The Vegan Collection Store has a band new look and many new items!

It is with great pleasure that we announce the launch of our new and improved website, which can be accessed by visiting www.thevegancollection.com. Here are a few main features of our new website:

What’s New The “What’s New” link at the top of the page menu lets you see what’s new on the site at a quick glance. Visit “What’s New” here.

Cheaper Shipping Shipping rates continue to rise when purchasing items online. To counteract that, we’ve now added real-time shipping quotes and it’s now possible to ship some of our items for as little as $3.00! A list of shipping options is shown at checkout and you can pick the one which best fits your budget and delivery date.

Two New Donation Organizations Every purchase you make at The Vegan Collection Store benefits the animals. We have given 25% of all profits to organizations that are advocates for animals since we started the company and we are happy to announce our the two new charities that we are now supporting. Animal Cruelty Investigations (ACI) is a corporation dedicated to the prevention of cruelty to farm animals and work to protect farm animals through cruelty investigations, humane enforcement efforts and the seizure of abused and neglected farm animals. The Welfare of Stray Dogs (WSD) is a Mumbai, India-based organization working to eradicate rabies and control the street-dog population in a humane, scientific way. Visit our “Organizations We Support” page here to read more about the four groups that we have chosen.

Store Locator Are you the type of person who likes to try before you buy? The Vegan Collection currently does not have a storefront, but our items are sold by many retailers around the world. You can check out the new “Store Locator” to see if there’s a store near you. Visit the “Store Locator” here.

Gift Certificates We’ve added the ability to purchase gift certificates online in various increments. As an added convenience you can receive them via email. You can purchase gift certificates here.

Newsletter The new bi-monthly newsletter from The Vegan Collection will keep you informed about new products that we are adding to our store and any events we plan to attend. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.

Improved Search You can do a quick search from the homepage to locate an item in our catalog, as well as an advanced search that allows users to search by price range, date it was added to the store or color/size/style. You can visit the “Advanced Search” page here.

Tell A Friend Did you see something on our site you would like to share? You can now automatically e-mail your friends about any item on our site. This easy feature is available on the bottom of every product page.

Entirely New Shopping Cart We have completely revamped our shopping cart and checkout process for a better user experience.

Account Information Track your purchase history, delivery status, newsletter subscription and recent orders all through your account.

We hope you find our new website useful. As always, we greatly welcome and value any feedback you may have. If you have any comments, suggestions, or questions, please feel free to email us.

When talking to our customers, one of their most requested items has been a more “formal” looking belt. Something that would work with a suit or a pair of dress pants as well as dress up denim. To respond to that request, we are proud to introduce “The Garrison” to our current line of belts. The Garrison has a rounded brass buckle and fastener as well as exposed stitching around the edges/ loop for standout style. The belt is exactly 1″ wide to accommodate the small sized belt loops found on many dress pants. It comes in both black and brown, costs $23 and is available now in our shop. Click on this link to see more photos or pick one (or two) up today!

The Vegan Collection is excited to add the “Spencer Pocket” to our line of wallets.

It is available in 5 colors (black, brown, blue, white and gray), has 3 card holder slots, a clear ID window, a large pocket to hold cash and change, and a snap to keep the wallet closed. This has been our most requested item, so we are thrilled that we are able to offer this new style. You can pick one up in our store today and still have it in time for the holidays!

Collectively Conscious is a vegan grocery store that will open in L.A. in 2010. It will be a one stop vegan store where you truly get every vegan item you could ever want in one visit. On Saturday, December 19th and Sunday, December 20th they will be having a free showcase event at 2 Headed Horse Art Studio in Los Feliz. On Saturday, The Vegan Collection will be there along with other vendors selling products, plus plenty of snacks for sale (cookies, juice, coffee), and even a DJ. It will be a perfect time to pick up those last minute Christmas presents from local vegan vendors. You can find all the details below and here is the Facebook event page.

Date:
Saturday, December 19, 2009: 11:00am – 10:00pm
Sunday, December 20, 2009: 11:00am – 3:00pm

Location:
2 Headed Horse Art Studio
1770 Glendale Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026

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Someone tipped us off to this clip that was aired on TMZ on TV last week. Media mogul Harvey Levin takes out his Vegan Collection “Traveler” wallet and proclaims “Leather Free!” His staff gives him a hard time about it, but we think it’s great that Harvey’s standing up to his staff and standing up for the animals by not wearing leather.

Just got done editing the product shots of our new belt “The Sampras.” Look for that and our new style of wallet in the online store next week.

We are happy to announce that New York City’s MooShoes is now carrying The Vegan Collection wallets in their shop and online store. And from now until September 26th you can save 10% off our wallets from them if you use the code veganwallets at checkout. The discount will automatically apply. Order the wallets online from MooShoes here.

We are happy to announce that VeganEssenatials, one of the oldest cruelty-free retailers in the United States, is now carrying our belts and wallets. So if you’re ever in the Waukesha, WI area you can stop by their shop and see the items in person. Or you can order our products from them online here.

Generally we post about Los Angeles events, but there’s a few East Coast people out there that read this blog, so this is going out to you folks. The Vegan Collection is happy to support this fundraiser by donating a few items for the raffle. The great organization Open The Cages Alliance (OTCA) is presenting this benefit for the AETA’s Victims legal defense and the Skin Trade documentary.This all day event happening on August 8th from 1 – 9 PM in Washington, DC is hoping to bring awareness of government repression of activists and to educate people about the bloody fur industry. So if you are in the area, stop by and enjoy great vegan food, a root beer keg, great music, activist workshops and informative speakers including Shannon Keith, Will Potter, Darius Fullmer, Camille Hankins and Sean Day. For more information check out Open The Cages Alliance’s website here.

If you were at the Animal Rights National Conference a couple of weekends ago, this is old news, but for everyone else: The Vegan Collection is now offering wallets. We have three styles to choose from, a classic Bi-Fold, a simple Tri-Fold and a Compact Bi-Fold. All three are available in both brown and black. The bi- and tri-folds are $24 and the compact is $22. Stylish, vegan, reasonably priced and available in our store now.