BIFL chelsea (or similar) boots, but ethical (recycled or plant based leather)

Submitted by audreylongwood t3_y1rknt in BuyItForLife

Hi!

I'm looking for a simple pair of boots. Probably chelsea boots, although other I'm open to other styles too.

I'm trying to choose the most earth and animal friendly option, yet all BIFL boots I've looked into (RM Williams, Canada West, Redbacks, Solovair) are made from non-recycled leather, from what I've seen. Does anyone have recommendations for super well made boots, with goodyear welted soles, that use recycled leather, plant-based leather, or potentially even pleather from recycled plastic?

(Note: I've looked for some second-hand options from these brands but just can't find anything on Ebay that's my size. Mostly men's boots show up, and it's rare for a guy to have feet my size)

Thank you! 🐮🌎❤️

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mikeTastic23 t1_irz2xbs wrote

I’ll start with saying boots/footwear aren’t considered bifl to begin with. That being said, steer clear from anything vegan leather. They will wear down faster than the soles and will not be repairable/resoleable, which defeats the purpose of looking for non leather welted footwear.

Aside from buying second hand, I doubt any companies are using recycled leather. I’ve only heard of one instance thus far that has used hides from naturally deceased bears found in the forests of Japan from John Lofgren. And those were sold in tiny quantities and are doubtful to show up again.

If you’re looking for the least environmentally impactful leather, go for a veg-tanned leather. They’re still made from cow or horsehide, but will decompose a hell of a lot faster than anything chrome-tanned. Even better, look for brands that are small, independently owned, and great only a small number of boots a year. That way you’re not contributing to any waste that the big companies produce for unsold products.

Check out r/goodyearwelt for brands. Cheers.

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External_Lecture_139 t1_irzc366 wrote

If your vegan and that’s your hang up I respect that, but there’s sustainability in using byproducts such as leather. The beef industry as problematic as it is isn’t going anywhere soon, and cowhide is a byproduct. Is it not more ethical to use the entire animal if it is harvested?

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Geistbar t1_is3j05m wrote

> Is it not more ethical to use the entire animal if it is harvested?

It's a tricky question and it comes down to how you evaluate things. For me as a vegetarian, the answer is no. If you find the answer is yes, I'm not gonna stop you.

I am not interested in judging people for their own choices on meat/leather/whatever. Just explaining my own reasoning here.

If there's economic benefit to selling leather from slaughtered animals, that acts to effectively subsidize the act of killing the animals. Or put in other terms, it increases the economic reward for killing a cow or other animal. I don't know what a business expects to get out of it, so I'm just going to toss out an arbitrary number: if all the meat of a cow got the farmer $100, and you add in $10 of leather, that's that much more headroom they have to lower the price of meat to increase demand and then backfill it by getting more cows to end up with even more profit. Alternatively they can just pocket the profit from the leather and keep volume and pricing the same.

Buying leather makes it more profitable to kill the animals the leather came from; making it more profitable to kill animals means more of them will be killed.

When I buy anything now I make a clear point to avoid leather no matter what. I'll pit my sailcloth wallet against any leather wallet people offer for durability!

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Faeglantina t1_iszp12u wrote

To me, the issue I have isn’t with sailcloth. It’s plastic. I’d rather buy a single pair of leather shoes and have them repaired than buy a pair made with (let’s face it) plastic that don’t last as long and don’t repair as well. Other than athletic shoes, I buy all my shoes secondhand. I just bought a pair of Birkenstocks used to send in and have the footbed and soles replaced. The leather upper is still in good condition, but the cork and vibrant are wrecked. It bothers me when sometimes people are so against just the idea of using animal products that they don’t consider the harm plastics do to wildlife. To me, the most ethical item will always be the one that already exists.

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External_Lecture_139 t1_is3jnii wrote

How are your sailcloth shoes holding up?

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Geistbar t1_is3nzu1 wrote

So I give an honest and well intentioned answer to your question with a side remark about a wallet, and you just decide to be a smartass? OK buddy.

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External_Lecture_139 t1_is3tsm2 wrote

Apologies, it’s my nature. I’m not disparaging your choice to be vegetarian or how you spend your money. But from a BIFL standpoint leather has hundreds if not thousands of years of proven durablity in footwear. Your principles are admirable, those cows are going to be harvested regardless

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Geistbar t1_is3u7ni wrote

Gotta be honest, it doesn't feel like much of an apology when you just outright ignore the entire purpose of my comment in replying to a question that you asked.

You can disagree with my thoughts, that's perfectly fine. I don't mind at all if people don't agree with me. But you asked a specific question for diving into the ethics of it, and I gave my answer to it. And your response just completely sidesteps that entirely.

