What is Vegan footwear?
‘Veganuary’ is the month to raise awareness of the importance of Veganism, and how it benefits our planet. When we hear the term Vegan, we tend to think of food and beauty products. But what makes footwear vegan? We’re here to look at which footwear materials are being substituted for more vegan friendly options:
Leather
The most common animal product used in shoes is leather, which is made from cow hide. This is now being substituted for a vegan leather material called PU leather. It’s made from polyurethane (PU) which is a type of plastic, bonded to a cotton backing and is designed to have the same texture and look as real leather. All of Shu Da's 'leather-style' product tabs are made using PU leather.
Suede
Suede is a type of leather that can be made out of sheepskin, cowhide and pigskin. Vegan Suede is substituting real suede and is most commonly made from microfibers and recycled-plastic. Some companies are even utilizing mushroom and fungus in their products, making vegan suede using mushroom spores and plant fibers from fungus!
Animal Fur
We are seeing less and less animal fur being used in footwear, with the majority of luxury fashion brands opting for faux fur options instead. Faux fur is typically made from synthetic fibers such as acrylic or polyester, however, at Shu Da we ensure to use recycled faux fur (made from recycled plastic bottles) for all our slipper linings.
Shoe Glue
Shoes parts are often glued together, and this glue can contain gelatin and casein which derive from animals. Vegan shoe glue now more commonly contains synthetic adhesives made from petroleum.
Rubber
Rubber is one of the most important materials used to make shoes and slippers as it protects our feet and has to be durable and hardwearing so our footwear lasts longer. The good news is that natural rubber is a vegan product! It’s made by extracting a liquid sap (known as latex) from certain types of trees. This type of tree is more fittingly known as the ‘Rubber Tree’ (technical name = Hevea Brasiliensis tree). Rubber material can also be recycled to make soles for shoes. All of Shu Da’s slipper and trainer soles are made using recycled rubber.
How are Shu Da’s slippers Vegan?
- All of Shu Da’s slippers use recycled faux fur for the linings, we don’t use any real animal fur!!
- All our soles are made using recycled rubber.
- We don’t use any real leather or suede. All our 'leather-style' product tabs are made out of PU leather.
Check out Shu Da’s full Vegan slipper range here.