Spotlight: The Vegan Collection

Who doesn’t love fashion and great clothes? As vegans we need to especially careful of what we wear, where it was made and if any animals were involved in the process. In recent news, there were major retailers who mislabeled real fur as “faux fur” which caused a lot more concerns for vegan shoppers. When I was searching for cute vegan clothes online, I came across The Vegan Collection. Right away I feel in love with their vibe and t-shirt “Veganize LA”. Now I own that shirt and wear it all the time! Ps. It’s a good conversation starter. Kevin from The Vegan Collection made time to give a great overview of the company, their outstanding charity work and what is coming up next for them. Check it out!

1. When, where and how did The Vegan Collection start?

The Vegan Collection officially launched in late 2008. As a longtime vegan, I always had difficulty finding vegan shoes, clothing and accessories that were stylish yet reasonably priced. I’ve always felt that in order for vegan products to be successful and accepted by a large mainstream audience they have to be priced comparatively to their animal-based counterpart. Despite what people say, it’s easy to find vegan alternatives for shoes, bags and accessories, but often their price range is outside of the general public’s reach.

The other main impetus behind The Vegan Collection was to collectively find a way to use both my and my partner’s personal skill-sets to help the animals. There are already a great deal of organizations out there doing amazing work for the animals, making documentaries, running rescues, doing undercover work, etc. Instead of duplicating their efforts, we wanted to figure out a way to utilize our talents and support those already successful endeavors. That’s why we have given 25% of our profits to charity from day one.

2. Can you explain the selection process for the products sold? {vegan, style, labor factors, environmental impacts, etc}

First and foremost, the most important aspect is what we sell is completely free of animal bi-products. Another huge concern of ours is that individuals who manufacture our products receive a fair wage for their labor. We personally visit the factories we use to make sure the working conditions are healthy and safe. The environmental aspects of our products are also a concern. Every manufactured product has an unavoidable environmental cost, but we do as much as we can to minimize the impact of our products. Once all those conditions are met, we then concern ourselves with style.

3. What are some popular items right now on the site?

The most popular items are always the most basic items. Our simple black “Captain” belt and our standard “National” bi-fold wallet outsell virtually everything else on our site combined. We also find an influx in sales on our “Veganize LA” or “Veganize SF” t-shirts when someone posts a photo of themselves or others wearing the tees.

4. Are your entire customer base vegan or are non vegans buying as well?

I would guess that most of our customer base is vegan/vegetarian, but we get quite a few veg-friendly people who are purchasing items for their non-veg family members and friends. A lot of people who have recently gone vegetarian buy our wallets and belts to replace their leather equivalent.

5. Any tips for fellow vegan businesses on how to become and stay successful?

It’s all about customer service. Since the market for vegan products so small your company really needs to be accessible. You can’t always please everyone, but listening to your customers and making decisions based on their feedback goes a long way.

6. Can you explain the charity aspect of your business? What charity do you support?

When you purchase an item from The Vegan Collection website, 25% of the profits from that purchase go to four animal rights charities that we have chosen. Customers get the option to direct their portion of that sale to a specific charity on our list at checkout if they have a preference. We also give a portion of the profits for every wholesale item sold to retail stores. As I mentioned before, supporting the animal rights community was a large part of the decision to start The Vegan Collection.

The four groups we support are:

Animal Cruelty Investigations: A California corporation dedicated to the prevention of cruelty to farm animals. ACI is authorized by law to enforce California’s anti-cruelty statutes.

ARME: Animal Rescue Media Education: Their mission is to eliminate the suffering of all animals. This goal is achieved by rescuing unwanted and homeless animals and by educating the public of the vast extent of the suffering animals endure in society.

Kitten Rescue: A Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to finding loving homes for needy cats and kittens.

The Welfare of Stray Dogs: A Mumbai, India-based organization working to eradicate rabies and control the street-dog population in a humane, scientific way.

We have witnessed first hand the great work that these organizations have accomplished and want to do what we can to support their remarkable efforts.

7. What’s coming up next for The Vegan Collection?

We have a bunch of new items coming out soon! In the next couple of months we will have new women’s wallets, a men’s bi-fold wallet that has a coin purse (a constant request from customers), a new iPhone case, plus a couple of messenger bags that we are developing. We are also working on our first wallet design that will use 100% recycled PET fabric which we’re really excited about.

8. How can we find The Vegan Collection store?

You can find The Vegan Collection online, Facebook and Twitter. You can also find our products at various vegan stores around the world!

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