I’m a vegetarian, buy products not tested on animals, eat free-range organic eggs (I couldn’t be a vegan; I really like chocolate chip cookies!), and don’t purchase leather products. I simply won’t support that industry (I will admit to caving once on a secondhand product that may or may not have been genuine leather; I still tell myself it wasn’t, but I really don’t have any idea), and won’t have some poor cow’s skin as my sofa cushion or, as is more pertinent here, notebook cover. It really frustrates me to find a notebook I like in the store, and then start reading the product details, only to find out there are animal products involved. It’s part of why I like Moleskines; the generic alternatives may be cheaper, but the Target version, for example (Markings notebooks, I think they’re called), has a bonded leather cover. It’s entirely possible to get very leather-like results without the animal death these days; that’s why I have to check the tags! So for me, leather notebooks are something that are entirely avoidable, and a positive not just for me, but for the companies, I think: a few people might put down a nice product because it isn’t genuine leather, but I’d say there are more who would put it into their shopping basket if no animal byproducts were involved, than would give up on something they liked just because it included a dead animal. Think on this, please, office supply industry!
Writer's Block 