Vegan Shoes

I've been needing new shoes for several months now, but have resisted the temptation to buy new leather ones. My early sources for vegan shoes were either payless -- which has lots of cute ones, but I worried about longevity of the product and overall comfort since I walk a lot -- or style shoes from vegan boutiques, which also look uncomfortable and are pretty pricey. So I was at a bit of an impasse until I discovered REI, which is actually carrying quite a number of vegan shoes.

I knew about one pair going into the store, but the sales guy was all about helping me find more. He brought over 7 possible pair for me to try on (none of which were flip flops or crocs). Honestly, it was like how I remember shoe shopping at Nordstrom used to be when I was a kid. Totally awesome. We even found a pair for Charlie!

Here are the shoes we bought:
 
On the left are Charlie's Keen Coronados. They are made of canvas. In the center are Jambu Planets, this company is a bit of a mystery as they just appeared at REI with 5 or 6 different shoes, the inside of which are all stamped "man-made," but REI refers to them as nubuck leather. I checked with the company, it turns out their nubuck is synthetic and all their shoes are vegan and use recycled plastic in the sole. VERY COOL! The pair on the right are Clark's waterproof adventure ballet flats. They also had a similar mary jane shoe. I don't think these are vegan on purpose, but are vegan for the waterproofing, but we'll take it.

 

I felt really good about these purchases not only because they are vegan and support a local store (even if it is a bit of a corporate giant these days), but it was a good mix of supporting a vegan shoe line and supporting a vegan product in a big name shoe line. And after spending nearly all of my shoe budget on Dansko's for the past ten years, they seemed very reasonably priced. I've been really happy with my shoes too, but Charlie isn't as keen on his Keens. I'm hoping he'll keep them though because they are super, super cute.