Vegan Pumas
May 24, 2007 by Greg
I love Puma. Almost as much as I love Onitsuka Tiger. Actually I had a dream about Onitsukas last night, but my dreams are none of your business. When searching for vegan shoes, there are two options. Hit the stores and trust that they have merchandised their products correctly, or hit the manufacturer and ask questions. I do a little of both.
If there is a brand I like and I know they are making vegan products, I’ll send them an email to see what products meet my lifestyle. A few weeks ago I asked puma what they had for me. The lovely Tiffany, who I imagine to be a petite girl with fine burnt auburn hair wearing jeans and hoodies everday, responded this morning.
She informs the following Puma models are made from synthetic materials.
- Taper
- Red Planet Trail
- RPT II
- Mostro Ripstop
- Mostro Mesh
- K-1
- All of the Complete Running Shoes (ex: Complete Trailfox, Complete Taranis, etc.)
- Bashy
- Ballistic
- Alpine Trail Racer
- ILO
- 3000M
- El Rey
She also issued the following caveat:
Please note that any footwear that indicates “L” in its style name is made with leather.
I think it’s time for some new sneakers… Thanks Puma!
as karmatic balance i shall proceed to strap large slabs of beef to my feet.
Although I have no personal need for Vegan shoes, it’s cool to see such a mainstream brand as Puma recognizing the importance of them to some people. Rawk on Puma.
Good job Goat, you and I both should vow to sponsor a vegetarian. (aka eat twice the meat we usually would to make up for their dreadful lack of effort. -nod Maddox)
While I recognize the impact that eating animal products has on, say, the environment, I’m not sure that I understand why it’s necessary to avoid all animal product use in goods that may not quite be ‘durable’ but whose lifespan lasts magnitudes longer than a single meal. Especially given what plastic appears to be doing:
http://www.bestlifeonline.com/cms/publish/health-fitness/Our_oceans_are_turning_into_plastic_are_we_2.shtml
The plastic issue aside, can you help explain that?
More Vegan-friendly shoes. (my favorites)
http://montrail.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/montrail.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=309&p_created=1167779106&p_sid=IzD6ZsCi&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD0xOSZwX3Byb2RzPSZwX2NhdHM9JnBfcHY9JnBfY3Y9JnBfcGFnZT0x&p_li=&p_topview=1
And remember that meat is murder… tasty tasty murrrrder! MMMMmmmmmmm……
Nate,
It’s definitely a debatable topic. My vegetarianism spans most reasons including health, global, and ethical. It is congruent with the ethical reasons for me not to wear leather.
Speaking just to the global/environmental reasoning, I personally view animal materials as after-meat materials. I don’t think people would raise animals (the primary environmental issue) just to use their skins, but I don’t know that for sure. Alternatively, there are many renewable materials (eg hemp, canvas, etc) that vegan shoes can be made from aside from plastics.
Cash and Goat,
When the apocalypse comes I’m eating the carnivores first.
P.S. The maddox program involves eating 3 times as much meat: http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=sponsor
Ben,
Nice link. This stinky hippy girl that Cash and I went to Bjork with was talking about the montrails. I had forgotten the name. Thanks!
[...] Vegan Pumas at Urban Monarch Those are some nice looking Pumas. (tags: vegan shoes sneakers) [...]
Thanks for the information; it’s always a hassle to find shoes that meet style and ethical function. I don’t know why more companies, such as Puma, don’t have a spot on their website or somewhere that makes this type of information available; it sucks you have to seek it out proactively. It’d be great to see companies like Puma, New Balance, Nike, Adidas et al embrace this segment of the populatioin by making “normal” shoes that cater to animal-ethical customers. Too often, the shoes marketed to vegetarians look so hippy that they don’t work in a “everyday” lifestyle. I’m not a hippy, but I don’t wear leather, give me some good style! I don’t want to let me shoes to peg me…I want my actions to do that.
Oh, and those montrails look like Dad-type shoes…that’s the other thing. No style.