giving up leather?

Question

How did you give up leather?
I decided to become vegan, but several things I have are leather... such as my car seats, my rainbow sandals, many of my shoes...

Would I not be a bad vegan if I kept these, but did not buy anything leather from now on? How did you deal with these things wen becoming vegan?

Answer 1

I buy my shoes from http://www.vegetarian-shoes.co.uk/ and ordered my car without leather - i had to have seats custom made. Its not difficult at all to skip leather.

You could choose to wear out the leather you've got and not buy more. but be prepared to answer questions when people see you wearing leather and claiming to be vegan ( don't now why you should have to justify yourself - thats just the way of some people )

You could also sell you stuff. The way to look at that might be that buy selling leather shoes or coat you are reducing another sale of new leather shoes or a coat that the person may otherwise have bought. Therefore you would be reducing leather consumption - you might feel that's the best thing to do.

Answer 2

"Giving up the car is impractical"---don't you mean inconvenient?

You've come to the right place sister! Some vegan will tell you exactly what you want hear and you'll give them the best answer because they "enable" you. Status quo.

Why worry about the leather when the brake and transmission fluids, antifreeze, tires and plastics all are partly made from animal parts?

To answer your question, as I have been taught here in V & V, you find your level of comfort/convenience and you call yourself a vegan. If you don't wish to give up an animal product just tell yourself "it's impractical".

Answer 3

Personally, I don't think a vegan should carry or wear leather- those items are easy to donate to someone else (as long as you can afford to replace them with non-leather goods). As for the car, you obviously can't get rid of that easily and affordably. It really comes down to what you're comfy with. If you're OK with keeping those items and not buying anymore, that's totally up to you as well. I'm not vegan, I'm vegetarian, but I don't buy leather, and I don't like wearing it. I still have a pair of shoes that I wear because I haven't been able to afford a good pair to replace them with as of yet.

goldenchild- I think I would eat you just so you could be gone. :)

Answer 4

Some people keep the leather items but buy no more--as you intend to do--and others give away their leather goods and replace them with vegan items. It really is up to you. Giving up the car is impractical, but can you have the seats reupholstered to a non-leather material?

And ignore goldenchile; she's just a nasty antivegan. We get a fair number of trolls on here.

Answer 5

When I found out, I immediately stopped buying anymore and gave most of my leather stuff away which wasn't very much. Today, I only have 3 things of leather left and they are 2 purses and the my gear shifter. One purse was given to me by a now deceased family member and one purse was given to me by my grandmom who didn't realize it was leather. Although, I didn't mean to she felt bad after I talked to her about it. I was not happy when we went looking for a car and found it to contain leather on the gear shifter. Though, I really didn't have much choice in the matter because we drove it off the lot the same day. I used to think that leather smelled soooo good but now I am disgusted knowing what I know. As for shoes, I only buy shoes made of "man-made" materials. I read the labels on everything! If I have a choice I don't buy it and am proud of my beliefs.

Answer 6

I have leather car seats and I hate them. I can't wait til I can get a new car without leather. I stopped buying leather first and still wore my leather jacket for some time until I got to the point where I didn't want to wear animal products. I just don't feel comfortable wearing it.
here is one place that I get my shoes and jackets from.

http://www.alternativeoutfitters.com/

Answer 7

How you feel personally about keeping those items is up to you. There are lots of other options to leather. I get my vegan shoes on zappos.com. They have some awesome hemp vans. When I went vegan I gave up all my leather shoes, belts and other accessories. And you can always put a seat cover on your car seats.

Answer 8

The car you drive that doesn't have leather seats uses gas that is derived from animal decay. If you were a true vegan, you would walk. (Unless you use a grease made from veggies, even riding a bike is in violation of true vegan rules on non-interferrence of animal products and by products.)

Answer 9

Poster above...about the seat covers:

Sooo, by that logic, a vegan can put a tofu sheath on a T-bone and chomp away, right? C'mon, hold that moral high ground like a Marine, and don't waiver your battlecry in such a hypocritical manner. It makes it easy for we omni's to laugh at you.

Edit: Meg, you couldn't catch me dear. Far to fast and strong for your frailness to handle.