Woah, Vicki are you doing another ethical fashion round up even though the last one took you weeks to complete? I SURE FUCKING AM. I love doing these ethical footwear brands because I love sharing my favourite brands with all y’all. TYSM for all the love on the swimwear piece, you helped make it one of my most popular posts ever.
So here we are! Round two: footwear. In the last few years I have been investing more in footwear due to the fact that I want shoes that will last and because my feet are wide and flat so important footwear does wonders for my fallen arches. I tend to invest in higher-end pieces made of leather because they fit best and I find they last the longest. I don’t have every shoe on this list. But ideally (one purchase at a time) I can use this as reference the next time I decide to go shoe shopping.
(Also I decided to do this as 10 brands instead of 20 like my swimwear one because that one took me an embarrassing long time to finish.)
Poppy Barley
Allbirds
La Canadienne
Maguire Boutique
Native Footwear
Living lightly is the message Native Footwear aims to deliver. They offer ultra lightweight shoes for men, women, and kids and they’re always doing fun collaborations (currently they have a kids collab with Hello Kitty!) While they offer sandals, runners and even a plant-based shoe (made up of 100% plants) they are mostly associated their EVA offerings of hand washable shoes in a variety of colours.
Bonus: they aim to be 100% life cycled managed by 2023 meaning that soon you’ll be able to recycle your old pair as well!
Mija Boots
Stori Footwear
Fluevog Shoes
I am starting to realize that this entire list is a list of aspirational purchases. If you live in Vancouver like I do, you’ve definitely walked by a Fluevog retail store more than a handful of times. Going into the Fluevog Shoes in Gastown feels a bit like going to the shoemakers version of Willy Wonka’s factory. Their styles comes in a wide range of colours, designs, lasts and even heel shapes. Just look at the toe on these black boots. I aspire to be the kind of woman that could pull off such a cool looking boot.
My vision board is just a picture of those boots.
Brother Vellies
If there was anyone’s closet I could raid it would be Mindy Kaling’s and these Brother Vellies style give me some serious Mindy vibes. In my mind I have events worthy of those yellow shoes I have pictured above. Like if Clueless was one pair of shoes, it would be that pair.
Their page as an entire section on sustainability and I love that the majority of their classic shoes are made using Kudo death, an animal byproduct resulting from a government mandated culling due to overpopulation.
Vessi Footwear