Yes it does, in-fact vegan high street clothing does too, but is it ethical?

Okay so – my Nike TN’s (from Footlocker) in this post are non-leather, so in terms of vegan materials we are doing pretty good there. But what about the glue? It’s hard to know, but according to some research by various vegan bloggers / people at Nike, the word is that Nike do not use animal products in their glue. So… this should mean that all Nike TN’s are in fact Vegan! Right on!

My bag is from EMP and is faux leather, but is faux leather ecologically friendly and ethical? If it is PVC or a similar material then not entirely as it doesn’t break down in the same way as natural materials like leather. How ever you aren’t wearing animal materials if you wear faux leather, so you aren’t helping fund animal cruelty! I think it’s about picking your battles and doing what you can, where you can really.

Again my trousers are by Nasty Gal and are a PVC material – so no animal materials here, but they won’t break down easily and thus aren’t necessarily the best material for the planet.

There are lots of new materials being made these days however which are Faux Leather and DO break down. For example vegetable/fruit materials like banana skin, hemp etc. If you can- look out for brands using these materials as you are ticking a couple of ethical boxes at the same time.

My jacket is faux fur (Primark), again no animals were harmed to make it, but it doesn’t break down like natural fibres would; adding in the long run to the planets waste problem. The way I see it is if I get a decent usage out of staple faux materials, rather than being someone who wears something a few times. Then I am at least using these materials to their best.

My jumper isn’t vegan, it’s cashmere but it’s from a high end brand (A Day’s March) and so the hope is that the shearing process used is kind. The plus side is this is a material that will naturally break down and thus being more environmentally friendly.

My hat is by a really awesome brand called NOAH, its a man made material and so again, no animal materials here. The thing that’s really cool about Noah is they care about their footprint and have great morals. They often do charity collections giving back to charities such as animal foundations. They aren’t 100% ethical or vegan, but they are accountable and do lots of good with the money they make. I like spending my money with them knowing it is going to good use.

Some brands doing Vegan/Ethical shoes and clothing:

• Naked & Famous – read more on Hypebeast here.
• Rombaut make Environmentally Friendly, Vegan shoes.
• Hugo Boss is starting to use Pineapple Skin.
• Nike, Asics and Saucony are well known for making vegan friendly models, you just have to look at the materials.
• Noah – dedicated to being as ethical as possible.
• Christopher Raeburn – a big focus on reusing old materials and up-cycling.

So what’s right or wrong? If you can tick every box, please do. It’s awesome and you are leading the way to us saving the planet.

But if you can’t don’t beat yourself up about it. And do all that you can, because it’s better than nothing!

Some of the clothing in this post was gifted.

Pics by Derek Bremner