Veganism and Leather?

Question

I am a vegan, i started it for health reasons but have since become much more into the animal rights side aswell. My only problem is that i love leather, more than edible animal products, i love to wear leather: wallets, shoes, belts, jackets (if i can find one that looks good on me) even bracelets.
Does this make me not vegan? sometimes i feel bad about it, but other tiems i think about all the good things im doing for animals. i just need some clarification, am i being a hypocrite?

Answer 1

Yes,if you are buying new leather products you are not vegan...vegans don't use or eat animal products.

Answer 2

As much as I don't like the concept of leather I appreaciate your effort. Placing restrictions and limitations is not a good way to make progress. In my opinion you start with a few steps and work at your own pace. The fact that you cut out meat has already saved so many animal lives and I'm sure in the process you discovered meat alternatives. The same will go for leather alternatives. In time you will see that you can find things that are equally stylish without using leather. You obviously have the concern in mind so it's worth looking into. As for wearing it now, I'd say to keep what you have and the next time you need something replaced try an alternative and see how you like it. Progress takes time and you shouldn't give yourself a hard time about it. Stress leads to regression and that's never a good thing. Be proud of your decisions thus far and work toward what you want.

Answer 3

To me (as has been said by others) being vegan is part of who I am. While I still have leather and wool stuff, I do not buy any more. I have a leather wallet that I use. It's my old college ID holder and it is still sufficient for my cards and cash. However, when the baby is born (any day now!), I might graduate to a real wallet. One of the ones I have, that I might use, is leather. However, I rescued it from the trash. (It's a Fossil wallet that seems to be fairly new. I have also thought about selling it on CraigsList, just for the extra bucks.) I did not support the slaughter industry and I gave an extended life to something that would haver otherwise been filling a landfill.

I also have a leather bomber jacket that I've had for about ten years. I went to the town's street fair and met a guy. It was a chilly evening and he lent me his jacket. When I tried to return it, he wouldn't take it. Free jacket. I also have a couple of pairs of leather loafers. I got one pair at a consignment shop and the other pair at a store going out of business sale, both for under $5. One pair seems to be now too small as my feet seemed to have grown with pegnancy. The other pair just barely fits with my bare feet. (Becuase my 11s weren't big enough it seems.) I'm going to need a new pair for winter, and will look for non-leather. I also have a pair of boots that I got free and second hand that seemed oddly tight last year, and I'm guessing won't fit this winter.

I also have a wool sweater that I've had for six years. I did buy it new, but I didn't think of these things then. However, it's a red sweater vest with a brown and white argyle pattern on the front. It's nice and classic and I rather like it. (I did get it for half off, though.)

While I don't know of their labor practices, Payless also carries non-leather shoes. Earlier this summer I got a pair of black dress-casual loafers there.

Oh, yeah, geled capsule pills are likely made from gelatin.

Anyway, what you decide is up to you. When I say "I'm vegan." I refer to not only what I eat and don't eat, but to what I buy and don't buy. This summer I was talking with people about my lifestyle and choices. As I explained it to them, I was aware that I was wearing my leather loafers and said that I had bought them long before I changed, but would not waste a good pair of shoes, as that is also not who I am. (I was raised to buy as cheap in price as possible and to keep them for as long as possible.)

Anyway, I hope this short-ish explanation of my life helps.

Answer 4

If you still wear leather, you're not a vegan. Rather, you are merely a strict vegetarian, because veganism is a lifestyle rather than just a diet. Vegans not only abstain from eating animal products like meat, eggs, dairy, and honey, but they also don't wear animal fibers and they make it a point to abstain from using products that have been tested on animals or have animal byproducts. That being said, I strongly encourage you to check into leather alternatives. Many of them come in really cool styles and you can order them online.

http://www.mooshoes.com

Answer 5

Being a vegan is not just a "diet", it is a way of life! Vegans do not take part in anything that harms animals, including leather, animal tested products, etc. If you are a vegan for health reasons, then you can say you follow a vegan diet, but a true vegan wouldn't want to have any part in leather.

Answer 6

There are many online vegan retailers who have "pleather" wallets, belts, and shoes. I've even seen pleather bracelets. Check out www.veganstore.com, www.veganessentials.com, www.mooshoes.com, and www.alternativeoutfitters.com, and you're sure to find stuff that suits you.

Vegans strive to avoid all animal exploitation whatsoever. If you wore leather, you would be considered a "strict vegetarian," not a vegan.

Some people will suggest that if you desperately want to wear leather you find used stuff in a vintage store, but my problem with that is IT'S STILL LEATHER. You are sending a signal with that leather that vegans wear leather--and they don't.

Answer 7

I'm a vegan but if I were to eat a vegan diet but still wear leather I wouldn't call myself one.
I wouldn't call someone a vegan if they wear leather. what would be the point?

I bought jeans last week and didn't realize there was a small leather pocket till after I bought them so I returned the pair of jeans. fashion doesn't have to equal wearing dead animals.

there is always faux leather, doesn't last as long as real leather but why wear dead animal skin?
I still feel weird wearing fake leather.

http://www.veganessentials.com/
http://www.mooshoes.com/

Answer 8

Michael H. is entirely correct. Leather supports the slaughterhouse industry. Period. I am not even a vegan but I still don't support the leather industry. You can easily buy synthetic shoes in most shoe stores- and petamall.org has tons of pleather (fake leather) belts, jackets, wallets, etc.

Answer 9

I believe the correct term for that would be ova-lacto vegetarian, since you are vegan in terms of diet but not in terms of additional lifestyle.

If this is something that you want to change, but you feel that you are comfortable because you wear so much of it, maybe you should give some away. As was explained to me in one of my questions, vegans are not obligated to get rid of things they have already purchased. However, you may look silly if you tell someone you're a vegan while wearing 4-5 pieces of leather. :)

To prevent yourself from purchasing more, think not only of the cows but of the leather tanners who develop a myriad of health problems from the chemicals. They live in dirt-poor regions, so they can't even get proper medical treatment when their flesh starts rotting away.

Answer 10

Leather accounts for 20% of the cost model of a cow.

If you wear, use or buy leather you are directly supporting the slaughter of the cow.

That makes you definately not vegan, and i would wonder why a vegetarian would do this as well.

Answer 11

Yes. You cannot wear leather and be a vegan. Well you can but you would look like a complete idiot.

IT reminds me of a picture I saw in the Dallas morning News paper one day about a decade ago.

Every year in about September Neiman Marcus opens their Fur Coat storage service so people can retrieve their stored coats for winter.

Of course every "opening day", Peta and other "fur is murder" groups protest outside of the Store in downtown Dallas. Well one year the protest got out of control and a few protesters got violent and had to be arrested.

So the day after I am reading the paper in the morning only to see a on the front page a girl in a PETA T-shirt being hauled off by the police. And what did I spy on her feet? Leather Doc Martins.

SO the moral of the story is, don't do anything that makes you look like an idiot.