Vegan Dancer

[balletboyrhys]

i know there are other vegans on here! so heres a question for all of you!

what do you do about shoes? the soles of soft shoes(if you wear canvas) are made out of leather on every shoe i've seen. just wondering what you guys do about this. i dont buy anything leather but im stuck on this because ive never seen a soft shoe that doesnt use leather on the soles.

[Mel Johnson]

I'm afraid you're stuck there. During the Second World War, they tried making outsoles of paperboard, but they delaminated really quickly. In the early 50s, there was some experimentation with plastics, notably vinyls, but they proved either too sticky or too slick to use on wood floors. If they were to use whatever synthetic rubber that Capezio uses for its jazz oxford, then maybe they could come up with something, as this compound seems to work well on marley. But consider this - in going no-leather, you increase your "carbon footprint" on the environment, so you gain somewhere, you lose somewhere else.

[koshka]

knock knock

Grishko _claims_ to offer vegan slippers, but you might have to have a local shop that carries Grishko special-order them.

[Dance_Scholar_London]

Is the sole made of natural fibres or synthetic?

[koshka]

I have no idea what the shoes are made of, but they claim to offer them.

 

I've noticed that Earth shoes (remember those??? They're still around!) also offers a vegan version of some styles, and their FAQ page describes their vegan shoes. I know that ballet shoes aren't exactly like regular shoes (haha), but the Earth info is interesting.

 

http://www.earth.us/faq.asp#5

[tiny_dancer]

Here are some vegan ballet slippers:

 

http://www.grishko.com/slippers.htm

 

http://my.execpc.com/~apied/footwear.html

 

or just type into google "vegan ballet slippers" and you might find some more.

 

tiny_dancer

[balletboyrhys]

thanks for all the feedback guys! good to know about the grishkos!

[dnznqueen]

*knock knock* i seem to recall so danca having a special something about their pointe shoes for vegans...the sole and the glue i believe....

[Chronus24]

carbon footprint? what's that?

[Mel Johnson]

Here's the Wikipedia article on carbon footprint.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_footprint

[Paper Bag]

I'm vegan too and have purchased canvas slippers with leather soles because I didn't know vegan slippers existed. Thanks to everyone who posted links and gave info on this topic. Perfect timing too, cuz I was thinking about buying new slippers.