primitives discuss vegetarian hiking boots

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=231x20291

Oh my.

And we're down to the last few hours of the fund-raiser for Skins's island, and there's s-o-o-o-o many primitives who haven't donated yet.

YankeyMCC  (1000+ posts)      Sat Jan-09-10 08:23 PM
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Original message

Hiking Boots

Hello, looking for some clothing advice.

I am not vegan, I do follow a vegetarian diet and often eat vegan meals. I am an avid hiker and in fact when I my pre-packaged, just add water, food for backpack trips I usually get the vegan versions of the meals

(http://www.backcountryfood.com/shop/default.asp - they have a really excellent chili).

Anyway the point is the boots I purchased several years ago before I started following a vegetarian diet and making more mindful, less harmful choices in all the things I purchase are due for replacement.

So I'm looking for advice for finding good quality hiking boots that met general vegan standards if such a product exists. Hopefully there's some other vegan hikers here.

yewberry  (1000+ posts)      Sat Jan-09-10 09:02 PM
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Response to Original message
 
1. I've had good luck with Garmont.

http://www.garmontusa.com/881052212.html

catgirl  (1000+ posts)      Mon Jan-11-10 05:17 PM
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Response to Original message
 
2. Buy used

I bought a pair of vegan Garmont hiking boots several years ago. Unfortunately, I realized after-the-fact, that they won't biodegrade for thousands of years. Being a lover of the Earth, I feel bad about this.

A friend I met that year gave me a good idea. She buys used leather boots at consignment stores. Since then, I have accepted leather shoes from friends who were going to throw them away (they were perfectly fine shoes).

I realize the hiking boots I bought will probably still be wearable long after I am gone-
they are very durable, but I don't recommend buying them unless the material used has become eco-friendly.

LeftyMom  (1000+ posts)        Mon Jan-11-10 10:22 PM
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Response to Reply #2
 
3. This promotes the idea that animal products are ours to use. 

It also confuses the hell out of omnis who see professed vegans using non-vegan things, and makes life more difficult for vegans who do not, and causes them to see them as being needlessly picky instead of just being, well, vegans.

Anyhow, many vegan shoe (accessory, etc) companies are making a point to work in more ecological materials. And leather is an ecological disaster- the chemicals used to process it are quite nasty, for one thing.

Chan790  (1000+ posts)        Sat Jan-16-10 04:21 PM
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Response to Reply #3
 
4. Absolutely on all of the above.

Leather production is ounce-for-ounce one of the dirtiest things mankind does...an entire process of one caustic agent after another after another. A corporation today proposing any new manufacturing process as polluting and filthy as leather-making would receive a warning letter from the EPA if not be barred from working altogether.

It's tradition and basically being grandfathered past environmental standards that keeps leather off the trash-heap of history.

One point that you did not mention is that supporting animal-friendly industries with our purchases both encourages mainstream manufacturers to roll out more animal-friendly products and makes continued existence viable for manufacturers and retailers of animal-friendly products.

While I certainly could go out and buy second-hand leather goods, doing so would likely put both the place I frequently buy shoes, boots and accessories (MooShoes in NYC) and the place I buy foodstuffs and occasionally clothing (Pangea here in MD) out of business.

catgirl  (1000+ posts)      Wed Jan-27-10 06:09 PM
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Response to Reply #4
 
5. For all it's worth I got my hiking non-earth friendly boots at Moo Shoes.

I don't buy any leather products. I have a pair of boots that look like leather and I tell people they aren't leather. Anyway, I'd rather grab a pair of shoes heading for a landfill and either wear them, or pass them on (the latter is usually the case).

catgirl  (1000+ posts)      Wed Jan-27-10 06:11 PM
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Response to Reply #3
 
6. No it doesn't promote such an idea
 
You're missing the point.

nankerphelge  (965 posts)       Sat Feb-13-10 12:07 PM
Response to Original message
 
7. We bought boots from...

La Sportiva that were all non-leather. They are mountain climbing boots though and I'm not sure that all of their boots qualify. We've gotten some cheap ones from Target just recently. A few years ago, there was an issue of Backpacker magazine that ranked a number of hiking boots and it listed the materials they were made out of... I know I still have it somewhere.

[ChuckJ]

LeftyMom  (1000+ posts)        Mon Jan-11-10 10:22 PM
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Response to Reply #2
 
3. This promotes the idea that animal products are ours to use.

Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Don't get me wrong. I love cows. I just love them off the grill and next to mashed potatoes.

[Randy]

Here ya go DUmmie, eco friendly, recycled, greenie shoes....















morons

[The Village Idiot]

Liberals should wear sandals. Even hiking sandals.

[Chris]

I have a set of those.  They're great for bank fishing.

[thundley4]

Liberals should wear sandals. Even hiking sandals.

I notice they are Velcro. That's good, the DUmmies don't have to have someone help them put their shoes on.  Well, at least past the point of marking them left and right.

[The Village Idiot]

I have a set of those.  They're great for bank fishing.

