Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Mrs. Face's store sells shoes. They don't sell shoes with leather. For their website, she's supposed to write something about why they don't sell leather. Can you cite for me, or point me to good sources that lay out, good solid reasons why synthetics are better? I think she's got the it's-not-nice-to-kill-animals-and-use-their-skins angle covered. But what about environmental arguments? Thanks!

i've read so much about this that i almost can't buy shoes anymore (well, or anything, really, but that's my problem). there are so many factors, but i think it's often a draw. here's a slate article:

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_an ... ather.html

i'll try to pull together better resources when it isn't midnight, if someone doesn't beat me to it.

eta: moo shoes and novacas use a pvc-free vinyl for their shoes, and that's generally more environmentally friendly. if the company she's writing for uses something similar, that's something to draw attention to.

i'm sorry, footie; i'm looking and looking, but the best i can come up with is that synthetics aren't always worse for the environment, and that depends a lot on the type of synthetic. maybe she should just slant toward the environmental drawbacks of cattle ranching (a lot of clothing leather comes from cattle raised in china, even when the shoes are made in europe or the u.s., and their conditions are generally worse and subject to less oversight) and the tannery process and hope that people who are shopping for non-leather shoes won't probe deeper than that. /helpfail