nickcee - the jacksons are aesthetically nice, but mine fell apart instantaneously and catastrophically within two weeks of owning them. we’re talking thinking “oh, there’s a small hole in my shoe” in the morning and “what the fuck, the sole came off” in the afternoon.
i haven’t had good experiences with these things lasting, having owned a couple of pairs of macbeths, but other people that i’m friends with have.
i’ve worn vans for ages and this is the first i’m hearing about the glue issue. i’ve shot them an email just now, i’m hoping that the reply doesn’t eliminate black on black slip-ons from my life.
good to know about the jacksons… i was curious about the quality.
as for the vans glue issue. i had heard about it a long while ago (mid-90s) but had since heard from a numbre of vegans that it was no longer true/never entirely true.
the fact that they make a number of different confirmed vegan shoes (older style rowleys, afi eras and a couple i cant remember right now) seems to indicate that the glue is no longer an issue simply because this would mean using different glues for the same model (which is often a standard model). at the scale vans produces shoes i find this hard to believe. on top of that is that fact that it is increasingly expensive to use animal products in mass produced chemicals (glues/food additives being an example of this).
its cheaper to synthesize a flavour than to use the real thing… see red rock moroccan chicken and kettle honey baked ham chips. i cant remember what the original animal source/element for the glue was, and cant be arsed googling it, but i think it was a legacy of some older glue production. id be curious to hear if what it was, and also if its still used.
i received a response from vans customer service: though they didn’t specifically address the glue that i mentioned in my email, they assured me that slip-ons, authentic, era, and old-skool are available in vegan-friendly materials (which means, duh, when you choose canvas rather than suede/leather) - also mentioned that rowleys WERE all vegan, but - and i find this rather surprising - geoff rowley just designed a non-vegan shoe called “shambles”
and yeah, it was a shame about the jacksons because they were really comfortable shoes.
i was as surprised… but to my understanding he is till vegan, the new shambles is designed with another couple of his other strong interests in mind. vintage military uniforms/hunting (yes he is a vegan who loves hunting) so now there is the re-introduction of leather to replicate accessories from those. but… its not all the shambles… the blood red (amusing huh!) and some of the shambles hi-tops are still all canvas.
its annoying as the rowley 1s are one of my favourite shoes ever and it looks like vans has finally discontinued them :(.