Why did you ask the question if you had no interest in the answer?

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External_Lecture_139 t1_is3vcfo wrote

Agree to disagree I guess. I’m not vegetarian so to me it’s more ethical to use the whole animal. I guess I asked it rhetorically, I started with respecting ops assumed reason assuming we could skip the obvious point a vegetarian/vegan would make for not wanting to wear leather

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intra_venus t1_it4wsyr wrote

This is right on, opting for "vegan leather" over leather isn't any more ethical. It's greenwashed plastic. Better to look for an alternative to leather that is durable.

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javaavril t1_irzdjmu wrote

A. Figure out your size in USA men's, AUS, or euro and set up alerts on second hand sites. Rm Williams goes down to a us women's 4 and will last decades.

B. Vegan leather is petrochemicals, plant based leather is still polymerization of cellulose that won't biodegrade outside of an industrial facility and both are generally faced on a poly/nylon structure. Ew. They're also both bad at being shoes.

C. No one is manufacturing recycled leather Goodyear welt boots at scale. If you want that? Buy bespoke.

If you don't care about any of the above consider anything designed by Stella McCartney. It will be vegan.

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akohhh t1_irz99yj wrote

A well-cared for pair of RMs will last decades (I have a few pairs—the one pair I killed took a decade of tough love as horse riding gear to give out) albeit they’ll need a re-sole every 10 years. From that perspective I feel that buying new is fine and very low impact in the scheme of things.

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Faeglantina t1_irzs2nu wrote

If I were you, I’d get a resoleable pair used and maybe send them in to be refurbished. They can keep the leather uppers and replace what’s actually wrecked. Reused is better than recycled.

Edit: If you’re having trouble finding men’s shoes on eBay, you might look at children’s sizes on eBay or women’s sizes on something like poshmark.

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Parking-Length1356 t1_is0lkl7 wrote

Redwing heritage has some great looking Chelsea’s. It’s not vegan or pleather but I would argue those are less ethical as pleather doesn’t decompose and vegan leather will just wind up in a bin a year or two from now probably. As long as you take care of it and actually use it for the duration of the products life (maybe 10 years or more with a couple resoles) the boots will be very ethical and you can probably estimate out how the carbon footprint of its manufacture will lessen with years to match or be less than the vegan leather.

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hetleventje t1_is03dkb wrote

As you will have gathered, there are no BIFL recycled or plant based leather boots on the market. So if you want something sustainable than buying a second hand pair of a really high quality chelsea boot and cherishing them is the best option. It is unfortunate but at the moment veg leather is absolute garbage, buying disposable shoes made of that stuff is not something a friend of the earth should consider.
Depending on your needs you could consider a canvas + rubber boot.. Palladium has some nice options, not BIFL but they are decent quality for the price and most of their boots are free from animal products.

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Muncie4 t1_is1bp2t wrote

https://www.drmartens.com/us/en/vegan-2976-felix-chelsea-boots/p/21456001 Most would say that zero vegan leather options are hardy but these are as close as to what you want as are in my brain. They can be resoled but finding a source to do so is challenging as the soles are a hybrid goodyear welt. One source:

JD's Shoe Repair

7015 N Greeley Ave, Portland, OR 97217

Phone: (503) 287-7078

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ArtificialCreative t1_isdh4s4 wrote

Maybe wait until they can 3D print cow hide so you can get basically vegan leather made from cultivated animal cells instead of the animal.

~10ish years to consumer market.

Thin leather is doable with current tech, but works needs to be done for it to make it more durable I believe

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Shuttlebug2 t1_irz9m5t wrote

I'm really happy with my Duckfeet Roskildes. They're not recycled leather, but I feel like they will last a long time. They have crepe rubber soles, and are resoleable.

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edhitchon1993 t1_is01jcl wrote

Here I go again, the mad clog guy! Walkley Clogs (W. Yorkshire, UK) hand make BIFL footwear with a wooden sole, mine are new (veg tanned) leather as I made the judgement call that it was preferable to buy something leather that would last 20 years, than petrochemical based which might last 5. After 3 and a half years of daily use still look basically new. If you want to further reduce plastics you could also opt for clog irons, but these are -5 grip, -20 stealth!

They do now do vegan leather (I've not seen / touched / handled it so won't comment on the quality or suitability) - although their website doesn't list it as an option for boots they might if you drop them an email or facebook message, and they also resole ex-army boots (UK size 6 and up) onto a clog sole, and have in the past resoled customer provided boots too.

Vegan leathers I've seen don't wear as well as real leathers yet, from the docs I've seen they are really susceptible to pinch failures where the sole bends (new leather docs also suffer this) - obviously the advantage a clog sole has is that there is no flex at all which removes this failure mode entirely.

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