I know I’m showing my age here, but Punky Brewster is all I can think about when I see these. They are so totally 80s teenager. I love it! Ok, I can think of a few other things too – My little pony and the care bears being but a couple…
We’ve got denim, we’ve got the classic high-top shape and there’s zips and stars too with plenty of colours and, most importantly, bright pink laces and lining! All you’d need to do is infuse these with a pencil eraser scent and I’d literally fall down and cry with nostalgic tears of joy.
I mean, you have to be a little bit 12 to wear them (even if only on the inside) but oh to be 12 again and teeny-bop along to your favourite pop songs with these on! We do love shoes with a sense of humour here at Vegan Shoe Addict, so bring on the rainbow!
You can get these vegan 80s trainers from Cloggs and they also come in a somewhat more subdued version with black, pink and turquoise.
OK, I know it’s cheating to write about so many shoes from the same place over one week, but just this one more pair cause they’re so wicked. Vegan steampunk trainers, oh yeah!
I know it’s Valentine’s day, so I should really be writing about some shoes with a heart on them (like the awesome Melissa Dragon Lady), but hey, these are brilliant too and steampunk is (apparently) forever.
Check out the really intricate, delicate gear print. Nice!
I’m also liking the pinstripe / sort of aged, almost parchment combo. So now you can basically still look steampunk even when it’s trainer-weather and you’re in your street clothes looking a different kind of cool. The whole design is at once very modern but also somewhat old-school with the whole Spats look and Victorian charm.
Totally casual and neat and you can be sure no one in your vicinity will own a pair. There are a few other steampunk designs on there that are also worth a look, though these were my favourites so far.
You can get them from Zazzle.
Another good find on the Zazzle site. These Rasta-inspired trainers are soooo cute!
They have the right colours if you want to do the Jamaican thang, but also a cool pattern to go with, so you can wear them even if you just like the design and the colours and it won’t necessarily mean you’re overtly Rasta. So wink, if you may, or you could work them into a bigger Jamaican, Rasta look.
I like the cute red piping and the splash design. The base design of the trainer itself is pretty neat in a simple sort of way, making for a really desirable shoe.
You can get these from Zazzle.
Simple, cute and stylish – I do like these. They’re a different take on the usual canvas high top trainer, with straps instead of laces.
I think these would make nice smart-casual trainers to wear to work if your office is funky or for going out somewhere where you need to look vaguely smart but also vaugely trendy and have your shoes just blend in with the look. They’re a good shade of neutral (navy, apparently. Looked grey to me on this screen, but I guess it’s denim of sorts). They also come in black synthetic, which is also handy, though they look like they might look a bit cheap in real life in that style.
Both of these are on sale right now, so they *are* actually cheap, which is always good.
You can get these directly from Aldo.
How awesome! Vegan trainers printed with a bowling shoe pattern. I just found this site where I gather people can custom design trainers and then they are sold on the site. There are some super cool designs on there and I’m definitely going to be reviewing a bunch as I go through them.
I really like these, cause I really like bowling shoes. I actually have a pair of Rocket Dogs made out of old stock Chinese vegan bowling shoes, though they are single colour. These are not quite as cool as actual bowling shoes, but on the other hand they’re trainers and therefore more socially acceptable around people who don’t understand how cool those are to actually wear out, but can get down with the irony of wearing a trainer that looks like them.
Not cheap, but how many people you know have trainers that look like bowling shoes?
You can get these from Zazzle.
OK, these are weird. They look like normal trainers, but no! They’re all cut up, Kinda like the slashed T-shirts of days gone by or a canvas sneaker-sandal.
If you liked that 80s torn-up punk look, you can now have it on your feet as well, which is pretty exciting, really. They’re definitely eye-catching and different, but are they practical? Do we care?
Thinking ahead to a nice hot summer… We probably don’t. They’re flat and comfortable and they’d go with all your funky electro-punk clubwear.
They also come in white and there’s a rather loud 80s-tastic plaid version too.
You can get these from Office.
Oh I do like the Macbeth trainers / sneakers / skate shoes for the boys. They are just so… understatedly cool. It’s like the people who designed them know they’re just shoes and that shoes should know their place, but they also know that people often judge you based on your shoes, even if it’s only as part of the grander scheme of what you’re wearing.
These are black, simple and sexy but are just real sweet at the same time. If you wore these and wanted people to know you were vegan, you’d have to wear one of those “nobody knows I’m a vegan” T-shirts (do they exist? I think they probably do).
These are just so much about having the sort of super cool skater or grungy look thang that no one would think anything of it and you wouldn’t get instantly tagged as a vegan anarchist. See? Understatedly cool…
You can get them via Mooshoes.
