The Nike Free collection has always been interesting in design and concept.  The Roshe Run really raised my eyebrow though.  I’m not crazy about running shoes because I don’t run, so I don’t really give a crap about performance.  They generally tend to have too much going on, and they’re really expensive.  The Roshe Run addresses both of these problems handily.

First, it’s not that pricey.  At $70, a running shoe by Nike is reasonable.  Second, the simplicity.  I love the minimalist design.  It just relies on the shape of the shoe to convey the sophistication and craftsmanship.  Check out this article/interview with Dylan Raasch, the designer, on how he was inspired by Zen aesthetics.

I’ve also fact checked the materials with Nike, these are in fact vegan.  No hidden animal stuff here.  Say what you will about Nike, they are the only major brand experimenting with synthetic materials and using them effectively (in my opinion).

Although I’ve used the pictures from Premier, unfortunately you can’t get them there. Men’s available at Zappos in black, red, and black/yellow sole.  Women’s available at Zappos in black, purple, grey, and light blue.

Almost a year ago we got overly excited about Adidas putting out some canvas Sambas in a few classic colors.  We jumped the gun and it turned out that the three stripes were in fact leather.  Now, it’s been brought to my attention (thank you very much sir Dustin) that Adidas has recently released a Sambas Canvas Pack, but these have synthetic stripes and canvas heel.  And yes, the lining is not leather.  This is a very welcome development – another classic we can add in the vault!

Unfortunately, the pack doesn’t include the classic black upper with white stripes and brown sole.  Hopefully they will expand the color selection beyond this pack, but for now we have four colors: 1) aluminum/super blue/white, 2) black on black on black on black on black, 3) black/”high energy”/white, 4) slate/light maroon/white.

Available at Zappos

Summer is just around the corner, and sometimes you need to let your feet hang out.  I’m not a huge sandals fan myself, the view of my bare feet is slightly disconcerting.  But depending on where you live, it may be acceptable to walk around in flip-flops.  And if you do, you might as well look good while doing it.

Now, if you’re going to splurge and get a nice pair of sandals, you might as well go with Havaianas.  State side, this brand blew up a bunch of years back.  All of a sudden they were everywhere.  But if you have a pair, you can tell why.  They’re sturdier, no flimsy one layer foam joints.  You can tell they’re quality.  And they’re slim, cut to the shape of your feet.  Unfortunately, you can’t get a pair for $5 like you can at your Old Navy or Dollar Store, but listen – last time I went flip flop shopping I went to a big box store that shall not be named here lest you judge me, and they were all at least $15!  And they were heinous, so I’d rather plunk down a little more and get these.

Now, enough of my personal rambling intro.  Another reason why I’m featuring Havaianas is because, obviously, they are vegan.  You can tell just by looking at them but a lot of sandals are leather now.  And, following the last Earth Day post, it should be worth mentioning some of their environmental and social responsibility initiatives.  For instance Havaianas has donated more than $1 million to The Institute for Ecological Research (IPE).

The IPE is a non-governmental org that promotes habitat restoration, landscape conservation, argo-forestry, organic coffee, and tree nurseries.  They have also teamed up with Conservation International (CI) to protect the Abrolhos, an archipelago of five islands off the coast of Northeast Brazil.  Needless to say, the Abrolhos is an important marine ecosystem, with an abundance of sea life calling its reefs home.  Havaianas is launching a collection of sandals with prints featuring fish and coral reefs; seven percent of sales profits will go to finance conservation work in this beautiful region (man, I really want to go there now).

But onto the sandals!  There are myriad to choose from.  I’ll just shout out a few that are my faves.

Brasil in yellow, available at Zappos.

Aloha in Red, available at Havaianas.

Muppets!  Manna Mahna!  Available at Havaianas.

For the ladies:

Slim Logo Metallic, available at Zappos.

Geometric in blue, available at Zappos.

Brazil Black, available at Zappos.

Hey everyone, hope everyone is having an awesome Earth Day 2012!  We made it another year, so things aren’t that bad right?  Apart from all the wildfires, floods, hurricanes, droughts, and tornadoes, things are going to be okay, yeah?  Heh heh (cough)… eh.  Well, I am sitting very still in my room, doing as little as I can to negatively impact the environment beyond exhaling carbon dioxide into the surrounding environs.  Oh, wait, I am on a computer right now.  Damnit.

I don’t know about you guys, but it is really easy for me, when I start thinking about environmental problems, to go down the rabbit hole of increasingly negative thoughts until arriving at a state of despair.  But, it is Earth Day and it’s important for me not to be a downer.  Actually, one thing that is very encouraging is the existence of this blog, as well as that of you, the audience.  To think that people actually care about animals not to eat them and buy products that exclude animal products is very cool.  And whether you realize this or not, you are doing the environmentally responsible thing.  Consider this – more greenhouse gas emissions come from raising farm animals for food than all the planes, ships, trucks, cars (all forms of fossil fuel based transportation) on the planet combined!  This is such an insane statistic I will link to some articles here, here, and here in case you doubt me.  Don’t forget all the air and water pollution, rainforests cleared to make way for grazing, and the grain that is used to fatten these animals up that can be used to feed way more people.

So, as a vegan or vegetarian, you are partaking in a lifestyle that is much more environmentally responsible than your average meat eater.  And you should be proud of that.  I just want to comment that it is unfortunate that, by perception or self identification, vegans and vegetarians tend to get pigeonholed.  It’s probably time to view ourselves as representing responsible living beyond just animals – be it the environment, human rights, or something else.  It would be a shame to be limited to being identified with PETA.  Indeed, the more we learn about our diet it becomes more obvious how a lot of problems in our world are linked to what we eat and how we use animals.

