Hello!
Welcome to the latest range of products from Vegetarian Shoes.
We have come a long way since Veggie Shoes first started in 1990. When
I started the business back then (that's me in the photo) I made all
the shoes by hand. In fact, originally I only made one style - a basic
lace up shoe.
|
|
|
Me in my first Gardner St. workshop
|
|
I
had started to teach myself to make shoes four years earlier after
leaving Art College. I was inspired to hear that in parts of Africa,
car tyres were recycled into soles. This got me thinking and soon I was
making shoes out of anything I could lay my hands on, but being veggie
I didn't want to use leather.
Then I made an exciting discovery,
-a synthetic Microfibre material used for yachting upholstery. It
looked and felt like supple leather, but was 'breathable', unlike other
plastics. After some experimenting, I realised that this was what I had
been looking for, and Vegetarian Shoes was born.
The range of styles quickly grew, as well as shoes I made boots, sandals and belts from this new fabric.
|
| Every
thing was made to order and as the word spread I got busier and busier
to the point where I could not make the things fast enough! So I took
my material to a footwear factory to get them to make shoes for us. Now
I had a stock that I could mail-order to veggies all over the country! |
|
|
|
My first pair. Car tyre soles with canvas/inner tube uppers.
|
|
|
|
|
Nowadays,
I no longer make shoes. (which I do not miss, as it was blooming hard
work !). Most of our shoes are made-to-order for us, exclusively to our
specification in European and English factories, including the oldest
co-op in the country, established in 1881!
|
|
Vegetarian
Shoes is still a small business. We still operate out of our Gardner
Street Shop and nearby office. We now send shoes all over the world and
a growing number of stores carry a selected range.
Our Gardner Street
shop in Brighton is open Monday to Saturday 10am to 6pm.
If there is
something you specifically want, please phone ahead (shop: 01273
685685, Mail order: 01273 691913) to check stock.
If you're planning to come and visit us at our shop click here for a printable map. - Courtesy of Multimap
|
I hope you find something you like!
Regards
Robin Webb
(Vegetarian Shoes)
