Everyone’s talking about the way our everyday actions affect the planet. Just like eating vegan is vital to combating climate change, wearing vegan is also a must. Vegan sneakers are taking over as some of the biggest clothing brands introduce innovative and sustainable plant-based footwear. There’s no excuse for wearing shoes made of skin torn from smart, social, sensitive animals such as cows, so take your shoe game to the next level and slip on some shoes made of vegan materials like recycled water bottles and plants.
For Earth Day, Cole Haan launched its first sustainable sneaker, made with a minimum of 25% naturally derived or recycled content. The shoe’s upper features a vegan microfiber suede and an outsole made with FlowerFoam, a lightweight rubber made from dandelions. Even the laces, made from recycled plastic bottles, are eco-friendly. Styles are available in eight colorways, across both men’s and women’s sizes.
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Nike has launched a new sneaker collection using Piñatex, a vegan leather alternative made from pineapple leaf fibers. The line features five vegan versions of the brand’s iconic styles, including the Air Force 1, Air Max 90, Air Max 95, and Air Zoom. Find the collection on Nike’s SNKRS app.
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Vans has launched its first sustainable sneaker series, featuring vegan materials like organic cotton, cork, natural rubber, hemp, and water-based inks and glues. The Eco Theory collection includes versions of four of the brand’s classic styles: the Authentic SF, Slip-On SF, Sk8-Hi Decon 38 SF, and 36 Deacon SF.
Footwear brand Good News and clothing retailer H&M have partnered for a new collection of more sustainable sneakers using vegan materials such as Bananatex, Vegea, and Tencel. These shoes are classic yet trendy and available in both low-top and high-top options with bright colors and fun patterns. The collection shows that sustainable vegan materials are the future of fashion.
Actor Nikki Reed has collaborated with footwear brand LOCI to make an eco-friendly shoe that’s fashionable and fabulous for animals. These sneakers, made from recycled materials, include a cork insole for added comfort. There’s no leather here—instead, the water-resistant upper uses repurposed ocean plastic, which means that these shoes help save cows and ocean animals. Shop the Reed x LOCI vegan sneaker collection on lociwear.com now.
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Organic cotton, recycled airbags, pineapple leaf fibers, and cork—these are materials used by Portuguese vegan footwear brand nae. What you won’t find is animal exploitation—the human or nonhuman kind. The nae x PETA desert boot collaboration was established to help create a brighter future for animals with every step you take. That’s why for every pair of boots sold, $5 will immediately go to PETA to help animals. And on top of that, these are unisex boots made with 100% organic cotton, coconut fiber, and natural rubber.
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Reebok is running with the animal- and eco-friendly shoe game with an all plant-based running shoe and a sneaker made from corn and cotton. The Forever Floatride GROW is a running shoe made from sustainable materials, including eucalyptus, castor beans, and natural rubber. The Cotton + Corn sneaker features soles made from corn and is part of the Cotton + Corn initiative, which earned the company our Innovator for Animals Award.
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The world’s first all-vegan luxury menswear store, Brave GentleMan adopted a slow-fashion production model. Its belief that animals don’t belong in a production system makes it one of our favorite ethical brands. Its footwear is made using Italian future-leather—a sturdy, flexible, weather-resistant, hi-tech polyurethane microfiber that is EU Ecolabel–certified. The brand’s newest sneaker, the Revenant, is made from waste-diverted textiles, using cotton and polyester that would otherwise have gone into a landfill.
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Libby Award winners Native Shoes and Save the Duck collaborated to create the solution to exploitative winter boots: the Lhotse. It’s made with alternative materials such as Save the Duck’s 100% polyester fabric (which offers resistance against any weather forecast), making it an extremely high performer in terms of waterproofness and breathability. The boot was named after the fourth-highest mountain in the world and honors the mountaineers it inspires, including explorer Kuntal Joisher, who became the first human to summit its peak without using animals or animal-derived materials (for food, shoes, gear, or any other purpose).
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PETA Business Friend Nomadic State of Mind keeps waste out of landfills by recycling all the scraps from its production of super-light and durable rope sandals into beautiful, functional pieces like rugs and bags.
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Canvas, denim, hemp, and faux leather produced from recycled plastic bottles—that’s what goes into SUSI Studio’s mindful production.
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The guys over at Good Guys Don’t Wear Leather are truly good. The brand already uses sustainable vegan materials, and its goal is to be 100% recyclable by 2021. For the fall and winter 2020 collection, expect to see vegan leather made from apple skin, among other innovations.
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The good folks over at luxury vegan shoe company Sydney Brown value three things: humans, animals, and the environment. They help protect the latter by using recycled and sustainable materials and aiming to improve their eco-friendly practices with each new season, like with the Low Sneakers, constructed from fennel.
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Minimum impact on the planet—that’s Vivobarefoot’s objective. The company makes many of its shoes by repurposing plastic waste. The Primus Lite II Bio performance shoe is even made with more than 30% natural plant-based materials.
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In addition to being “PETA-Approved Vegan,” Olsenhaus uses upcycled and recycled materials, is sweatshop-free, and adheres to slow-fashion production practices. Materials used by the company include linen, cotton, canvas, bamboo, hemp, cork, and wood—never animal skins.
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This luxury vegan shoe brand uses recycled and cotton-backed polyurethane (PU), rather than polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or animal skins. Beyond Skin’s shoes also feature insoles made from approximately 70% post-consumer cardboard and soles made of recycled rubber resin.
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Rothy’s offers vegan shoes made from 100% recycled plastic water bottles and post-consumer recycled materials. The company has repurposed more than 30 million plastic bottles destined for landfills into cute, comfy flats.
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Vegan footwear brand Bourgeois Boheme wants customers to wear their shoes with pride. That’s why it uses progressive materials like leather alternatives, including non-PVC PU microfiber.
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The folks over at Insecta Shoes use upcycled materials, recycled plastic bottles, and recycled cotton—materials already at its disposal—so that its footwear isn’t just stylish but also sustainable.
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Vegan footwear brand ROMBAUT is noted for its lack of toxicity and innovative use of materials such as stone, tree bark, natural rubber, cotton cellulose, and coconut fiber.
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Stacey Chang founded VEERAH—another PETA Business Friend—to make kind, sustainably produced shoes the norm, not the exception. Not only are VEERAH vegan shoes made from cruelty-free, environmentally friendly materials, Chang also offers 10 paid hours per month to VEERAH employees to volunteer for various worthy causes.
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The future of fashion is sustainable, ethical, and vegan, and this abundance of animal- and eco-friendly shoe options proves it. Check out our “How to Wear Vegan” guide to learn more about dressing compassionately:
Here’s How Easy It Is to Wear Vegan
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Helpful Resources PETA’s Guide to Cruelty-Free Beauty on a Work-From-Home Schedule Instagram.com/bliss | Instagram.com/elfcosmetics | Instagram.com/flowerbeauty How to Wear Vegan 15 Great Cruelty-Free Companies ©iStock.com/Ellende PETA’s Ranking of Vegan-Friendly Fashion Retailers ©iStock.com/arekmalang Search for Cruelty-Free Cosmetics: Makeup, Personal-Care Products, and More
PETA’s Guide to Cruelty-Free Beauty on a Work-From-Home Schedule
PETA’s Ranking of Vegan-Friendly Fashion Retailers
Search for Cruelty-Free Cosmetics: Makeup, Personal-Care Products, and More
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