Wearing leather sandals as a vegan?!

Wearing leather sandals as a vegan?

As stated before, I will soon be vegan (I've taken steps of cutting things out of my diet 1 by 1 because I take this very seriously as a lifelong commitment). I've also made the choice to never purchase the skin or fur of animals again. (And I haven't for over 2 years.)

I've got these really comfortable sandals that I've had for 6 years. The tops are leather. I believe that throwing them away would be wasteful and disrespectful to the animal that died for them, and I believe that in my care they could last decades. So I'm thinking of ways to reconcile them with my moral imperative, since a vegan wearing leather is pretty hypocritcal.

What if I carve the words "never again" into the front straps (quite visibly) so that I can use them as a discussion piece for what motivated my change? Would this be self-righteous? What if I don't preach about them, and simply reply "what do you think?" to anyone who asks, and then ask if they would like to learn more?

I agree throwing them away would be a waste.

I think carving words into would be a step towards preaching and is unnecessary. Fake leather looks like real leathers, so nobody but you will actually know it is real.

And anybody who would challenge you for wearing the shoes is an a-hole. But if they do an answer of I bought them b4 I was a vegan should suffice, if they persist after that you don't want to be acquainted with that person.