Brittany Armstrong Ashley Boucher Maggie Bryant Brittany Kolodziej

Brittany Armstrong Ashley Boucher Maggie Bryant Brittany Kolodziej Andrea Rodgers

Veganism is based on deep seeded human feelings of guilt over the rape of the natural world. The companion emotional component to guilt is a feeling of human connectedness to nature.

College Students Young Environmentally Conscious Caucasian

Thinness, relatively short in stature, and healthy looking skin. Vegans, generally speaking, are not athletes. This has to do with the requirements of athletic nutrition. They simply do not have enough protein to support athletic endeavor although they do enjoy many outdoor activities.

Toms are very vegan friendly. For every pair you buy, a second pair goes to a child in Africa. “One for one". They are also one of the latest fashion trends as they are very affordable and stylish.

Interviews and observations showed all of the values and similarities within the vegan subculture. Vegans are concerned about what products are made of (Sirsi, Ward, and Reingen 1996). When discussing vegan-buying patterns state, “[Vegans] Shun items like wool clothing and leather shoes. ” They also do not purchase any fur, silk, and any other animal products.

Findings also showed that they enjoy wearing unique pieces that no one else has. They enjoy being original whether the item is new and from a mainstream department store, from an online retailer online, or it is old and found at a thrift store. Also, vegans tend to prefer simple styles consisting of jeans and t-shirts with a bold accent colors or a pattern to define their look.

If anyone is trying to sell or market to this subculture then they need to be aware of their values and not use any ads with animal products and will need to offer products in their store that are not made of animal products. Stores catering to vegans will need to offer a different variety of products “Other alternatives to wool, leather, and silk include bamboo, PET (made from recycled bottles), soy fabric, nylon, polyester, lyocell, and more” (Chang, 2011).

As durability increases and cost of products decrease, we can predict that more niche market retailers will begin to buy eco-friendly products and even new retail stores will open being geared to only selling environmental friendly goods and services. This can all be integrated into niche vegan stores to further grow the eco-friendly products, which is a trend in the vegan community.

We can hope to see higher use of post-consumer recycled fiber and renewable resources being incorporated into fashion as well as the use of recycled rubber materials such as automobile tires. Clothing is also starting to be made for the vegan consumer that is made from bamboo, one of the softest materials in the world, even more so than cotton.