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Leather alternatives cut animal suffering and land waste, so please email me if you spot a dud link or a UK firm to include. If you're looking for a fact sheet outside of the UK, try these: Vegetarian Resource Group (Brad Pitt); A shoppers' guide to leather alternatives (Keevican & Arnold) Leather alternatives frequently asked questions (Tom Swiss); Vegan Corner(US), Hong Kong, Indonesia, Anti-vivisection (Germany) and Vegan in Germany .The Vegetarian Society sometimes does a list which they'll post out as well as publish on the internet. . .
Coated fabrics come in two sorts - the ones that look like part of an anourak and the ones that look like a plastic table cloth, or Leathercloth, below. The anourak sort can be used in two ways: as an anourak material, or as a waterproof membrane sandwiched between coat and lining. This last technique is often used in leather sports shoes under licence from the fabric company. The deal is that the shoe factory isn't allowed to squirt glue all over the membrane, as they are prone to do, and in exchange they get to use the supplier's label - Aquatex, Hydrotex, Stormbloc, Gore-tex. These shoes sell at a premium, and are more-or-less waterproof, easily outclassing leather.
One cheap variation is to use the coated fabric to make the boot - funny elfin ones for women made out of Aquatex. This is licenced to one factory in each market - Rhode in Germany, Lambert Howarth in the UK and a cheap one called Mephisto in Spain and Italy. The boots are flexible and my mum says you can ride a bike in them quite well.
Fake fur can become a dilemma if you take yourself seriously: realistic fur is sets a bad example. But it is good that it might take-over some of the fur market. Retail habberdashery shops might be able to get it; Wholesale: some of these firms may do a single roll of 50 or 100m or recommend a wholesaler who does; others might assume you want a fabric designed to order and think in terms of a thousand meters. Factories are short of time or money, so ask for their fax number if you call and fax through a request for what you want. It isn't strictly a shoe material but I didn't want to waste the list.
Glues: "it has become common practice to use synthetic adhesives", according to the Animal-Free Shopper, but you'd be hard pressed to make any glue firm say what's in their product. I am told that organic glues have not been used in european shoes for a long time.
Latex is rubber tree sap, or a synthetic version. It is white and congeals into pale brown translucent rubber. UK readers will know it as Copydex, the glue you should never spill on the carpet. If you sponge layers of latex onto a piece of cloth, it becomes rubberised, turning old clothes into fetish gear for a very reasonable price. It is hard to do neatly, but there are a few factories doing just that to make those red rubber working gloves and, traditionally, condoms. I don't know if copydex sell big amounts but www.hobbicraft.demon.co.uk sold me a litre and a David Cook e-mailed to recommend Alec Tiranti on this list of synthetic wolf fur suppliers, for 5 or 25 litre orders: www.konig.demon.co.uk/fur/fursuit/suppliers
Leather deserves a mention for comparison, and I quote the Doctor Martens website for an explanation:
Leather is preserved animal skin and throughout the ages, man has protected his feet by wearing it. Leather is still used in the manufacture of footwear today because of its sheer versatility and durability. Although modern technology has created a variety of alternatives, we at Dr Martens still consider our finest, naturally finished leather to be the most practical and versatile material available. Despite popular belief no animals are slaughtered in this country for their leather. All of the leather used is produced as a by-product of the meat industry. Once the animal is skinned the hair is removed and the leather is passed through a pickling process known as tanning. After completion, the leather is split into two parts. The top part is known as full grain leather and can be finished in a variety of ways. The bottom part is known as suede, which, although considered to be a quality leather is actually a by-product of full grain leather and would otherwise be discarded. Leather is used in footwear for the following reasons: It is elastic. This allows leather shoes to "give", therefore conforming to the shape of the foot and ensuring a comfortable fit. It is incredibly strong due to its fibrous structure. It will bend and stretch many millions of times. It allows the foot to "breathe" ensuring that the foot remains moisture free. The average human foot produces about an egg-cup full of sweat each day and it is vitally important that this moisture is allowed to evaporate in order to maintain the health of the foot.
Leather is preserved animal skin and throughout the ages, man has protected his feet by wearing it. Leather is still used in the manufacture of footwear today because of its sheer versatility and durability. Although modern technology has created a variety of alternatives, we at Dr Martens still consider our finest, naturally finished leather to be the most practical and versatile material available.
Despite popular belief no animals are slaughtered in this country for their leather. All of the leather used is produced as a by-product of the meat industry.
Once the animal is skinned the hair is removed and the leather is passed through a pickling process known as tanning. After completion, the leather is split into two parts. The top part is known as full grain leather and can be finished in a variety of ways. The bottom part is known as suede, which, although considered to be a quality leather is actually a by-product of full grain leather and would otherwise be discarded.
Leather is used in footwear for the following reasons: It is elastic. This allows leather shoes to "give", therefore conforming to the shape of the foot and ensuring a comfortable fit. It is incredibly strong due to its fibrous structure. It will bend and stretch many millions of times. It allows the foot to "breathe" ensuring that the foot remains moisture free. The average human foot produces about an egg-cup full of sweat each day and it is vitally important that this moisture is allowed to evaporate in order to maintain the health of the foot.
