I wouldn’t say "convert," but if acceptable alternatives from man made materials exist, why not switch and decrease our reliance on animal products, the vast resources needed to support their growth which could be put to better use, and the methods used to bring them to market? If someone could save the needless loss of life of a few animals over one's lifetime by making a few simple changes to your lifestyle, why wouldn't you want to? One step at a time is good, right?
That got me thinking. I have a question regarding footwear and vegans & animal rights attitudes. Where I come from there are there are multitudes of deer hit by cars lying on the side of the road every morning. On my trip just this morning, I counted four new deer, including a baby fawn, on the side of the road. The carcasses are just left to rot on the side of the road or dragged into a field to decompose.
Do you think it would be acceptable to animal rights activists to wear footwear made solely from deerskin where no animal was raised or hunted for their hides? Would it be okay and supported to not let an unfortunate loss of animal life go to waste? A company could pay unemployed people per hide to go out every morning and gather up fresh carcasses, then turn the leather into fashionable shoes and boots? The byproducts could also be turned into fertilizer. The company name would be prominently put on the man made sole of the footwear to prove the authenticity of a humane product (you could call the company something like "Honor Bound Footwear"). Do you think there would be a market for such an endeavor, and would consensus animal rights people be willing to pay a premium for hand-made fashionable shoes and boots like these, and where supply would be limited and often made to order only when the raw materials are retrieved?
And if you get the right set of interesting "characters" (ala Duck Dynasty) running the company and gathering the carcasses, it might also make for a good reality show.