Footwear has taken a stride to a more sustainable approach in recent years – have you seen ‘vegan’ shoes advertised? Do you know what the term means?
Vegan shoe designs are becoming more and more popular – everyone from small kickstarter brands to the giants such as Adidas and Nike are making vegan trainers of some of their most popular designs..
Stella McCartney, a pioneer of all things new and vegan-friendly, led the way by collaborating with Adidas on a vegan iteration of its iconic Stan Smith design. More recently we have even seen the first ever vegan-friendly football boots endorsed by Paul Pogba.
Paul Pogba and Stella McCartney have teamed up with Adidas to launch the sportswear brand's first 100 per cent vegan football boot.
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) October 22, 2021
But how can a shoe be ‘vegan’ in the first place? Given the term is often associated with food and diets, you’d probably be forgiven for being a little confused. As a pretty big trainer/sneaker enthusiast, I thought I’d do my best to explain.
What are vegan shoes?
PETA has written an interesting guide on this subject that goes into detail about how and where different materials are sourced. Put simply, vegan shoes are made from human-made leathers and other materials, rather than sourced from animals.
Human-made vegan leathers have been on the rise over the last decade, with Petroleum-based faux leathers such PVC – a highly toxic plastic material – or polyurethane (PU), which is slightly less harmful, widely used in the production of vegan shoes.
While these materials are considered a better option than animal leather, there are still issues. Many of these materials aren’t biodegradable and will release toxins in landfills for many years, while toxic chemicals are also used in production chains.
But there are other methods out there – there’s been a drastic change in the ways textiles are made. Piñatex, for example, is a pineapple-leaf fibre material that’s been used in a range of shoes by Hugo Boss. It’s also appeared in collections by Chanel and H&M, making it one of the most prominent new vegan leathers on the market.
Another is wine-grape leather, made by Italian company Vegea. It’s crafted from leftover grapes from the wine-making industry. There’s even apple leather and cactus leather now being used in the production of vegan leather goods.
Are your shoes vegan?
Normally companies will tell you on the packaging if your shoes are vegan or made from “genuine leather”. Leather products will commonly have a tag, a label, or some form of indication that the product is made from animal skin.
Other times, the shoe will have little symbols on the label that could help you find out whether it’s vegan. If you see a symbol that looks like a cowhide, it was made from animal skin. If, instead, there’s a diamond-shaped symbol or a symbol that looks like a net, that stands for human-made materials.
For an industry with a large carbon footprint, it’s good to see fashion taking a more sustainable approach – it definitely feels like this is more than a passing fad. But how do you feel about ‘vegan’ footwear?
Are innovations like this something that’d change your approach to buying new shoes? What more could brands be doing to make their products more sustainable? I’d be interested to hear your thoughts in the comments.
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