I'm one of those hippie boycotting types in addition being a vegetarian: I don't wear or buy leather or anything made in a third-world country (unless it's a union shop or otherwise verifiably people-friendly). This makes a lot of purchases difficult, but none more so than belts and shoes. I've had some lucky finds with belts, and don't go through them very quickly. But in terms of shoes, I keep running into bad luck.
I was a very sad person when I found out Converse was purchased by Nike, and had their operations moved to China. In addition to being a vegan shoe, they're ever-stylish, comfortable, and worked well for me. With them out of the picture, however, I've since bought two pairs of skate-style shoes, each advertised as vegan. The first, purchased in June 2008 from
No Sweat, were a Converse knockoff, in every way except the quality. They ripped the first week I had them, and became unglued shortly thereafter. My Cons typically lasted me 3-5 years. These wore out in 4 months.
Next, I went with a pair from
Macbeth, another vegan retailer. These shoes seemed stronger at first - they didn't rip like the No Sweat pair did, but 6 months in (I got them in January), they're falling apart a little more every day, first the plastic/rubber interior (it's cracking like old, dry plastic tends to do), and now all the glued bits. They're stylish shoes - it's too bad they're poorly constructed.
Now, I need new shoes. They need to be vegan, they need to ethically produced, and I'd really prefer if they were at least somewhat stylish (or at least generic). I could use a pair of athletic shoes, too, but I'm not holding my breath.
Whatcha got for me?
