Animal glue in shoes

[iirtriiiokn]

I want to buy some new shoes, but I don't want ones made with animal glue. I emailed some shoe companies to find out if they use animal glue, and most of them say they don’t know because it depends on the factory, so they can’t guarantee they’re free from animal glue. Would it be vegan to buy shoes from companies like this? I think it would be, because since the companies don’t tell the factories to use a specific glue, then the factory can just use whatever glue, so you wouldn’t be creating a demand for the glue, only the shoes materials. Is this correct or wrong?

[brimstoneSalad]

That is incorrect; it will still increase demand whether it's traceable or not, because animal glues may make up some small percentage of that (I doubt they are significant in shoes)... but that's not very important here.

You kind of need shoes, least of all because people would think you're nutty for not wearing them and if they heard it was because you were vegan they might be put off making positive changes.

If there is harm, it's de minimis. Something probably not worth worrying about until we sort out animal agriculture, and then because glues are often just made with byproducts all the glues would be vegan after that anyway.

When you can not practicably avoid harm, the best thing to do is offset it by doing some extra good instead.