Doghammer Claims the Bike Graveler is the First 100% Vegan MTB Shoe

May 13, 2022
by Ed Spratt  
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German outdoor brand Doghammer has launched what it claims to be the first 100% vegan shoes for mountain biking.

The Bike Graveler is made from 100% vegan materials with everything being from non-animal sources including the glue that holds the shoes together. The Bike Graveler is made from a mixture of vegan leather, natural canvas and real cork, and Doghammer says that because the removable insole is made from cork it should dry quickly and be odorless. To provide plenty of grip the shoes are built with a Vibram sole that is also made using recycled rubber.

We are starting to see more brands create more sustainable footwear options with Five Ten launching its Primeblue ocean plastic shoes last year. Finding vegan MTB shoes can be quite tricky with lots of options having suede as the main material of the shoe. This is especially true for flat pedal riders who want animal-free footwear although it has definitely become easier in recent years. I have been running a mixture of Five Ten's Trailcross and new Primeblue freeriders over the past few years, although they do sit in a moral grey area as it's not clear where the glue comes from for the shoes.

photo
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Doghammer's Bike Graveler shoes are available now for clipless riders with a flat pedal option becoming available in June. The flat pedal version sells for €139.90 with the clipless option retailing at €159.90. You can find out more here.

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111 Comments
  • 170 4
 vegans eat the weirdest stuff
  • 26 1
 Yes, no more bananas in enduro, just eat your shoes!
  • 12 1
 I thought the shoes were the vegans. They don't eat meat, so only plants are allowed to wear them.
  • 4 2
 An like most veguhrns, pretty chonki
  • 21 32
flag danprisk (May 13, 2022 at 13:48) (Below Threshold)
 Veganism isn't about food, it's an ethical position in support of animal rights largely focused on animal agriculture. Food is just one of the most prominent ways that animal products are used in daily life, and one of the easiest ways to abstain from them.
  • 32 4
 @danprisk -- spotted the vegan
  • 24 5
 @danprisk: Humor is an ethical position too, based on the basic human right not to be taught a lesson every time a joke is cracked.
  • 6 2
 Just go ahead and make clown shoes, doghammer
  • 7 8
 @danprisk: incorrect but I understand why you think it was bourn out of efforts focused on animal rights. Veganism was an ideal that came from the post-modern, neo-Bolshevik construct that gave voices to animals. Chickens danced with bears, horses danced with pigs, goats danced with cattle. It was an idea that animals belonged in a free society and it catalyzed this sort of Utopian vision that, one day, a chicken and a farmer would be at the dinner table eating together.
  • 4 2
 @Ryanrobinson1984: #animalfarm
  • 3 2
 wish they were also in rainbow colours... Frown
  • 54 6
 Ooooohhh, so close to being vegan, yet they have the word 'dog' stitched onto them, thus insinuating that canines are beneath humans. You absolute savages.
  • 5 1
 Speciest shoes
  • 13 0
 I only clicked on this because I’ve been searching for dog leather shoes for ages, my kangaroo and horse leather shoes are my current favorites, but it would be nice to get a closet full of different animal species.
  • 3 2
 Plus the name dog hammer clearly refers to a hammer for hitting dogs and therefore promotes animal cruelty
  • 51 8
 Stitched together by kids in Asia for $2 a day.
  • 22 3
 And those kids are vegan too...
  • 14 4
 @lkubica: I'm sure there's plenty of bugs in their daily rice bowl
  • 2 1
 @lkubica: ..but not by choice.
  • 3 2
 Try read the article before you comment
  • 31 2
 This looks like your dog's shit after putting him on a vegan diet
  • 9 1
 100% - These are the ugliest shoes I've seen in a minute.
  • 2 0
 Haha. Damn.
  • 20 0
 What's not vegan about half the mountain bike shoes out there today? My Shimano shoes don't seem to have any leather in them and looking up the AM5 and GR9 on their website now, I don't see any non-synthetic materials. Is it just that no one checked the glue? Do they still use animal based glues for athletic shoes?

Looking it up, it seems like most athletic shoe glues are polyurethane and thermoplastics. So I'm guessing that these guys just added some canvas and earth friendly colors.
  • 12 0
 Yup, almost any performance oriented shoe without leather in it is actually vegan. But to legally claim "vegan," in most countries were someone would care, you need to be able to prove that everything in there doesn't come from animals. And it's almost never worth the $ to get certs for all the parts.

