A Letter to Modcloth from a Vegan in a Huff
modcloth founders (they look like they could be vegans)
Hi guys,
I have added some new shoes to my “cool vegan shoes” pinterest page. (which btw you can also see from a page on this site. How cool)
Thanks to two of my awesome pinterest followers who alerted me that two shoes I put up from modcloth had leather linings. I immediately deleted them, and it was a good wake up call, as I was not being vigilant that night. I promise to be vigilant in the future.
It went down like this: Modcloth now has tags on their site. I was looking at a non leather shoe on their site and I saw the “faux leather” tag. I clicked on the tag, and a list of what I thought was “faux leather” shoes came up.
Wrong. These shoes are not “faux leather” but merely contain faux leather….many of them have leather too.
Modcloth has always disappointed me by being so unaware of vegans and vegan shoes. I assumed they had gotten with the times, and created this tag for vegans so they could search for vegan shoes…but no…they were just pointing out, seemingly, that these shoes were made of lesser quality materials so shoppers could avoid it. Asos does something similar where “real leather” shoes have a special tag proclaiming them REAL LEATHER, like this is a good thing…anyway.
I decided to do a little activism and write to modcloth giving them a piece of my mind. This was the exchange.
modcloth CEO
Dear modcloth,
As a vegan I am upset with the way certain shoes are labeled “faux leather” or “vegan friendly” yet have leather linings. For example, your (http://www.modcloth.com/shop/
This is very misleading for vegans who don’t think of leather or the skins of murdered animals to be a desirable thing to wear on their feet. I really wish you had a vegan shoe tab on your site instead of simply calling things the vague “vegan friendly” which somehow rubs me the wrong way, as well as took care to make sure shoes are really faux leather that you label as such.
Modcloth is a great company, but they are really lacking in compassion and knowledge about their vegan fanbase, and are really turning them off by mislabeling and misleading them. I wanted to let you guys know! Love you though, -Tor
I received the following response. I don’t mean to hurt this customer service rep’s feelings, but I don’t think this is an ideal customer service response. She seemed to try to point out where I was wrong (though in a cheery way), rather than understand and acknowledge the truth to what I am saying. Though what she says is correct and I am at fault for not having doublechecked, vegans are still being misled by modcloth by their “faux leather” tag.
The fact remains, modcloth does not and has never really understand the needs of their vegan customers, which I am sure are many.
the founders. they are dog lovers for sure
Her response:
Thanks for taking the time to write in to us! I’m terribly sorry that you felt mislead by the Fashionable Focus Heel! We try to be as transparent to our customers as possible when it comes to the composition of all of our products. I’ve checked on this specific piece to ensure that it was not mis-marked but I do see that we noted that the product was made of “faux leather, soft leather lining” in the story and then again in the details noted that the product had a “man-made upper and sole [with a] leather lining”.
I greatly apologize that this description didn’t sit quite well- but please know that we do have a plethora of vegan/synthetic products on the site! Be sure to keep your eyes peeled and let me know if you have any additional questions or concerns! Thank you again for your feedback Tor, I’ll be sure to make your voice heard!
I somewhat obnoxiously sent a follow up response because I did not feel she had understood my issue:
Thanks for your response. I know that you wrote that in the description, yet you have a tag for faux leather, and if someone were to click on that tag all the allegedly faux leather items would appear. This is what I did assuming it was a tag for vegans who were interested in faux leather shoes. Unfortunately the items that appear when you click on the tag are not “faux leather”, but only contain faux leather. Do you see why this is misleading for vegans? I’d love modcloth to become more vegan friendly and this is very misleading for vegans.
Yes, I know that was an annoying thing to say to try to hammer my point home, but I feel sad that modcloth has such a huge opportunity to support vegan shoes since they carry so many faux leather shoes. Yet they don’t have a separate tab on their site for vegan shoes, or even a “vegan” tag. The one tag they do have that could be helpful to vegans is instead extremely misleading and could cause vegans to buy shoes with leather linings or worse.
I know many young people are vegan these days and they seem like just the alternative-enough crowd who would shop at and enjoy modcloth. But modcloth remains blissfully unaware of them.
Modcloth does usually write in their long winded product descriptions that a shoe is “vegan friendly” if it is made with non leathers, but that term has never sat well with me. I’m not totally sure why. First, what does that even mean? Are they saying it is a vegan shoe? Or merely somehow friendly to vegans… it just doesn’t make sense. Again, they aren’t taking the needs of vegan customers seriously. Yet modcloth is one of the best places to find vegan shoes since they sell so many cheap and interesting styles of shoes.