Yup. It’s time for yet another Rocket Dog shoe review. It’s just that they have so many good vegan shoes… Like these “Jamba school sock” trainers. I’m not sure I like the very blatant Rocket Dog logo on the heel, but I do like the whole “let’s turn the cool school socks into a shoe” thing. I guess if you wore them with black knee-highs you’d look like the anti-preppy student.
They are simple, fun and the grey is a good choice cause it means you can wear them with lots of different things and they are mostly neutral, even though they have a pattern. I wouldn’t go trying them on with anything, say, pink and busy, though!
These plaid vegan trainers are available from Schuh.
Happy new year! And here is the first pair of vegan shoes for 2010. These Ed Hardy trainer boot things are so cool. They come in a load of different and funky designs, are shin high and are definitely very unusual. Check out the tattoo geisha artwork with the whole skater-urban-somewhat LA awesomeness. Are those silvery sequin trims too? Oh I do believe they are! Not much else to say really, as I think these speak for themselves. This isn’t exactly a new look (OK, not at all) but who cares?
I fear we are, once more, in the realm of the love ‘em or hate ‘em, but these would definitely fit right in with a few very distinct types of personal style. I am not actually sure whether these are officially for men or women. I think these are pretty unisex. Just remember to order the right size.
I know this sort of basketball boot look is the obvious fall back plan of any vegan, but at least with these you can make a statement that isn’t “there’s no other shoes I can get”. I’m thinking more of a “check out my totally awesome crazy shoes” kind of statement.
I found these on Amazon.com .
These trainers from Diesel are pretty damn neat. True to the denim styling, they actually have a little pocket at the back of them, just like a pair of jeans. How cool (and odd) is that?
Apart from that, we have a classic trainer shape, done particularly well with the chunky rubber sole and the contrasting white stripe. I love the rubber toe bit, though that’s hardly unique to these. They do look nicely “bumpy” here, though!
These are understated, stylish and trendy and all in all a nice pair of every day trainers.
You can get them from Schuh. They are called “Exposure”.
OK. I know I said recently that I didn’t like shoes that looked like slippers, but these are actually pretty cool. I think it’s the colour combo in the plaid pattern than makes me want them. Just like the Macbeths I wrote about the other day, I could actually see myself wearing a pair of these even though they are supposedly for guys.
They look cosy and homey and you’d look like an instant metrosexual intellectual wearing them (in a casual sort of way, cause they still look a bit like slippers, but quite smartly so at the same time).
They look like they’d lend themselves to quite a sophisticated trendy look with the right gear. Plaid kinda does that, if you use it ironically in a retro nuclear family kind of way. Don’t forget your pipe!
These are made by Simple Shoes so they’re obviously eco friendly, made of sustainable and recycled things and obviously 100% vegan, glue and all.
You can get them from the Simple Shoes website. Or you can go all out and get yourself some actual slippers instead (also 100% vegan).
OK, here’s one for the boys, cause I’ve been writing about women’s shoes for weeks and there are actually some really nice vegan shoes for men too. These vegan high-tops by Macbeth are actually so awesome, I am actually considering doing the maths and figuring out my size in men’s sizes so I can get myself a pair, though they do look somewhat, well, manly.
They are the fruit of a collaboration between Macbeth and Mike Dirnt from Green Day (here he is wearing them) and they are pretty weird-looking. Good weird. I know Converse high-tops and friends are practically a part of the vegetarian and vegan diet, so it’s so good to see canvas high-tops that actually don’t look like your average canvas high-tops.
These “Schubert” trainers have really butch patent detailing and unusual eyelets (for a canvas trainer) that make them look sort of punked up but still very trainery/skate shoe and very American. It’s like a Converse All-stars going to a Halloween party dressed as a punk. I’m loving the grey and black that goes with everything and the patent makes them look posher than your average trainer too, which is good cause they’re somewhat more expensive too.
These are indeed totally hot, though I do believe you need to have at least a minimal sense of style to be able to carry them off or the decency to wear them with black if you don’t. The patent bits (that’s “shiny bits” for you non-fashion savvy folk) can be a bit much for your everyday nerd. Maybe you should get a new expensive haircut and a few tattoos or something to go with.
These vegan men’s shoes are available from Macbeth.
As we all know, this type of Converse-like basketball shoes / trainers is a pretty obvious staple of vegan footwear the world over, but that doesn’t mean I can’t review the occasional fine variation on the theme.
These leopard print trainers from Rocket Dog definitely have the X-factor, and not in the horrible UK reality show sense, but in the original sense when it still meant something good you might actually want. Apart from the fact that they are leopard print and therefore already cool (remember kids: leopard print never goes out of style), they also have a red lining and a few nice touches of red in the logos on the outside of the shoe as well.
I also like the thick laces that make these look a bit like skate shoes and the sole which almost looks somewhat creeper-like.
While still placed firmly within the standard high-top trainer department, these leopard print trainers are different enough to stand out and get you some compliments.
In the UK at least, these are available exclusively from Schuh.