DMs import over half their leather uppers from Thailand, where animal and human welfare laws aren't enforced, and sell them because of a tradition which is probably stronger among consumers than producers. DM are the only major brand to produce a version for the vegan market, but as long as consumers are daft and irresponsible, producers will be too. Perhaps because DMs produce vegan boots, they have come-up with one of those strange arguments that people produce if they are drunk and defending themselves at a party: "no animals are slaughtered in this country for their leather". Clearly, animals are still slauhgtered in this county although the industry is in decline after BSE. And the slaughter industry is very good at getting any value it can out of any part of the carcas - from whey powder to hoof glue. The idea that a farmer would think "I'll cut back on animal-rearing next year because more money is coming from leather and less from meat" is clearly bollox. That's why cows have to be bled to death before they die - so that the meat industry can get their cut as well as the leather undustry.
Leather-like paper is sold by Winter and Co of Huntingdon for bookbinding under Skivertex brand, with a wide range of colours and patterns.
Leathercloth is an old fashioned word for coated fabric of the gloss sort, which is sometimes a competitor for leather. Breathable versions have existed for several decades, since somebody thought of putting salt into the PVC mix to leave little holes in it when it dried. Similar material is used in the printing industry and for rubber stamp pads, so there has been gradual technical development - now more developed in Italy and the far east than locally. The collapse in UK manufacturing caused by current monetary policy has been so severe that even the importers have ceased trading, but there may be at least one UK factory that still makes the stuff and research continues. If you have any clues, please let me know.
Lorica is the coated fabric that a shoe factory would use in the UK, as it is robust enough, breathable, and the importer will sell by the meter. It is a combination of a 1980s techonology with a 1950s one: on the top is plastic with little holes in it. Polyurethane, apparently. Underneath is a spongey network of very fine fibres, which both mimic the composition of leather and provide a high surface-area - to - volume ratio, and so a good amount of capillary action to soak sweat through the sponge. Another British rival - Clarino - was sold to a Japanese company that ended production after a factory accident in January 2000. This was a more carboardy but durable one, and included white trainer material in the range. Clarino also make one of the imitation suedes, although not waterproof ones. The thicker Clarino was called "Vegetarian Bucky" by the market-leader veggie shoe shop and used by DMs for a while.
Novelty shoes are sometimes cotton or nylon. Any trendy boot shop might stock tartan, velvet or camouflage boots, re-enforced with a thick canvas. This year, gray felt-like material has caught-on for womens sizes, and there seems to be more black nylon around. Woolworth usually have childrens sizes in stock made of canvas. The shoe industry has allways had a variety of cloths that resemble suede, although they are quiet about the origens and trade names of their materials. Suedette is a typical made-up name.
Porvair PLC deserves its own mention as its products don't fit into a catagory. The company produced an early leather alternative 2mm made of porous plastic, to rival DuPont's defunct Corfam material. Porvair is still available for export to India at about seventeen pounds a meter, although boot factories don't like it because it slides around a lot on the mould as you try to sew. More recently they have produced a much finer version to use for covering other materials - cheap leather for footballs unfortunately - and another membrane for Sealskinz socks and gloves. It is among several membranes which can be sewn under the linings of sports shoes to make them watertight.
PVC & rubber boots are uncomfortable for wearing all day, but cheap & pretty ones lurk in the corners of your discount shoe shop - particularly on pavement baskets where they don't mind the rain. Women's court shoes are often made in the UK out of plastic - matt black PVC is known as Lami, or there are PVC shoes distinguishable by their strange mesh lining that's meant to keep your foot away from the material. Common brand names for the same product are Boulevard and Comfort Plus. Other factories use smooth of foam lining, which isn't so good.
PVC for chair covers from India comes from Hallbridge Ltd, of Middlesex - fax/phone 0208 961 1614
Rope or hemp cloth and soles are still used for espadrilles - biodegradable flip-flops from Spain. Rope or hemp canvas used to be a large if declining industry in the UK until the Home Office banned it by mistake in 1971, thinking it had something to do with cannabis, but it is now becoming slightly trendy to import it from East Europe, Nepal and China. Hemp sneakers are available from Veganline, while Hemcore have the only permenant home office licence to farm hemp in the UK, mainly for their horse-bedding product. You will find links to hemp companies at http://www.hemp.co.uk.
Rubber / canvas is hard to track down if you want the serious single color designs, although there is a firm making rubber / canvas jackets on the jackets page of this site. The Four D rubber company sells unique rubber sheeting which, with a glued seem technique, can be made into fetish clothing if you have got the figure for it. Their website links to firms that make the clothes - see the links page. One or two firms make rubberised canvas, which is used by Jahmeds Jacket Shop to make leather-like jackets: see the jackets page.
Synthetic hyde is a sold as a backing material for leatherwear or for shoe componants - it is a tough 3mm thick material sprayed with imitation leather scent, but otherwise very good for belts.
Synthetic Chamois Leather is sold for car polishing from Autoglym
Waxed cotton was trendy in the 20s when two firms - Barbour and Belstaff - competed to develop breathable synthetic jackets, starting with waxed Egyption cotton. Belstaff has now closed (a Venetian firm bought the brand) but plenty of small firms copy Barbour's snooty fishing jackets and there is even a synthetic copy of the cloth called Exeat.
site by Veganline the online shoe shop with free delivery 0800 458 4442
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