I much prefer the term “suitable for vegetarians” over the undefinable “vegan friendly”
This is one of the reasons why it is so much nicer to support vegan shoe companies, like Good Guys Don’t Wear Leather, Cri de Coeur, and Beyond Skin (check out their kickstarter…only 6 days to go.) .
Is it just me of does “vegan friendly” rub you the wrong way? Do you think I was overly obnoxious to mod cloth? Or do you believe the customer is always right, (ha)?
I’m glad you wrote. I think there’s a general lack of awareness in a lot of cases and you helped them understand what this customer base needs. And vegans love shoes! Proper labeling would really put them in favor of the vegan community. Small, but collectively, we vote with our dollars and our business adds up!
INdeed. Thanks for saying so! By the way I love your style blog!!! Love your style. I have been wanting to post style pics on this blog for a long time. You have inspired me.
I’d love to see your style posts! We need more vegan fashionistas. My blog is all vegan now, but at the beginning I wore some leather :( And congrats on getting results from your letter! You’ve made it easier for other vegans and raised awareness about what vegan really means.
Thanks Jean! Ok I am going to try to post a style post! I loved your blog.
I definitely agree that Vegan Friendly should be just that: VEGAN. If it isn’t, it’s just window-dressing bullshit, to put it mildly ;) It’s like someone saying (and I’ve seen this online, which is super infuriating): “I’m vegan pretty much most of the time but eat meat every once in awhile to get protein” (!?! Seriously, WTF).
And no, I don’t think that your response was obnoxious (I’m try my best to be respectful when I’m talking about these things to companies, but when I’m ranting to people who get it, it’s a different story)–I believe you were clarifying your point to those who might not understand anything about veganism or how seriously those of us who care about animals consider these labels.
That said, I don’t believe the customer is always right but you were very respectful in both of your emails. I think that’s how we’ll get through to people (although I falter in this regard in other facets of my life)–with caring and firmness in what we want but not being so understanding that we cave to weak responses they give (and I think you didn’t cave and were assertive, but not aggressive). It’s unfortunate that most of our culture and many of us women are taught that we can’t be assertive for fear of being seen as aggressive and thus called a bitch.
Unfortunately, I think that ModCloth won’t really care about this until enough people start calling them out on their faulty labelling. I think I’ll write in, too, since I like Modcloth’s business format and think that they just aren’t understanding how important this is.
Sorry this was so long, but I’m glad you did this. As I said in my pin to you, I wish Chelsea Crew cared, but I think it’s the same thing as Modcloth…
Thanks Kim. I really appreciate you saying all that and it is great to hear you agree that vegan friendly IS wishy washy! I love that I’ve met you through pinterest!
I’m glad that I met you on pinterest, too! :)
I believe they heard us as they are no longer saying vegan friendly! Thanks Kim!
I’m glad that they stopped using the label, but now it’s time for them to label things correctly in their “Details” tab. So this is what I just sent on their customer care webmail form:
“Hi,
I would like to make a request: Could Modcloth please list if certain shoes contain a leather lining or list that “All materials are man-made?”
The reason I ask and am frustrated is that for many of the shoes, the only thing that the “Details” tab lists is “Man-made materials.” The problem is this has NOT been the case for shoes such as Chelsea Crew (I actually had to talk to a customer care person to find out that the shoes were not actually vegan!).
So yeah, if Modcloth could make a vegan shoes category (or at least list what if all materials are man-made or not), that would be great for those of us who are vegan and like ModCloth.
Thanks for your time,
Kim in Minneapolis”
We’ll see what happens now…
Genius letter Kim! Thanks for writing it! Let me know what they say. Fingers crossed….xxxx
Hey, Victoria!
So here’s what I got back about 2 hours ago from Modcloth:
“Hi Kim,
Thanks for writing in for help regarding our non-leather shoe selection. I’m so sorry that you have had a hard time finding the perfect styles that are all man-made materials. I have noticed some inconsistencies on our site in the past and am fully supportive in getting those styles labeled correctly. I am working with our other product teams to have the correct items tagged properly and to ensure that this category is flawless. Thank you for bringing it to my attention and if you have questions about any specific product questions or need help finding some great vegan shoes, I am here for you!
If anything else comes up, we are here 24/7 to help via phone, email and live chat!
Kate A.
ModStylist Associate Lead
1-888-495-9699
ModCloth.com”
I’m happy with the response and will be even happier when the issue is resolved! Give it up for us calling this out and for Modcloth being open to making changes :)
AMAZING!! Amazing. SO proud. Thank you!!
Thank YOU for inspiring me to get off my duff and do this! It’s a lot easier when you know you’re not alone :)
: DDD
Agreed.