With respect to vegan kicks, I know that not all vegan/synthetic leathers are petroleum based, but one would think the petroleum oligarchs would be all over the opportunity to have their fingers in another pie.
Especially now that the "plant-based" marketing term has somewhat sanitized/rehabilitated the concept that the word "vegan" had made anathema to so many.
While I'm not vegan, I would definitely be down to skate alternative/synthetic textile kicks if there were more options.