All posts tagged: vegetarian shoes

Impressions from Vegan Summerfest 2016, Ghent

A couple of weeks ago, Belgian organisation BE Vegan organised the second edition of Vegan Summerfest. We went to the first edition in 2015 (see our post here) and surely did not want to miss it! This year, the festival was in the Artcube in Ghent, where BE Vegan had also hosted a talk by Jo-An McArthur last Winter (see blogpost here). A more spacious venue than last year, with more room inside and outside. We went early to avoid the big crowd as much as possible and to secure a parking spot nearby (by the time we left early afternoon, people were already parked several blocks away from the venue). The foodtrucks were outside and inside were two halls with stalls of organisations like Bite Back, Animal Rights, and also several shops selling shoes, books, food and cosmetics. With benches to sit down and relax a while. During the afternoon, there were some talks in yet another hall. Would have loved to hear Ruby Roth‘s ‘Vegan is Love‘ talk (via Skype), but that was scheduled for the late …

A look inside shop Vegetarian Shoes in Brighton, UK

Shop review #21 – I’ve already posted several reviews of the restaurants we went to in Brighton during our mini break there this Summer (there are still some more to come!). Brighton not only has a large collection of vegan eateries and restaurants with vegan options. There is also a shop of the well-know brand ‘Vegetarian Shoes’. It’s located in Gardner street, which is in the main shopping area of the city. And it is right across from a Loving Hut restaurant (world wide vegan restaurant chain). We were there on a Saturday, and the street was made into a pedestrain zone, with terraces in front of cafés and pubs. The weather was beautiful, so it was a nice atmosphere! Although you can nowadays easily find vegan shoes online, I do find it difficult to buy shoes online, as I definitely want to fit and ‘feel’ them (out of 5 shoes I try, most of the times only one ends up being comfortable!). So I was eager to go to a ‘real life’ vegan shoe shop, where I could actually fit …

Vegan Matt & Nat bags and wallet from shop Végissime

Shop review #12 – Matt & Natt is a vegan Canadian company which makes handbags, briefcases, wallets and other accessories. I had my eyes on one particular bag, but didn’t find it in Belgium. Ordering directly from the company in Canada (or other American webshops) would entail paying tens of euros to customs and taxes for import in the EU. I had often encounterd such unpleasant surprises from orders in the US in the past, so did not want to have that happen again. The Belgian branch of webshop Zalando has some products of Matt & Nat available, but not the bag, nor the colour I was looking for. I eventually found the bag I was looking for (Blinkin Citrus) on a French – Paris based vegan webshop, Vegissime. Unfortunately also with high postal costs for shipping to Belgium (15euro as opposed to free delivery within France), which I think is absurd living so close to the French border! Alas, the ‘Union’ of Europe does not extend to the postal services yet 😦 Ordering online at French webshop Vegissime and …

Veggieshop, Oostende

Shop review #7 – Veggieshop is located in the city center of Ostend, near the seaside, a 2 minute walk from the Casino Kursaal. On their website, Veggieshop says it’s a specialist dealer in vegan-eco-organic clothes, shoes and cosmetics. You can also buy their products through their onlineshop. The clothes available at veggieshop are mainly T-shirts and sweaters. I browsed through the T-shirts looking for one with a vegan message, but didn’t find one. Shopping for vegan shoes is not so easy in Belgian shops. There are of course several online shops to buy vegan shoes, but since I find 8 out of 10 shoes not to be really comfortable after trying them out, I like to be able to fit shoes before buying them (and sending them back through postal mail is such a big hassle). So it’s nice to see vegan shoes on offer in Veggieshop in Ostend. But I was hoping to find a larger variety and selection of vegan shoes. I asked whether I could order my size of a certain type/brand through the shop, and then decide to buy it after it …