In defense of leather
By Johanna Preston
What’s worse for the planet? Steak, or plastic?
We get messages sometimes from angry vegans, who want to know why we make our shoes out of leather. My answer isn’t often what they want to hear, I think - and I acknowledge it is often really hard to make good decisions in a complex world.
It’s a topic we have wrestled with, and at the end of the day, I think it comes down to the fact that one of our core values at Preston Zly is sustainability. We had it embedded in our business long before it was “cool”, long before it was the kind of thing anyone made a song and dance about.
We make our shoes from a beautiful, renewable material that will last a lifetime, that is the waste product of another industry - it will last someone a lifetime if taken care of, and then once discarded, it will biodegrade.
The leather we use is a byproduct of the meat industry, and would go to waste if we didn’t turn it into something beautiful.
The glues, dyes and the materials we use to make our shoes are all carefully chosen to ensure we don’t compromise on quality or longevity of our shoes, while making the most environmentally sustainable choices that we can.
It’s the kind of thing everyone needs to make their own decision on, and we absolutely respect that - but we’d argue that if you’re an omnivore, wearing leather to ensure you create less waste is a responsible choice to make.
There’s new materials being made available all the time and we will continue to explore those options too - but for now, we’ll keep making sure every piece of leather that passes through our hands is treated with respect and made into something extraordinary.
Do you buy leather goods? And if you do, do you make sure the leather is ethically sourced?
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