I've got a few pairs of wool socks from pre-veganism, but they're all wearing down and approaching their end of life. I need warm, durable socks that can approach wool's comfort and utility. What do you suggest?
I used to think that, and it's true that wool sheep have it pretty good for agricultural animals. But the wool and mutton industries are very closely tied to and financially dependent on each other. Many wool sheep that are unproductive or excesss are sold to meat operations. It's pervasive throughout the industry. If any animal product could be done with minimal exploitation, it's wool, but that's not how it operates in practice.
Also "sheep need to be sheared so it isn't wrong" is kind of moving the starting point of history wayyy further forward than it needs to be. Obviously no naturally occurring animal needs humans to shear them. They need to be sheared because we made them that way so that we could exploit them for their body parts. The only ethical thing to do with a species that has been bred with negative traits for the benefit of humans is to stop breeding them.
Agreed, although that doesn't answer the question of what we do with the sheep we've got right now. I think those historical questions are relevant and informative, but they don't address the question of immediate action. Maybe sheep shouldn't need to be sheared, but they do. What do we do about that, aside from ending their breeding?
Maybe I'm a bit of an idealist but I like to imagine a vegan society having animals that play productive and even economic roles in human society, but with dignity, rights, and safety. I can see a world where small farms keep sheep for wool production, but without the vast economic pressures that make it so horrifically exploitative and cruel today.
Check these out! Looks like the eco cool socks made of bamboo viscose seem nice. Also thw last ones on that list look comfy as hell.
https://www.worldofvegan.com/vegan-wool-socks/
I grabbed two pairs of the ecosox for now. I may try out some others later.
With bamboo rayon the conditions of its manufacture are often very horrible. There's a factory in Austria which allows audits and has a proper closed system, most comes out of some region in China that starts with a J? (i forget, I looked into this years ago) that are much less cooperative with allowing inspections and at the time I looked didn't seem to have the best track record.
Bamboo makes it sound nice, but it's essentially plastic synthesised from bamboo. Potentially not so bad but it really depends on how they harvest/how workers are treated/what is done with waste chemicals.
nb: this isn't an endorsement of wool. It's not like that's produced by singing down the clouds into socks :p
BAM in the UK claim they get their viscose from 2 Oekotex SteP certified factories in China (according to Which?, at least), but I don't know anything about clothing manufacturing so I have no idea how high a standard that is.
Ah cool. That's new to when I last looked.
In theory I think that cert is not entirely bullshit as there should be inspections.
A couple of things give me pause though:
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it's a private industry governing body so idk how well policed it is wrt corruption etc
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there are grades of passing which seem quite flexible
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it's intended for suppliers to show, not customer facing.
They might also be but personally I'd feel better if they were iso certified for various things like the environmental responsibility one and safe working practices one etc. Iso certification is expensive though
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I don’t think this fits the vegan category, but I think it fits the sustainable category. I found out about Darn Tough socks from Reddit while searching for wool socks.
They have a lifetime warranty where if you get holes in your sock, they’ll replace them for free and fix up your worn up socks for other purposes. I suppose one can justify it as “the more durable, the less I buy, and the less socks in circulation, the less exploitation.” Though as I’m writing this I’m realizing it’s the vegan comm and not the general questions comm
I've seen them listed as vegan socks so I think you're good. I won't ban you.
Edit: they have both wool and non-wool socks
In that case I recommend them. I’m not a sock aficionado so I can’t speak for other companies, but their replacement policies sold me. My socks tend to last about 1-2 years before getting fucked up, but I would buy generic socks and never paid attention to the material.
Two of my long lasting pairs are smart wool, but those are made from real wool. They are absolutely amazing socks, so I'm looking for something vegan that can be comparable.
I've found that many brands of "heavy duty" "work" socks that you find in hardware stores are made with acrylics or other plastics. Many still have wool, but I bought two pairs of the "accidentally vegan" kinds and they were fine. I live in a place that gets -25C winters.