The garbage hippie aesthetic is free though
  • 15 4
 @NorCalNomad: What makes these shoes vegan is the need for them to tell everyone they are vegan.
  • 3 0
 @NorCalNomad: playing the devils advocate here but I don’t think vegan is a protected term requiring any costly certification. Don’t shoot the messenger!
  • 5 4
 Most rubber isn't ethically sourced and a lot of veganism is rooted in ethics, not in eating animals. Rubber sourcing is damaging to animal populations, so if you use synthetic rubber you're in the clear. Most tires, for example, aren't vegan.
  • 8 0
 @GTscoob: I did not know that. (He says spitting out the hunk of Minion he’s been gnawing on for three days)
  • 1 0
 @GTscoob: isn’t synthetic rubber made from oil?
  • 3 0
 @GTscoob: is a tire still vegan when it runs over an animal?
  • 14 2
 For what it's worth, Ride Concepts has also told me they don't use any animal products in their shoe production except for the ones that very obviously state they have leather uppers. Signed, a vegan, steel road bike and full suspension riding, anti e-bike, coffee enthusiast, bearded, ex-XC racing, non-dentist.
  • 3 0
 based.
  • 17 3
 I feel like it would be worth 1 animal just to make it less ugly
  • 7 0
 would you donate yours?
  • 6 0
 For 1 the shoes are absolutely sh*t looking and I’ll be lucky if I ever see someone riding with them on! Second thing is why so much hate for people that are vegans? It’s like people classify them as bad as trump supporters for doing something they want to do not you!

I’m not a vegan either just can’t stand people that think about other peoples situations in live rather than concentrating on they’re own!
  • 2 0
 yeah around 20-40% India's population is vegan, veganism stemmed from respect for animals centuries back. Its not a new topic around that country. Every restaurant i've been to in India serves to both vegans and non vegans. its just a matter of acceptance/respect.
  • 2 1
 So much hate? Haven't seen any last few years, at least.
  • 1 1
 Commenter spouts hate for a product they don't have to buy, then accuses others of hating too. Weird.
  • 6 0
 the endura mt500 burner and the 5/10 freerider contact claimed to be vegan as well, so they're not the first. but i kinda like them.
  • 1 0
 actually i can't even find proof of this, so... whatever.
  • 3 0
 Out on a limb here,
I think they look good, Hoping for flat pedal versions that look similar to try out.

I do like a more “interesting” shoe than most, and the myriad of black options is fairly tiring. I get it, sales and all that, appealing to the tastes of the majority if you want to sell more product, doesn’t change my want for a more silly coloured shoe.
Used to wear 5.10 bright blue suede Ascent shoes, till I absolutely wore them out. If I could find those again, I’d be stoked.
  • 1 0
 I think they look fine too. I will not be buying them though because I'm cheap Smile
  • 26 22
 Poor vegans won't have to tell everyone they are vegan now, one look at their shoes, pale skin, and lack of muscle tone will be a dead giveaway.
  • 4 7
 well said
  • 20 9
 Hey the 90's called, they want their joke back
  • 10 13
 @ybsurf: Hey the 90's called, they want their "hey the xx's called they want their thing back" joke back.
  • 12 20
flag Bro-LanDog (May 13, 2022 at 13:03) (Below Threshold)
 @ybsurf: found the vegan. Did you know 'vegan' is Navajo for man who can't hunt?
  • 21 1
 It’s funny because usually people making these jokes are fat dads with a pregnancy gut.
  • 11 1
 Looks like you ride and ebike, your opinion isn’t valid here as your technically hated more than vegans.
  • 5 2
 @Cerealmike: oh shit! I noticed he was fat and looks unhealthy AF but didn't notice the ebike. Looks only a year older than me and he makes fun of vegan... lol
  • 2 8
flag Whataboutism FL (May 14, 2022 at 5:30) (Below Threshold)
 I think some in here are low on calories. Eat something, the manufactured bean curd isn’t enough. Hangry vegans are the worst.
  • 1 2
 No joke, they look ugly because they are marketing towards virtue signaling muppets.
  • 6 0
 100% Vegan?! For Shame! How many vegans had to die to make these shoes?
  • 5 2
 Isn't natural cork being over-harvested? I guess that's how you know these are vegans for the feels and not for the environment.
  • 9 1
 Veganism isn't really about the environment though. While there are very strong overlaps between veganism and environmentalism, and people do go plant based for environmental reasons, veganism itself is almost entirely about animal rights. There's a legitimate critique there as to whether using environmentally harmful, but animal-product free, gear is actually worse for all animals in the long run, but veganism tends to be focused on animal agriculture.
  • 3 0
 @danprisk: my vegan friends have definitely leaned into the environmental reasons as much as anything.
  • 4 6
 Its basically a religion at this point. These Doghammer shoes will be super comfy while waiting for the return of the hale-bopp comet.
  • 2 0
 @danprisk: Not true. Meat and dairy also have a much larger CO2 impact (beef is the worst), typically cost more, and have health impacts.
  • 5 0
 Blah blah blah, vegan, blah blah blah.

