if other vegans were wearing anything made out of leather? There are many reasons to be vegan of course, a consideration for animals, health reasons etc. But do you wear leather shoes, or are your handbags made out of leather? I have to confess that I do. Just curious.

Comments

  • elizabethhelizabethh Raw Newbie

    i do, i’m not proud of it, and admit it’s quite a hypocrisy on my part. i have yet to find nice vegan heels, anybody know of a source?

  • iknikn

    It is a hypocriacy, isn’t it? I got into a conversation with a “devout carnivore” about the reasons of beeing a vegan. (I didn’t tell him I was raw). And he looked at my shoes and asked me ok, so you feel sorry for the animals, what about your shoes??

  • i mainly wear flipflops except to weddings and funerals and then i have a trusty pair of nonleather slides…. ; ) i hear alicia silverstone has a beautiful vegan shoe wardrobe. google it.

    go easy on yourselves, if we break our lives down enough, we will ALL find hypocracy in ourselves. heh heh. i will forever remember my college days when a girl was ranting about how humans are the only species to drink the milk of another animal, while violently shaking parmesean cheese all over her pizza. that one still makes me smile. : )

  • I think Natalie Portman has a line of vegan heels that came out recently

  • iknikn

    Thanks I’ll check those out. I work in a professional environment and I need to dress up every day, so I need to wear closed toe shoes but anything else than leather makes my feet sweat.

  • heyenglishheyenglish Raw Newbie

    www.alternativeoutfitters.com has a very cute selection of shoes. Sugar Shoes are my weakness (considering I own about 20 pairs of shoes, and 15 pairs are Sugar lol), and they make some really cute vegan heels. You can find more of those on www.shoes.com or www.endless.com. Also, on www.endless.com, they have a “vegetarian shoe” category. Plus free overnight shipping!

  • TomsMomTomsMom Raw Newbie

    The very definiation of “vegan” implies not to wear anything derived from an animal. Period. I mean, I understand where you’re coming from on synthetics. I have to wear wool in the winter because I can’t tolerate synthetics. That makes me a plain old vegetarian and not vegan, although my diet is the same as a vegans. It’s more important that you do what you need to do if you have health issues, than the label of “vegan”. You see what I mean?

    That having been said, I’m going to check out those links!:-)

  • I don’t mind using leather at all becuase I see it as a left over from meat consumption and I am not wasting anything on this earth. If something was being killed FOR that leather then it would be an issue for me. Everybody can do what they think is best but it was just a thought.

  • shgadwashgadwa Raw Newbie

    You know…...we can in fact eat fruit leather…..

    They should make fruit leather shoes…...?

  • queenfluffqueenfluff Raw Newbie

    I have all vegan shoes now except one old pair of leather goth boots that I am trying to sell. I have too many vegan boots ands shoes ! I have some cute ones that I am wanting to sell that I bought at alternative outfitters – they are like moccasins. If you want more vegan boots email me and I’ll send you pictures – they are size 6.5.

    Oh, also, it took me a while to get rid of all my leather and suede stuff when I went veg. It is a process. Don’t beat yourself up. Just don’t buy any new stuff. For me, it really made me feel guilty that I owned that stuff, I gave it away to Salvation Army – I wanted it out ASAP.

  • hehehe… I MAKE leather shoes…how’s that?

    I originally ate vegetarian/vegan/raw foods for their health benefits, although I made sure my foods came from organic/free range sources, where the animals where well looked after, for the sake of the animal as well as my health. I did not have ethical issues against people who chose meat as a food source (although I didn’t) but had issues with the WAY they were eating them – from mass-production farms with no respect to the soul of the animal, as opposed to hunting or other sources that are closer to the way the cycle of life operates.

    As Rosehebrew said, the leather that I use for my shoes is a part of the whole animal, of which none is wasted. They grow up free in the highlands (which aslo makes their skins second-rate, as they get bug bites, normal gashes etc that comes with a roaming life). But I also realized with time that I was encouraging this industry instead of offering alternative options, which are viable and less harmful. Plus, visiting tanneries can be pretty macabre! I do NOT mean synthetics – they are even worse, in my opinion, because of the toxic gases they leach and the numerous shoemakers who have become ill (including cancer) from working with synthetic materials. But there ARE other materials..they just need to be explored – that also don’t necessitate exploiting amazonian rubber, or push the problem into some other realm (‘alternatives’ are often joyously uptaken without investigating the drawbacks). There are so many ‘eco’ products out there that are nothing more than a con. Real ‘eco’ means awareness in all areas. ‘vegan’ or ‘organic’ as buzzwords in itself are not ethical if they are exploiting another area (not using REAL fair trade, harming the environment, producing more carbon emissions, etc). It is a very complicated subject…

    At the same time, as many suggested here, you can’t berate yourself, just try to be informed, and do not take things at face value.

    As for me… I am leaving the industry behind and will most likely be going barefoot. :)

  • this is a difficult issue for me, because I have fallen arches, and have been only able to wear the Dansko brand of shoes. They only make them out of leather… anything else makes my entire body ache and I’m in constant pain. I’ve tried using inserts into my shoes, but they don’t work the same.

    I’d love to find a vegan brand of shoe that helps with good arch support. I tried Earth shoes and the pain was unbearable!

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