Shoes.

I was trying to kill time this evening waiting for my order of broccoli and penne with garlic and oil from the little Italian place near my apartment when I walked into the new shoe store next door.

While browsing, I noticed that they were selling a pair of Simple Shoes, pictured left.
These are the Tomatoe, very cute actually. These particular shoes are not exactly vegan--they have a wee bit of wool on them somewhere. I chose to buy them anyways because in general, Green Toe is very environmentally responsible, and they do also make 100% vegan shoes. Truth is, if I had seen that there was wool on them at the shoe store, I probably wouldn't have bought them; but, I'm not sweating it now--there's more good in supporting a company like this than boycotting it because they used a bit of wool somewhere on the shoe.

The person selling me the shoes was surprised that I knew the brand--we got into a conversation about being vegan and buying shoes. Is it hard? Well, yes, and no.

In 2008, it's getting easier to find stylish shoes that are non-leather. Back in the day, it was a bit harder, and some of the shoes were just damn ugly.

But, here are some tips and tricks I've learned over the years about vegan shoe hunting:

• A convenient place to find non-leather shoes that won't cost you a ton of $ is Payless. Target also has some interesting shoes from time to time.
• Generally, companies that market themselves as vegan, or who sell vegan shoe lines, tend be better quality than what you would find in the discount stores, and also more expensive. Mooshoes is a good vegan shoe retailer that can introduce you to some of the best vegan brands out there.
• Summer is great time to find vegan shoes, because many sandals and flip flops are made from synthetic (or natural fabric) materials. Fall is a great time for boots, especially the ones that go over the calf. Synthetic materials are stretchier, and so can go over those tricky calves better than the leather counterparts.
• In general, when trying on shoes, make sure you pay attention to what the sole is made of: often times, especially in women's shoes, the upper will be synthetic/fabric/fiber, but the sole will be leather.
  

If you have any other tips, brands, or places to find veg*n shoes, please let me know.