New Vegetarian Belt and Shoes

I want to give a big shout out to three vegan stores. I got a belt from The Vegan Collection, The Captain, and it’s fantastic. It’s the best synthetic leather belt I’ve ever touched. I ordered two, one for my dad and one for me, and both times I received a personal, hand-written thank-you note on the receipt. This a very environment-conscious store; even their receipts are printed on recycled paper.

I was looking for synthetic leather dress shoes and The Vegan Collection directed me towards Alternative Outfitters. From there I ordered the Soft Stags loafers. I wore them on Friday, and they’re really comfortable. I think they might crease faster than genuine leather, but that’s a trade-off I’m willing to deal with.

Karmavore is a great is a great little vegan shop in New Westminster, BC that is always getting new products. I’ve been to their place a few times to buy some things and have always gotten great service. Please do check them out. They’re on Twitter and are always posting new products and events.

A lot of products that are synthetic often get labeled as vegan, which is correct, but my opinion is that vegetarians should be aiming for this as well. Before I became vegan (more on that later, Insha’Allah; I’m not completely vegan) I often went out of my way to check ingredients for animal products, as many strict vegetarians do, before consuming anything that came in a package. I didn’t think even once, though, about whether or not any of my clothing that I was purchasing had an animal product. It’s not just a vegan thing to wear animal/cruelty-free clothing, but a vegetarian thing. Again, I’ll have a separate post on this, God-willing, but just wanted to give these stores a shout out for now, along with any other vegan/vegetarian place. They’re not sponsoring this blog or anything (nor is Amazon UK; nobody is), but I’m loving what they’re doing and hope they do well. Please do check them out.

Akaal Sahaai