Tough by nature and designed to withstand the most challenging conditions - this is what we think of when we hear the words ‘safety footwear.’
On the other hand, ‘vegan-friendly’ is a term that hasn't always been linked historically with the same idea of strength and durability.
This could be in part due to the heritage of leather - we've associated this material with toughness for hundreds of years. And with good reason - leather's tightly interlinked fibres make it naturally durable. And because of this, many would be forgiven for assuming that vegan-friendly safety boots might not be as resilient as standard safety boots. In this blog, we’ll show you how our vegan-friendly range is in fact just as tough and able to protect the wearer as our leather safety boots. But first, let’s get our facts straight.
All V12’s footwear undergoes rigorous quality testing to guarantee our boots offer the very highest standards of safety and strength - and that includes our vegan-friendly range.
These quality tests do not consider whether the boot is leather, PU, microfibre or suede. They simply assess the boots’ ability to conform to the safety standards and requirements to obtain a UKCA marking and most importantly guarantee the wearer high-quality, durable, and consistently performing safety boots that can withstand even the toughest conditions.
These tests of durability and strength include:
Vegan-friendly or leather, for our footwear to pass these quality tests proves they are exceptionally durable, because they are uncompromisingly rigorous.
In fact, during safety boot testing, it's not uncommon for synthetic uppers such as microfibre to outperform certain grades of leather in areas including bond strength (which tests the strength of the upper's attachment to the sole) and tear strength. This, added to the fact that synthetic uppers have good chemical-resistance and elasticity plus include durability features such as mildew resistance means that from a strength perspective, vegan-friendly boot material is anything but a compromise.
Want to see more of how we test our footwear at V12? Watch below.
This V12 bestseller is a seriously tough customer, featuring:
This metal-free hiker might be vegan-friendly, but it's absolutely packed with strength, including:
Line these two styles up next to our leather safety boot range, and they will be more than equal to the competition.
You will never have to worry that a boot from our vegan-friendly range will arrive in packing that does not reflect the practice of veganism. No glue is used in any of our boxes or cartons, so our packaging process is completely vegan-friendly as well.
In 2019, we received a PCIAW 'Best innovation in footwear’ award for our trainer and hiker range. The PCIAW (Professional Clothing Industry Association Worldwide) awards recognise exceptional Workwear and PPE from around the world, so to receive this accolade was wonderful.
The judges not only loved that the range was metal-free, available in men's and women's fit and extremely lightweight, but also because they are vegan-friendly. And footwear does not win international workwear awards if it does not boast industry-leading safety. More evidence that vegan-friendly safety boots are in no way a safety compromise.
In years gone by, some may have seen vegan footwear as uncommon or slightly niche, and as a result the perception might have been that they are far more expensive than boots made with a leather upper. Well thankfully, neither of those things are the case.
An article from i newspaper revealed that in 2018, the number of searches for vegan shoes and clothing went up by 200%, and according to Our Sporting Life, there are an estimated 3.9 million vegans in the UK. What is more, they reveal that younger people are by far the likeliest to be vegan in the UK, highlighting that while Veganism may have been less common a decade ago, it is growing – and only getting more common.
As a result of this increasing commonality, vegan footwear tends to be only slightly more expensive due to the upper. Leather substitute materials such as microfibre tend to cost manufacturers more, because leather is a common and established industry with a large infrastructure, so the supply chain tends to be cheaper as a result. But nevertheless, the price difference is minimal to say the least. Take our best-selling vegan-friendly hiker boot Caiman. We crunched some numbers and worked out that its microfibre upper only makes it 5% more expensive than if it were leather, which works out at just over £3 more per pair for the customer. Niche or expensive? We beg to differ.
Our vegan-friendly footwear is built to protect, no matter what the conditions, so click the button below and shop with confidence.