If you’re looking for a new pair of shoes, why not try vegan shoes! Who doesn’t want a pair of shoes that isn’t implicating the environment?
When we think of vegan shoes, the thing that comes to mind are anti-classic leather shoes. However, it is much more than that. Vegan leather is only a small part of it all. Vegan shoes come in all possibilities of shoe types; sneakers, heels, flats etc and simply purchasing non leather shoes barely makes it any more sustainable. Vegan shoes are not only in concerns to animal hide and byproducts but also to the environment and the people in the production process.
Every single part of the shoe must be verified to be vegan to be counted; this means the soles, textile materials, laces, glue, stitches, everything! Did you know that most glue is made from the collagen and bones of animals? Furthermore, a lot of people also often forget that suede is also a form of leather.
As college students or young adults, we’re all looking forward to what the future offers us. However, with the manner in which we are currently acting, it sure doesn’t feel like there’s such a favourable future ahead of us.
One of the biggest problems with using leather is the contribution to deforestation and a number of other problematic environmental issues.
In order to create the hides for leather, animals are being raised specifically in conditions to provide for it. A common assumption is that they’re just using the hides of animals who were killed for meat consumption anyway. However, the degree to which real leather is consumed significantly outweighs the actual meat consumption levels of these animals. In this sense, it means that leather is no longer the byproduct but produced for the direct consumption of it. If you think you’re doing the world a favour by not buying leather shoes, another thing to take note of is the significant use of leather inner linings and other parts of shoes like heels or sneakers that we often forget.
Alongside this process is the levels of deforestation to raise these animals and the factories used to process the leather. Copious amounts of chemicals are used to clean and transform hide into leather is being washed into the waterways and incredibly destructive to the environment, ruining soil and bodies of waters such as dams and lakes. It’s so easy to forget the environmental impact you can have on such beautiful places from what you’re consuming in your everyday life.
Like most other materials consumed in fast fashion, the high demand for leather means companies are always seeking the cheapest methods of sourcing the material. This often results in the use of unfair labour, damage to the livelihoods and wellbeing of workers, and child labour. Although they are incredibly problematic, there are still a number of other issues involved.
With the way trends come and go, plenty of people buy shoes, wear them once or twice, and then they’re gone. Furthermore, with low quality fast fashion that pushes quantity over quality, even if you wanted to wear these shoes more, they’ll quickly break down and become impossible to wear sooner than later. Shoes are a really important aspect of your outfit that also affects your overall well-being. If you aren’t wearing comfortable shoes then what are you doing? How can you expect to go out there and take over the world when you can’t even be responsible for what’s on your own two feet?
Although vegan shoes are a big step towards a more sustainable future, the low awareness of the matter means that there remains a small number of issues that are still involved. Some fast fashion companies try to hop on vegan shoes as though its simply a trend and produce shoes that are made from PVC, Polyvinyl chloride, a type of unsustainable plastic that remains rather difficult to biodegrade. This doesn’t mean all vegan shoes have this and instead remains dependent on the buyer to do their research before purchasing. However, with the current flow of things, there are high expectations on the production of vegan shoes towards a much more sustainable future.
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