About Vegan Shoe Addict

Some things you need to know about this blog

  • I am actually a vegetarian not a vegan, but I stopped wearing leather shoes the day I stopped eating meat. I point out shoes that are vegetarian but not vegan (i.e. made with wool) when I write about them, though I mostly write about vegan shoes. None of the shoes I write about are made with leather or fur (this includes “eco leather”, which is still leather and therefore neither vegan nor vegetarian).
  • Many vegan shoes are not vegan because people care about animals, but because vegan materials are cheaper than leather. This means some of the cheaper shoes reviewed here won’t necessarily be amazingly well made. The upside is that they’re cheaper than the leather version. I try to pick shoes that look good and are well made, but if in doubt I will often go for the ones that look good.
  • Glue glue glue – The glue used in vegan shoes, especially the cheap ones, is a point of contention. Animal-based glues are common and can be cheaper to use than synthetic glues. Unless stated specifically in the review, assume that I don’t know what glue was used for the shoes. I usually have no way of knowing what glue is used and while I try to buy my shoes from companies I know to be ethical and 100% vegan, I do also go with an “out of sight, out of mind” policy when it comes to glue.
  • While I’d love to own all the shoes I write about, I can’t actually afford to buy so many shoes (tragic, I know), so often I write about vegan shoes I see and would like to buy. When the shoes in questions are actually ones I own, I point this out in the review.
    If you’re feeling generous, please feel free to help fund my shoe habit with a small (or large) PayPal donation. This will help me buy more shoes and write more in-depth reviews.


  • I don’t get paid directly for writing this blog (hence the Donate button above), but I do sometimes partner with manufacturers and suppliers of cool vegan shoes I find online (once I’ve established I want to write about those shoes, not the other way around!). If you see a cool pair of shoes reviewed on this blog, please consider supporting this blog by clicking through the link provided and buying the shoes from those retailers.

    Privacy Policy

    This blog uses some third party tracking (Google & Yahoo analytics) to help me figure out where my readers are coming from so that I can better tailor my content to suit.

    As some of the links in this blog are affiliate links, the affiliate networks I use also collect some information when you click on the links. They use this information to be able to tell someone has visited a site I am affiliated with via this blog and I get a small amount of money if the user chooses to sign up for the website.

    Information collected is limited to simple demographics and location: IP Address, Country, City, Activity on the site and on occasion things like gender and age, if such information is available via your Google or Yahoo account and you are currently logged in.

    You can choose whether or not to accept cookies, which is a tiny file used for these tracking purposes. On most browsers, the default option is to accept cookies. You can switch this off for individual sites or all sites if you so choose. This may prevent you from enjoying the full functionality of the site.

    I never collect any personal information beyond that which is listed above and would never sell any of your information to anyone else.

    Why I started this blog

    If you’re a vegetarian or a vegan, you probably know by now that finding well-made, comfortable and fashionable shoes that are also 100% leather free can be a right pain.

    In fact, most vegetarians I know actually wear leather shoes and it’s only vegans who go all the way and avoid animal-based shoes. I’m pretty sure the main reason behind that is that it’s so hard to find decent shoes that aren’t made of leather. Synthetic shoes are often cheap-looking and badly made and the vegan-specific brands mostly started out by producing shoes fit for organic farmers living in caves, rather than urban fashionistas.

    Back when I became a vegetarian, nearly 20 years ago, vegetarianism was still pretty much in its infancy in my country. Nut Cutlets, flaourless soy burgers and “everything but the meat” was my lot.

    But while vegetarian food has now become pretty much mainstream and veggie options varied and actually tasty, leather-free footwear remained stuck in the nut cultet days for many years. Nowadays, you can find good vegan shoes if you’re willing to spend some time looking. You’ll never enjoy quite the same range as leather-wearing shoe addicts, but you can actually get by without standing out for the wrong reasons.

    As a vegetarian who happens to be addicted to (vegan) shoes, I spend a lot of time hunting down vegan shoes in the usual and unusual places. I’ve set up this blog to help other vegetarians and vegans like me who want to live cruelty-free, without sacrificing their sense of style.

    Your perfect shoes are out there. You just need to know where to look!