I didn't mean to insult sandal wearers or anything

[Chris]

I didn't mean to insult sandal wearers or anything

A decent pair of sandals are comfortable during the summer as long as you don't have a mosquito problem in your area.  Nothing worse than a swarm of 'skeeters on the tops of your feet.

[debk]

I wear leather shoes.

I like leather shoes.

Some I even love.

You don't like it....tough noogies.   

[JohnnyReb]

DUmmie is going to order vagan hiking boots and get 48" rawhide laces to tie 'em up.

[debk]

DUmmie is going to order vagan hiking boots and get 48" rawhide laces to tie 'em up.

You're assuming they know what rawhide is....

[BlueStateSaint]

You're assuming they know what rawhide is....

They probably do.  S&M, ya know . . .

[debk]

They probably do.  S&M, ya know . . .

 

[VelvetElvis]

Y'all aren't approaching this subject with the proper respect for the DUmmy YankeeMCC's dilemma.

If he is to truly practice the vegan lifestyle, then vegan hiking boots will be an indispensable item in his wardrobe. 

When you're a DUmmy, the overwhelming preponderance of one's time will be spent with one or both feet firmly ensconced in one's mouth, after all.

[GOBUCKS]

Let me get this straight. These "vegan" lunatics won't eat a T-bone, but they do eat hiking boots?

I guess I've had a sheltered existence. I've never even met a "vegan". I did have a friend who was a vegetarian, but he was an Indian (a real one, not a woo-woo), and the vegetarianism was because of some heathen "religion" he was in. I've been around other vegetarians over the years, but never really knew them. They always seemed a little weird.

[delilahmused]

Chan790  (1000+ posts)        Sat Jan-16-10 04:21 PM
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Response to Reply #3
 
4. Absolutely on all of the above.

Leather production is ounce-for-ounce one of the dirtiest things mankind does...an entire process of one caustic agent after another after another. A corporation today proposing any new manufacturing process as polluting and filthy as leather-making would receive a warning letter from the EPA if not be barred from working altogether.

It's tradition and basically being grandfathered past environmental standards that keeps leather off the trash-heap of history.

One point that you did not mention is that supporting animal-friendly industries with our purchases both encourages mainstream manufacturers to roll out more animal-friendly products and makes continued existence viable for manufacturers and retailers of animal-friendly products.

While I certainly could go out and buy second-hand leather goods, doing so would likely put both the place I frequently buy shoes, boots and accessories (MooShoes in NYC) and the place I buy foodstuffs and occasionally clothing (Pangea here in MD) out of business.

What a pathetic business it must be if the loss of a DUmmie customer would put it out of business. Most of these vegan products are horrendously overpriced anyway.

Cindie

[BlueStateSaint]

Cindie, the DUmb****'s post can be summarized thusly:

Me!  Me!  ME!  It'a all about ME!  And what I want!  Me!  Me!  Me!  ME!

[longview]

I dunno.

I've been worried about brother bear and mother cougar eating synthetic garbage if they decide a vegan would have to make do as lunch when these yo-yos are out tramping through their territory.

Gosh, don't these people care?

[formerlurker]

There are some folks who are vegan due to food sensitivities, and others who just want to eat a healthier lifestyle.   Not all vegans are nutjobs.   

Wholefoods has some awesome vegan food selections.    That said, the whole "I will only wear leather when my pals are sending them to the landfill" is truly amusing.   Yes, dahrlings -- my friends were sending these blahniks to the landfill just the other day... what's a ooh-that-looks-yummy-I-will-try-that-vegan-dish environmental nazi to do?  I had to claim them..



It's for mother earth afterall.   

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

I support vegetarian hiking boots.

In fact, all my footgear is made from 100% vegetarian hide.

Chan790  (1000+ posts)        Sat Jan-16-10 04:21 PM
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Response to Reply #3
 
4. Absolutely on all of the above.

Leather production is ounce-for-ounce one of the dirtiest things mankind does...

Native American BASTARDS!!! 

[JohnnyReb]

Back in the 50's all us kids at grammar school wore vagan shoes.....it was called "going barefoot".

[happy1ga]

This has inspired me. I feel a good, (leather, baby!), shoe shopping spree is in order. To balance out the DUmmies, of course.



No, this has absolutely nothing to do with my love of expensive leather shoes, I swear.

[GOBUCKS]

Most of these vegan products are horrendously overpriced anyway.

If your target customers are pinheads, why not? It's why blemished, bug-eaten produce can be labelled "organic" and then priced at double what smarter people pay for higher quality.

[IassaFTots]

What is so totally stupid is that these people worrying about the environment are all wrong.  I wore a leather coat today that I have owned for 20 years.  Every year I recondition it, and it is in perfect shape, with the exception of a button that I haven't replaced in the last 8 years or so.  Because this coat was made with quality material, and good craftsmanship, I have not had to purchase a replacement coat of any type of material. 

And that means that my coat has already more than a bazillion times earned it's carbon credits....if there were really such a thing. 

So there. 

[debk]

This has inspired me. I feel a good, (leather, baby!), shoe shopping spree is in order. To balance out the DUmmies, of course.



No, this has absolutely nothing to do with my love of expensive leather shoes, I swear.