Can I at least SEE the damn sole?
  • 9 5
 So does it taste like shit then?
  • 1 1
 Learn to cook!
  • 1 0
 @audeo03: I cook eggs, burgers, and turkey everyday!
  • 7 4
 So vegan means no animals used to make it but petrochemicals are ok. How come I feel like someone missed the point...
  • 7 3
 Petrochemical aren't sentient.
  • 9 1
 @ybsurf: they were at one point...
  • 4 1
 Another fun fact. Most leather used for shoe production is a by product of the meat industry. That leather is going to find a home somewhere be it shoes or other goods as long as people are eating beef and pork.

Also if PETA and other animal rights groups wanted to really move the needle for not using leather in shoes they should push to change the import regulations/ taxes that HEAVILY favor leather shoes. Example: a waterproof shoe that is primarily leather has 3x less import taxes on it than one with primarily textile.
  • 3 1
 @Bro-LanDog: but we are not responsible for their death.
  • 7 1
 Yep. Veganism is almost entirely about animal rights, and generally focused on direct human actions impacting animals through animal agriculture. It definitely overlaps significantly with environmentalism, but there I'd argue you're veering more towards "plant based" than veganism. There's legitimate questions around the long term impacts of petro-chemicals harming broader animal populations, but I'll expect you'll find most self-declared vegans in the real world are pretty conscious and thoughtful about these sort of choices.
  • 4 4
 @ybsurf: when humans are responsible for an animal's death, it is far more human than the death they'd experience in nature.
  • 8 1
 @Bro-LanDog: I think maybe you have an overly optimistic idea of how most animal agriculture works. When animal lives are stripped of any inherent value, and reduced to just the monetary value of their bodies as an end product, it doesn't really create humane situations.
  • 6 0
 @Bro-LanDog: go check a factory farm and a slaughterhouse and get back to me.
  • 5 8
 @ybsurf: I was raised on a factory farm - go get your education somewhere besides netflix and get back to me
  • 2 0
 @danprisk: pretty much how I feel at work every day and I AM human! LOL
  • 2 5
 @danprisk: I don’t think you know what you’re talking about.
  • 6 5
 I wonder how these would work for Crossfit or Fatbiking as those are the two things other than being vegan people are annoyingly evangelical about. If so- they are missing their core demographic by not also targeting them.
  • 6 2
 crossfit and fatbiking....very 2015 comment
  • 9 3
 Generally it seems more like the people who complain anytime the word vegan is mentioned are a lot more "annoyingly evangelical" than anything else. Looking through the comments here would only support that.
  • 4 3
 @danprisk: did they trigger the hyper vegan??!!
  • 1 0
 They look like they might also be good for aerobics.
  • 6 3
 Like everything vegan, they won't taste as good as they look!
  • 5 2
 You know how these shoes are vegan...
  • 6 1
 Don't worry they will tell you.
  • 4 1
 they dont even have tongues
  • 3 1
 The price doesn’t appear to have had the ‘righteousness’ tax applied to them, so are they truly vegan?
  • 2 0
 I think what's most amazing about this is that I assumed all my shoes were made of synthetic materials !
  • 4 1
 "Vegan", the most triggering word in the english language.
  • 3 0
 Love the 'Baby Diarrhea' color scheme
  • 3 1
 Gravel-specific products and vegan shoes. The most hipsteric combination ever. Don't forget the long beard.
  • 2 0
 I mean they don’t look any worse than most of the bike specific shoes already on the market
  • 1 0
 My VEGAN friend stopped wearing crocodile skin shoes. Unfortunately he's dead now ...he died from being eaten by a crocodile .
  • 2 0
 I imyerested what part of my 510 are created from animal based product?
  • 1 0
 Might be the glue
  • 2 0
 Is it wide or not? Is it human foot shaped or is it an italian dress shoe?
  • 2 0
 I'm sorry but that's just about the worst marketing i've ever seen.
  • 8 9
 OMG. For like 1000 reasons, take my money!
Name? Legendary.
Vegan? Beyond obnoxious. Awesome.

And they actually look cool AF.

Win-win-win…! ; )
  • 3 1
 Dog something.
  • 2 0
 Whooopity Doooo
  • 2 0
 Dogwater!
  • 2 0
 I'm...KETO
  • 2 4
 DogHammer... as in tool to kick a dog? Or is it dog Bonero? The pet lover in me is incensed, but the fvckall in me has to laugh.
  • 3 3
 Would be cheaper to wear a shirt with "opinionated" on it.
  • 1 0
 And your comment is?
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