About the Company Vegan Street is a for-profit organization committed to a principal of "commerce with a conscience"; we are activists who happen to run a business. We pledge to make high quality products that are not abrasive to the environment, and we aim to do this at a cost that is affordable to our friends in the movement. Our mission is to help spread the message of veganism to the world, with creativity and compassion.

About Us

Vegan Street was founded in late 1997, by Marla Rose and John Beske. The idea formed slowly, and we had no idea that this would be the end result. Although we didn't officially start our company until several years later, I believe that the event that helped bring to fruition our nascent dream was Chicago's annual Gay Pride parade in the summer of 1995. I (Marla) was participating with some friends from my job at the animal shelter. I'd attended Gay Pride in the past and I was well aware of what a boisterous, wacky, glittery parade it was. And while I knew that there was no way I could compete with a roller-blading 7-foot tall man in a fairy costume blowing bubbles over the crowd, I had no desire to ride by waving like Queen Elizabeth, either; I wanted there to be something at least slightly memorable about our tiny portion of the parade. I had a germ of an idea...I thought that our dog Lenny should be featured in the signs we carried. Talking this over with John, we came up with a simple slogan, Neutered and Proud, that accompanied the perfect photo of Lenny looking, well, neutered and proud. We also made a poster had him wrestling another dog, in which they appeared to be in a "compromising position", with the caption: Promote Safe Sex, Spay or Neuter Your Pets. Although our small but enthusiastic gathering of shelter workers was pretty tame in comparison with some of the other bon vivants, we definitely attracted the desired result: attention. All along the parade route, revelers would hold up their dogs yelling, "He’s neutered, too!" People would run up to the shelter's emergency vehicle (which served as our float) to take pictures with us, with our signs. After several people asked if we sold t-shirts, a little light bulb went off in my head: why couldn't we? What a great way to spread the message! A seed was planted - on an almost subconscious level, I knew that I wanted to do more of this type of thing, but on a larger scale and full-time. Vegan Street was discovered after searching for a way to merge our practical need to pay for groceries with our beliefs about animals and the planet. After much reflection, this is our conclusion. Vegan Street is an integration of our mutual passions: creativity, activism and education. Promoting a vegan lifestyle is our mission.

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This page was launched October 14, 1998

©1998, 1999 Vegan Street