Cruelty-free stores?

Question

I know this is not about food & drink, but it is about a vegan lifestyle, so I hope someone here can help me out!

I've been wanting to buy cruelty-free shoes for a while now, but around here, there doesn't seem to be anything. I know I can buy anything online but sizes differ from one company to another, so how do I know what size to order?

I'd like to get myself some shoes, as well as any other clothes (jeans, shirts, skirts, and more dressy clothes like dresses and dress shirts, etc) and accessories. Does anyone know of any real stores that I can actually walk into and check things out myself?

In these areas:

USA:

Hawaii

Orlando

Boston

Los Angeles

New York City

Las Vegas

San Diego

Canada:

Quebec City

Niagara Falls

Montreal

Europe:

Paris

Rome

Amsterdam

Spain

Turkey

UK

Ireland

Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

If you purchase Converse, their shoes are made of canvas, not leather. Converse can be bought at pac-sun, which I'm pretty sure is in many places in the us. you can also buy them online.

Answer 2

In New York City, there is Moo Shoes, a high-quality, completely vegetarian footwear and clothing company.

http://www.mooshoes.com/

Payless Shoe Source has locations in all 50 states and in Canada. That's where I buy my non-leather footwear. Very cheap, but not great quality.

http://www.payless.com/

Another option is DSW (shoe store). It has stores in 37 states. You can go to their site and search for shoes, and limit it to synthetic material.

http://www.dsw.com/dsw_shoes/catalog/lan...

Here's a guide to stores with leather and fur alternatives:

http://www.peta.org/living/alt2.asp

I hope this helps!

Answer 3

I understand your quest about vegan shoes. I actually just go to my local department stores, - Macy's, Companies, Mervynes, Dillard's etc,,, and find shoes that are "Man made".

The shoes will have a label inside the shoes or on the box that say, "All materials are man made", or "Man made materials" So basically that means that leather - animal skin - is not used.

Also for clothes, its the same thing, just look at the label on the clothing, and it will give you what fabric is used in making the clothing. - Avoid leather, silk, wool...

You really don't have to go anywhere fancy, you just need to chose the right materials.

Good luck.

Answer 4

In NYC, there's MooShoes in the Lower East Side.

In Pasadena, California (which is not too far from Los Angeles), there's Alternative Outfitters.  However, their storefront has limited hours, as they're primarily online sales.  They also have some jewelry.

I have heard of British online companies, but I don't know if they have brick-and-mortar storefronts where you can go.

You can also buy accessories from Vegan Essentials (www.veganessentials.com), based in Wisconsin; and Pangea (www.veganstore.com), based in Rockville, Maryland (outside Washington, DC).  Alternative Outfitters also has a jewelry line.

For casual cotton clothes, check out Decent Exposures (www.decentexposures.com).  They're based in Seattle and make bras, underwear, skirts, t-shirts, and casual pants.

If you go to Co-Op America's website, they will lead you to good companies from which to buy clothing.  Unfortunately, most are online.

When it comes to buying dressier clothes, you'll just have to look at the label to ensure it doesn't have fabrics you don't use.