The shoe industry has been bogged down with bad karma thanks to all its toxic tanning, dyeing and glueing in troubled overseas factories. Whether you wear leftovers from the meat industry (aka leather) or vegan plastics, neither option is beyond reproach. Which footwear is a step ahead?
ALDO/SPRING
This Montreal-born shoe empire has the footwear market pretty much cornered, with brands that include Aldo, Little Burgundy, Globo and Call It Spring in more than 55 countries, not to mention private-label manufacturing gigs for nearly every major department store. Sure, its website talks up how its Quebec offices are lovely green places to work, but there’s zero on detoxing supply factory practices or worker rights protection overseas. (Aldo/Spring gets 60 per cent of its shoes from China.) Spring stores have lots of shoddy plastic shoes that happen to be vegan, but you can smell the air-polluting volatile organic compounds -coming off them.
SCORE: N
TIMBERLAND EARTHKEEPER
Timberland’s stylishly rugged Earthkeeper collection is definitely miles ahead of most made-in-China brands. In the early 2000s, one of its factories there was caught using child labour, but it has since been heralded as a front-runner in producing socially responsible shoes. The company also gets top scores from green-rankers for cutting its carbon footprint and boosting its recycled content to 97.9 per cent (though whether you should count leather from slaughterhouses as “-recycled” is definitely -debatable). A typical Earthkeeper shoe is made with recycled-bottle lining and partly recycled outer sole. The leather is silver-rated for sustainability by the Leather Working Group and doesn’t come from -animals raised in newly clear-cut endangered -forests.
SCORE: NNN
EL NATURALISTA
From clunky and funky to wedged and sexy, this Spanish company does it all with semi-vegetable-dyed leather, often with recycled or natural rubber and recycled cork soles as well as water-based glues. This well-construct-ed footwear is all fairly made at three unionized factories in Spain and Morocco, meeting tough EU and OEKO-Tex chemical standards. Vegans looking for sweatshop-free quality Euro-made shoes should check out Novocas, Good Guys and Vegetarian Shoes at -niceshoes.ca. They’re all unfortunately plastic-based, but at least they’re sweatshop-free and meet EU enviro -standards.
SCORE: NNNN
LA CANADIENNE/KAMIK
The last of a dying breed – made-in-Canada footwear! Snow-shovelling vegans will love Kamik (pictured) for offering up some leather-free -32°C-rated boots with replaceable, recycled-water-bottle liners (all mostly made in Quebec, though 30 per cent of boots are now made in China). Yes, their vegan boots use fossil-fuel-derived materials, but unlike pleather, the durable waterproof synthetic rubber/nylon will keep you warm and dry. If they die, you can mail them back to the company for recycling. La Ca-nadienne’s mostly Montreal-built boots (a few are crafted in Italy) are definitely chicer and pricier ($300 to, gulp, $700 a pair). All are sweatshop-free and use “eco-friendly dyes” and water-based glues on italian leather, but there’s no real recycled content or vegan options.
SCORE: NNNN
OLIBERTÉ/SOLE REBELS
These companies may not be local, but they are two of the only certified fair trade shoemakers on the planet. Both lines are made in Ethiopia with leather from free-range animals raised on tradi-tional farms. (Leather in most shoes is largely a by-products of factory farming.) Sole Rebels has a tiny boot collection, but we love its quirky fringed Shake It boots for women and unisex vegan Riff high-tops. All are made with recycled tire soles -(solerebels.com). Oliberté (pictured) has a bigger boot selection for men and women, made with recycled or natural rubber soles (oliberte.com). Bonus: the brand is easier to find in retail shops, and these boots are water-resistant. Neither line is intended for blizzards, but they’ll warm your conscience.
SCORE: NNNN
