Vegan Fitness Gifting Guide

What to Double-Check When Buying Gifts for Vegans

Sporting Goods

A lot of sports equipment will normally have leather, so this is the most obvious one to try to avoid.

Double check things like gloves, balls, shoes, bags, and belts. All of these do have vegan-friendly alternatives, you may just need to browse around a little more to find them.

Fun fact: The first synthetic baseball glove used in pro baseball was worn by Brian Gordon, a pitcher for the New York Yankees, in 2011. The glove was made by Scott Carpenter, and he posted a neat Instagram reel where he talks about the experience.

Good Things to Buy for a Vegan

As a vegan interested in fitness, there are many things, big and small, that can save time, improve results, and generally improve your quality of life.

Small but useful gifts for fitness buffs (<$30)

• Shaker bottle
• Food scale
• Meal prep containers

Gym Equipment and Accessories

Lifting Support

My favorite gym accessory is Versa Gripps. They are a form of lifting strap that is easy to attach and release, and also happen to be fully vegan! Straps are useful for pretty much any heavy back exercise movement, since your back will always be stronger than your grip.

At some point in your lifting, you may also want a lifting belt for extra support on some heavy lifts. There are countless belts that are made of leather, but alternative materials have become much more common in recent years. Here is an example of a 100% nylon lifting belt that is popular and well reviewed.

If you plan to compete in powerlifting, the only vegan belts I know of that are approved by the International Powerlifting Federation are the synthetic leather ones from StrengthShop.

Another support piece that you may want to pick up for lifting is a pair of shoes. Lifting in your normal tennis shoes or cross trainers is not typically a good idea because they are not very stable. One extremely popular option for the gym that is also vegan is the Converse All-Star, also known as “Chuck Taylors”.

These are good for lifting because they are wide, flat, and don’t have much cushion, which makes them very stable. I lifted in chucks for several years, and I think they are a great option. However, if you do squats or olympic lifts, you may want another shoe option that has some heel raise to get better leverages for those lifts.

That type of shoe is known as a weightlifting shoe, and there are various options from a lot of different brands. Finding out whether the shoes are vegan or not can be a little tricky because occasionally, they use leather support pieces and non-vegan glues that aren’t necessarily mentioned in their product details.

The only current brand that I know for sure has vegan weightlifting shoes is Inov8 Fastlift because they specifically label them as vegan. I am trying to reach out to other manufacturers to compile an article on confirmed vegan weightlifting shoes, so if I get any additional information, I will update this section.

When in doubt, if you can’t confirm the shoe you are looking at as a gift is vegan, maybe go for a gift card instead or ask for exact model links.

Equipment

You really only need two pieces of equipment to have a solid start at a home gym. An adjustable bench and a pair of adjustable dumbbells.

Adjustable dumbbells allow you to have one set of dumbbells that can be set to a wide range of weights. This saves both space and money, and is definitely the way to go for a home gym. There’s just no good reason to have a full rack of dumbbells at home where you are the only person using the gym.

There are some small downsides of adjustable dumbbells, but they aren’t really a big deal. The main one is that most brands do not do well with being dropped. You really shouldn’t be dropping them most of the time anyway, so hopefully this isn’t too much of a problem.

The other downside is that a lot of adjustable dumbbells can be awkwardly big, even when set to lower weights. This isn’t an issue with the Powerblock dumbbells that I currently use, but I had a set of Bowflex ones in the past that were always full size, and it was not ideal. They felt like I was curling a small microwave even at light weights.

For the bench, a nice adjustable bench could be the only bench you ever need. I really like REP Fitness Benches for a good balance between price point and quality. If you prefer something made in the USA or just very over-engineered and built like a tank, Rogue benches are also a suitable option, but you will pay more for them.

These typically adjust from flat to upright, with a lot of set points in between. That makes them great for a wide variety of exercises. Some of the more expensive options have extra features like decline angles and “zero-gap” benches, so there isn’t an awkward gap where your hips/glutes sit when you’re using it as a flat bench.

Miscellaneous

A gym bag is also nice to have if you go to a public gym so that you can carry a change of clothes and some shoes. I also like to keep some small accessories in my gym bag like a fabric rope cable attachment and fractional plates so that I can use them at the gym if they don’t have them.

Just make sure you avoid any leather bags or bags with leather straps. Most of them won’t have these, and I think this is one item that you can go pretty cheap on. It just needs to be big enough to hold the things you’ll regularly take, and doesn’t need any fancy pockets or other features unless you really have a need for them.

Something else that can be useful is a nice, durable water bottle. I prefer stainless-steel bottles so that I’m not drinking out of plastic more than necessary, and also so that I can drop it and beat it up without having to worry about it. The one I have been using lately is an Owala bottle.

If you’re having trouble getting in as much water as you should every day, you could try a smart water bottle that tracks your water with an app and reminds you to drink throughout the day.

The smart bottle I have used extensively in the past is the Hidrate Spark. I found that the software was getting a little less reliable over time in the last few months I used it, but it had been solid for years before that. It looks like they have a new bottle version out now, so that may be more reliable. Even with the issues, though, I would still go back to using this if I needed to track my water intake again.

If you want to splurge a bit, you could get something like a Theragun massage gun. That brand is the one I have used, but honestly, I think any of the cheaper knock-offs would perform pretty much the same since it’s such a simple concept. I will say the battery life on the Theragun is insane. We only have to charge ours every couple of months.

The massage guns may help with temporary relief or tightness and perceived soreness. You won’t want to use it on a bruise or an actual injury, but they are nice for general use.

Another big ticket item that can be fun is a video game system like a Meta Quest VR headset (formerly known as Oculus) or a Nintendo Switch. These play into the fitness theme because they both offer exercise games, and you can get a very solid cardio workout from those games.

This is a great option for people who hate long duration standard cardio like the elliptical or treadmill. It’s engaging and entertaining, while also getting your heart rate up.

Finally, if you’re getting a gift for someone else, it’s hard to go wrong with a gift card. You could get a gift card to a spa if your friend or family member enjoys spas, or you could get one to a supplement store like GNC or Vitamin Shoppe. Almost everybody who regularly goes to the gym is using at least one supplement, even if it’s just protein powder.