Now this might come as a surprise but with veganism becoming more popular across the world, it has now moved away from just food products. To move along with the times, there are now more products being created with vegans in minds, with a key additions being shoes. But what are the real benefits to owning a pair?
Think about your footprint
First and foremost it is important to consider the carbon footprint of the creation and manufacturing process of the shoes. As is obvious by the descriptions, the shoes are entirely animal friendly as they are created from an entirely synthetic or plant-based material as opposed to leather as would normally be the case. More often than not they are constructed using bamboo, cork or even recycled plastic, meaning they are far cheaper to manufacture. By these metrics they then prove to be far more cost effective in both a financial sense, as well as in an environmental sense.
They last longer
Now this might not seem to be as much of a concern for some people, but the shoes tend to be considerably more durable than some of your animal made pairs. After a few uses sometimes leather shoes start to lose their shape as they begin to mold around the shape of your feet, meaning that six months down the line you might need to invest in another pair. With vegan shoes this isn’t completely ruled out as it does depend on how you walk and where you wear them, but they should be a bit more durable that what you are normally used to. This also helps when battling against the elements as after a while leather begins to warp if constantly exposed to rain, whereas the likes of recycled rubber and polyurethane make this less likely with the vegan options.
Look them up today
You might think that it is difficult to track some of these shoes down but some of the bigger brands have started to release their own variety of vegan shoes. It is still a more niche product as things stand right now but you can order them directly from the manufacturers a lot of the time. Just try typing vegan shoes in Australia into a search engine and you should get a variety of options, one of those brands is Chimmy Churry who are helping spearhead the revolution so you could always begin to make your mark by looking at vegan shoes when you get a chance.
Better for the planet
Going back to the eco-friendly side of it, there is a reduced carbon footprint from production of the vegan shoes as the recycled materials would indicate less toxins being released into the air that their animal-based counterparts. Just this action alone can give you the sense of helping the environment in a more direct sense as you are reducing some of your own carbon footprint as well as the footprint of the companies themselves. Whilst it is always possible to do a bit more, just changing the type of shoes you wear can be a good start.
