The good and the bad of green footwear
I am constantly on the lookout for vegan, ethical footwear and bagging something suitably stylish and green is not always as easy as it should be. To give you an example of the divergence between fantastically ethical footwear, with panache and elegance and not quite so ethical or chic shoes, check out the two websites below.
Ethical and stylish
1. Beyondskin.co.uk – The footwear is vegan and produced in the UK, the makers take account of seasonal trends and use synthetic materials that are kinder to the environment than the ones traditionally used in place of leather. They are on the pricey side, but they are simply stunning and incredibly ethical to boot.
Not very ethical or stylish
1. Greenshoes.co.uk – Whilst they offer vegan alternatives to their leather footwear, they could have made their ranges entirely vegan. A quarter of land surface is utilised for grazing livestock, when it could be used more productively elsewhere. The footwear is a tad lacking as far as elegance and panache goes. However, their saving grace is that they do look very comfortable and the manufacturers aim to source most of their products from UK suppliers.
When looking for ethical and vegan footwear, make sure you check out all the information about the manufacturer first. Leather is not ethical and some vegan shoes use materials that are toxic and/or detrimental to the environment, such as PVC (which contains chlorine) and viscose (which is produced with vast amounts of acid chemicals.)
