Is vegan footwear worth it or is it just marketing?

Most vegan shoes use plastic and synthetic materials that degrade more slowly than genuine leather, so it's not necessarily better for the environment. On the bright side, many have decent quality and reasonable durability if they're not ultra-cheap, and of course, if animal ethics matters to you, then it actually makes sense. The truth is there's quite a bit of marketing behind it, but there are also serious brands that simply use alternative materials without making a big deal about it - it's more about looking carefully than dismissing the whole thing.

It really depends on the model and brand. There are genuinely bad vegan shoes that fall apart in three months, but there are also brands making legit quality products with good synthetic materials - they last just as long as regular leather if you take care of them properly. The marketing side definitely exists, sure, because sometimes the price gets inflated just because it has the "vegan" label on it, but it's not always the case. If you're trying to avoid leather for ethical reasons, it's worth looking into brands with a good complaint history instead of just jumping on the hype.