But enough of my ranting.  I wanted to bring to the fore some interesting things that are going on in the world of shoes and environmental responsibility.

New Balance NewSKY

Probably the coolest thing I have discovered is the recycled shoe brand NewSKY from New Balance.  I have heard of shoes made out of P.E.T. (recycled plastic bottles) before, but never an entire line from such a major brand.  These running shoes are not only 95% P.E.T. (including the stitching, tongue label, and laces) but are pretty fly.  They have a minimal aesthetic and a nice low profile sole.  My fave is probably the men’s 01 (pictured above).  Check out the whole collection here.

Nike Reuse a Shoe

Nike and Converse has partnered up to create a great sneaker recycling program called Reuse-a-Shoe.  It’s pretty much what it sounds like, except the shoes are not recycled to make new shoes.  Here’s how it works.  It’s broken down into three parts: rubber from the outsole, fabric from the upper, and the foam from the mid.  The rubber is melted down to make running tracks, the fabric is used for padding in basketball courts, and the foam used to make tennis courts. To see how it works, check out the video here.

According to Nike, 25,249,000 pairs of shoes have been recycled since 1990.  How did I not know about this before!  Think about how many sneakers I have gone through in the last 15 years or so.  Man.  And they just go in the garbage.  Fortunately, you can find a local store where you can drop off your old pairs.  Or you can organize your own used shoe drive.  Word.

If you’re not feeling guilty after reading all of that, here are a few sneaks that are eco-friendly.  Enjoy!

Element Berkeley

These sport a bamboo fiber lining and a rubber/hemp outsole

Available at Swell

Kustom Klimate

I never heard of this brand before but they seem pretty legit.  These Klimate shoes feature hemp and cotton uppers, recycled P.E.T. laces, and water based inks and glues.

Also available at Swell.

It took a while, and some false starts, but I think it’s finally safe to report a completely non-leather Stefan Janoski by Nike.  And in a little surprise move, they decided to opt with jersey fleece instead of canvas.  While I have never worn a shoe with the fleece, I’m guessing it’s not good for skating at all.  I imagine that it would rip up rather quickly.  I doubt they were thinking of function when they thought of this one.

Unfortunately it only comes in one metallic silver colorway.  You can get these at Tactics and CCS.

Sorry I didn’t post any more pictures.  You can go to Tactics and CCS for some super zoomed in and 360 degree views.  Enjoy!

The Volley International Shoe is a classic, low profile tennis shoe.  And I use the term “tennis shoe” here liberally.  You should not play tennis in these.  You’ll probably get blisters.  And a friend I knew from Texas used to refer to all sneakers as tennis shoes.  Isn’t that odd?  Texans.  I ramble.

But I’m feeling the Volley because they’re reminiscent of the Rod Laver (Volley Int’l is Australian too!).  And it’s very annoying because you cannot get a Rod Laver without some kind of leather on it, even though most of it is canvas.  Argh.  But you can get these!  I contacted the company, they told me that there are no animal products used in this shoe.

Another interesting question is, what is the name of this shoe exactly?  The company is called “Volley International.”  Are they just “shoes?”  When you go on their website it’s called “Volley Shoes.”  I guess that makes more sense, but I just get confused.

Anyway, you can get these at Swell (a pretty cool surf store, never heard of it until recently)

Here’s another one from Vans.  The Del Norte: you’ve seen it before but you haven’t.  Inspired by the chukka, it has a more laid back profile and slimmer sole.  Comes in less bold colors as well.  There’s even an all black version.  Features hemp or “enzyme washed” canvas uppers, and a comfy removable vanslite footbed.  You know it’s vegan friendly when Vans is promoting the fact that they are made with water based glues and inks too.

Available at Premier (blue, green), Zappos (blue), and Swell (black).  More pics after the jump!

Saucony has offered the Jazz Low Pro vegan for a number of years now, so it was surprising when I searched my own site and discovered that I have never written about these ever.  So, I guess here we are, a few years too late.  You guys have probably seen these already, and it’s likely that you’ll either love them or hate them.  When you compare the “vegan” colorways to the non-vegan ones, it’s obvious that some genius made the connection between vegans and granola lovers (“No, they’re not hippie enough!!!”).  I guess they could do worse (just one of many examples, you know what I’m talking about).  At the very least, they are solid throwbacks that are evocative of the much preferred New Balance 1400.  Hey, we take what we can get.

Available at your local eco-friendly corner store, er, Zappos.

Spring is here in New York, and my attention is turning towards warm weather skippies.  That means a whole lot of Vans, probably.  It’s just so easy to take their standards and re-issue them with different colors and materials.  This time Vans is releasing the Era in three different “distressed” canvas colorways.  It’s a slight variation, but the washed look really makes it stand out more than the standard canvas.

Available at Premier.

I’ve been on a really bad streak of accidentally promoting non-vegan shoes, so I had to be sure about this one to regain my credibility.  Keep is like your low key friend who’s always there for you.  I still can’t think of another sneaker company that’s animal friendly and continues to put out really dope product.  Unfortunately, the trend of the sneaker world seems to be towards using more leather rather than less.  Fortunately, Keep has resisted that call so far, and their shoes are way more inspiring than 90% of the crap out there.

Case in point: the Ramos “Guitar Strap.”  At first glance I thought this was a play on the “Mexican blanket” or some other Native American pattern.  But this was actually inspired by a vintage Gibson guitar strap.  Nice.  The ankle heel stands out really nice against the navy canvas.

Available at Keep.