Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I started my Railway Conductor program this week, and even though my vegan work boots met all the standards they had for safety wear, they wouldn't let me wear them. Mainly because they weren't CSA approved since they are from Europe, and not wearing the approved safety wear would null me for any compensation or benefits if I was injured during the course. So I went to Mark's work wearhouse, and they only had one pair of boots in my size that met the requirements, and they were leather. I needed some for today and the saleslady was less then helpful, so I had to buy them. I feel bad, and I don't want to have to do this again, so I was hoping somebody could point me in the direction of some vegan CSA approved (little green triangle on the boots) boots, so it doesn't have to.

Also recommend me some work gloves too, right now I'm wearing my sister's old pair (they are leather as well, but I figure it is better I wear them out then toss them away).

I've never been able to find vegan safety shoes other than the ones from Vegetarian shoes. All of my safety shoes have been non vegan because I have an extremely difficult to fit foot so I pretty much have to buy whatever fits me. My company has always paid for my safety shoes though so I've only had to buy 2 pairs so far and I just keep wearing them for each job instead of buying a new pair. Crappy but until someone makes a vegan safety shoe in my size and that meets the safety requirements I need, I'm pretty much stuck.

I can only offer that I also must wear leather boots and gloves for my job, and I just deal with it because what is the alternative?

I wish you luck in your search, though.

I was told once that Mark's carried some synthetic boots, so I thought maybe somebody knew what brand they were since I couldn't find them. The clerk who was 'helping' me shrugged her shoulders when I asked her if she knew.

Everyone I have ever dealt with at Marks has been totally useless...sorta like the Canadian Tire of the shoe world.

Don't even get me started on Canadian Tire. Now I normally just ask the other customers if they have seen whatever I'm looking for and I'm more likely to get results then if I asked an employee.

I don't have any suggestions about boots, but my husband wears Kevlar cut resistant work gloves. You need to get them from a store that specializes in personal protection equipment, like Acklands Grainger or Inland Industrial.

Yeah part of my uniform are leather and/or wool.

You also can't get nonleather wildland fire boots and have them be accepted, which sucks.

There are some of the Mecanics gloves that are nonleather. None of them have been small enough for my girl hands though.

ex: http://www.discountsafetygear.com/mecha ... glove.html
http://www.discountsafetygear.com/utili ... x-815.html
Actually it seems like most of the utility gloves are vegan!

This company has some as well: http://www.constructiongear.com/workgloves.html

Sometimes it's out of your control. Like firefighters who have to wear leather boots. Pleather just won't cut it in the heat of a fire. You do the best you can. I'd never wear non-vegan outside of work but if you have to for work, you just may have to. No advice. Just some support I hope.

Thanks for the luck and support guys, I have been pretty unsuccessful in my search. I guess I will just have to do my best I can and hope CSA approves a vegan boot in the future.

Thanks for the links, I'm going to try and find some of those gloves around town and I spent a good hour or so gleefully going through the women sections. I can't wait till I get my first paycheck and can go on a spending spree so I don't have to keep wearing male fitted gear.

I too have a few pairs of leather work boots because that's what I had to wear for work. There was just no way around it for me. I hated buying them, but ultimately I had no choice if I wanted to keep the job...

I used to work on the railway too and the only vegan ones I could find were rain boots. I got called in about it because while they were CSA, they weren't proper for what I was doing. I was very sad to buy the leather ones. I changed jobs soon after that to one that didn't need the footwear.

I got a pair of mostly synthetic hiker style boots that just had a bit of leather.

The "synthetic" ones at Mark's at the time (1998) had some leather on them too.

Hi Everyone,

I've thus far avoided the whole leather work boots thing entirely by getting Dunlops steel toed rubber boots. You can buy them at Marks, and they adhere to CSA safety standards. They may be rubber boots but they don't get that hot in the summer and not too cold in the winter. Caution: You will get teased if you do this. Insist that you like rubber boots and that no they are not too warm and they will stop teasing you after a while. http://www.dunlopboots.com/business/boots/purofort-thermo-safety

Work gloves: Impact gloves are really good, but expensive. But they are good, and some work sites require them and they are good for just about anything you don't need rubber chem gloves for.
http://www.emisupply.com/catalog/mechanix-wear-mpact-gloves-p-9183.html#DETAILS
Hope that helps :)

Its a hard call guys and gals I guess it is always worth remembering, the Vegan Society in Uk say as far as practical and possible etc, we all need a job to keep a roof over our heads and the world sadly does not revolve around us vegans going to work. Hard as that is for us we have make occasional sacrafices to our lifestyles to remain gainfully employed.

If we dont wear the designated safety gear and become disabled through work injury we and our families would be stuffed, don't beat yourselves up over it, at least we do the best we can in the rest of our lives. ;o)