Best vegan men's dress shoes
January 11, 2014 5:33 PM Subscribe
My husband likes fine dress shoes such as Allen Edmond's or Johnston & Murphy with leather soles. Is there a vegan alternative to this quality of shoe? Supposedly these brands only get better over time. He glanced at moo shoes and wasn't too impressed but he admits he needs to feel the shoe to be able to tell the quality. So who makes the best vegan men's shoes? Google searching provides info on who makes vegan dress shoes as well as a few websites but we are looking for more detail.
The Doc Martens "vegan version" is just as high-quality as the regular, though some people don't see them as dress shoes.
posted by blnkfrnk at 8:09 PM on January 11, 2014
posted by blnkfrnk at 8:09 PM on January 11, 2014
Good Guys, a French brand, has some amazing quality vegan shoes, but I don't know if they have any men's shoes that meet she "dressy" requirement (at least not available now). Another brand is Bourgeois Boheme but there is nothing on there website at the moment (but I assume you could contact them directly). Brave Gentleman is an online store which has a selection of men's shoes from a number of different brands, and I believe all of them are vegan. Nicora Johns has a selection of shoes, but they are very unisex, not necessarily a bad thing, but they currently don't make any shoes just for men. I hope your husband finds something he likes!
posted by eldvno at 8:19 PM on January 11, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by eldvno at 8:19 PM on January 11, 2014 [2 favorites]
nicorajohns.com! incredible value for custom work. every pair comes with a picture of the american who was paid fairly to make them for you.
posted by lesalvo at 11:51 PM on January 11, 2014
posted by lesalvo at 11:51 PM on January 11, 2014
My everyday shoes are the low-rise vegan doc martens. They're pretty good quality once you break them in. The main downside is that there's not a lot of tread and they get worn down pretty quickly (about a year).
The best vegan men's dress shoes I've seen are novacas (whose site seems to be down at the moment). They look the most like traditional men's shoes and seem to have better quality than e.g. the vegetarian shoes variants. The oddity with the novacas I have are that they have really soft soles, which means that gravel will get stuck in the bottom quite easily, which can be annoying. I don't use them as everyday shoes. They're also very expensive.
Previously, I've worn vegetarian shoes' dress shoes but they use some kind of cloth-backed leather substitute which can crack or fray. I had the office shoes and my partner had the brogues. I've also gotten quite a few casual shoe duds from vegetarian shoes. Basically they're pretty hit-and-miss. I currently have a pair of their desert boots, but these also have some weirdness with the fit-material combination.
Being vegan and buying shoes is shit, but it's a lot better than even 10 years ago.
posted by beerbajay at 8:34 AM on January 12, 2014
The best vegan men's dress shoes I've seen are novacas (whose site seems to be down at the moment). They look the most like traditional men's shoes and seem to have better quality than e.g. the vegetarian shoes variants. The oddity with the novacas I have are that they have really soft soles, which means that gravel will get stuck in the bottom quite easily, which can be annoying. I don't use them as everyday shoes. They're also very expensive.
Previously, I've worn vegetarian shoes' dress shoes but they use some kind of cloth-backed leather substitute which can crack or fray. I had the office shoes and my partner had the brogues. I've also gotten quite a few casual shoe duds from vegetarian shoes. Basically they're pretty hit-and-miss. I currently have a pair of their desert boots, but these also have some weirdness with the fit-material combination.
Being vegan and buying shoes is shit, but it's a lot better than even 10 years ago.
posted by beerbajay at 8:34 AM on January 12, 2014
Is there a vegan alternative to this quality of shoe?
The truth is that for someone who seems to care a lot about the quality of his shoe (as your husband appears to do), you're simply not going to find a vegan shoe of the quality of, for example, Allen Edmonds. It may be that wearing a vegan shoe is important enough to offset that, but since you asked... no, there isn't really a vegan alternative.
posted by Justinian at 12:07 PM on January 12, 2014 [1 favorite]
The truth is that for someone who seems to care a lot about the quality of his shoe (as your husband appears to do), you're simply not going to find a vegan shoe of the quality of, for example, Allen Edmonds. It may be that wearing a vegan shoe is important enough to offset that, but since you asked... no, there isn't really a vegan alternative.
posted by Justinian at 12:07 PM on January 12, 2014 [1 favorite]
The vegan tag on the blog for menswear show Put This On may help point you in the right direction.
posted by joshuaconner at 2:24 PM on January 12, 2014
posted by joshuaconner at 2:24 PM on January 12, 2014
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posted by brevator at 6:59 PM on January 11, 2014