About Us
At Get it Vegan, our journey mirrors my personal shift to veganism in 2015. Discovering animal-derived ingredients hidden in unexpected places, like shoe glues and dyes, prompted me to establish a reliable resource for fellow ethical consumers. Our mission, since then, is to offer a seamless way to find an array of truly vegan shoes through our store, blog, and brand profiles, ensuring clarity and confidence in every purchase.
Our Story
“Animal glues in shoes – the modified milk ingredients of the clothing world”
The story of Get it Vegan really is an extension of my own story of becoming vegan. When I went vegan in 2015 for animal welfare-related reasons, I fell down the rabbit hole of finding out, one by one, which animal-derived ingredients were sneaking into the foods I used to eat.
Then, I found out such ingredients (collagen, for example) can even find their way into the glues and dyes used in making shoes. Not long after that, I needed to buy some new dress shoes
Now, if you’ve ever tried to get a definitive answer when asking a sales associate at Nordstroms, The Bay, or almost any other shoe store, if a particular shoe has animal-derived ingredients in the glues… then you feel my pain.
You probably also know how frustrating it can be to check off the little ‘vegan’ box in a brand’s online shoe shopping filter, only to have some of the results be for shoes made from ‘calf skin leather.’ Kind of blows the whole trust thing up.
Turns out that most of the time, they make the vegans dig a little deeper – read “About Us” pages, email support associates, check with certifying bodies, and so on.
Politely annoyed but determined, I knew there had to be a way to find this information quickly and reliably… but for every shoe brand.
Well, there wasn’t. So I hired a web designer.
Our Mission
- Since 2015, we’ve been working to create a place where you can find any type of shoe, and have the confidence that it’s fully vegan.
- Our store, blog posts, and brand profiles are designed to make finding these items as easy as possible.
- We’ll use the information we have to transparently tell you if a company’s shoes are:
- Fully vegan (active/current certification)
- Likely fully vegan (no currently certified, but assures us their shoes are vegan)
- Possibly vegan (can’t tell us with certainty)
- Hazy (messing is inconsistent and not trustworthy)
Our Method
1. We start a list
We add to our growing list of shoe companies by finding them on various fashion-related websites and blogs, seeing them on social, and having them suggested to us.
2. We get digging
We research their public facing materials, start building a profile of them, and contact them when things are unclear.
3. We persist
When we don’t get clear or helpful answers from brand reps, or we find inconsistencies in their public facing information and what the brand reps tell us, we’ll escalate our questions up the brand’s chain.
4. We cross-reference
When there is inconsistency between a brand’s claims and the database of a certifying organization, we’ll verify those claims with that organization. In many cases this has resulted in an invalid “PETA-Approved Vegan” logo being removed from a website, or an update to PETA’s database (link) (permission for this received).
5. We reject
Some companies are hazy about their vegan status, don’t get back to us, or are just plain unaware of what’s used to make their shoes.
6. We organize
If it isn’t clearly stated on a brand’s website how to find their vegan options, we’ll ask them - explaining why we’re doing it.
7. We share
We put the information we get into the website by way of brand profile write-ups, blog posts, and by adding products to our store. Oh yeah, and we share it on social media. (link to all of these when there are things to share)
8. We update
We have a massive database of over 600 footwear companies, with notes on their labour practices, materials used, retail availability, style varieties, and environmental impact, among other data. To the best of our abilities, we update that list as often as we can, with new entries, and new information on old ones.
9. We make a difference
Our questions about vegan options often get passed on to a brand’s design team. Fewer animal materials and more innovation in animal-free footwear materials is a win in our book. Just look at what leather shoes maker Carolina says, “Thank you for reaching out to us with your inquiry. Currently we do not offer a Vegan friendly style. We have forwarded your inquiry along to production for review. We appreciate you taking the time to contact us.”
Our Flaws
- Company reps aren’t perfect, sometimes they’re working with outdated information, sometimes they’re so far down the chain they have no clue, sometimes they might be just telling you what you want to hear to make a sale… or to make you go away (we’ve all had bad days). Sometimes, they don’t respond to you at all, even after numerous follow-ups (hello, DeWalt)!
- But at the end of the day, even hard-to-achieve certifications can be flawed. And hey, we’re capable of the odd mistake too. Catch something, let us know (link to contact).
- Certifications can expire, or somewhere in the certification process a mistake can be made, or a lie can be told.
- Since we’re not a certifying body we can only ask what we can ask, and read what we can read, and hope that brands and their representatives are telling the truth… or are simply correct.
Our Hopes
- We want to be rendered obsolete – we want companies to stop using animal-derived materials and ingredients in their shoes.
- Until then, our hope is that more and more brands become transparent about the materials and ingredients used in their shoes. Some are already doing a great job of it, we just want more to follow suit.
- The best way for either of these things to happen, is to email these companies, call them, or message them on social, and let them know that’s what you want. Believe it or not, companies and their designers will listen to customer feedback, and respond to enough demand).
Our “Vegan Shoes Cheat Sheet”
We have a database of over 600 footwear companies, showing which are fully vegan, which are kind of vegan, and which to avoid.
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