Footloose and Cruelty-Free
Leather-look shoes let style-conscious vegans wear their politics on their feet
BY Nicole Cohen
Steve Fish had kicked around the idea of opening an animal-friendly shoe store for years. A longtime herbivore, he was sick of meat-eaters ridiculing his politics. “The first thing they check out are your shoes or your belt, and your whole world falls apart,” he says. He was also frustrated with the non-leather shoe options in Canada, which were limited to plastic discount shoes that wore out within months or mail-ordered vegan-friendly shoes from the UK. Fish wanted fashionable, leather-free shoes that were reasonably priced. So he decided to go into business. His store, Left Feet, opened in Toronto’s Kensington Market this past February.
First he went to Brighton, UK, to speak to Robin Webb, founder of Vegetarian Shoes. Webb left art school in 1990 and began hand-making shoes from recycled car tires. Now mass-produced, his shoes are made of a synthetic microfibre used for yacht upholstery. The material looks and feels like leather and is more breathable than other synthetics. Vegetarian Shoes manufactures leather-free versions of all the trends—bowling shoes, Ugg boots, trainers, mary-janes and Doc Martens.
With six pairs of Webb’s shoes, Fish set up a table at Toronto’s Vegetarian Food Fair and quickly collected 600 e-mail addresses from potential customers. That mailing list helped convince the bank there was enough demand to give him a loan, and plans for Left Feet’s opening began.
For concerned consumers like Toronto’s Katie Mayerson, it’s a step in the right direction. Mayerson recently travelled to MooShoes in New York City to pick up a pair of 14-hole steel-toed boots. “The allure [of the store] was similar to that of a vegetarian restaurant—I knew I could wear anything I found,” she says. MooShoes opened in 2001 in a former butcher shop. It does a bustling online business with Canadians, sending between five and 10 packages across the border every week, which is no surprise to Fish.
“People ask questions. They want to know where things are made, how and why,” he says. Left Feet’s prices range from $100 to $200, on par with leather shoes of similar styles and quality. The store will also carry leather-free bags, wallets and belts. “This will be kind of like home base for all things that aren’t leather,” says Fish. Finally, serious fashion options for serious vegetarians.
