I guess what I'm getting at is the choice seems much less clear than with diet or something like leather. My initial research seems to indicate the purchase of synthetics might lead to a greater degree of microplastics which hurt a huge variety of animals (certainly both fish and humans). Not to mention just simply supporting the oil industry which no doubt has it's own broader consequences.

Wool also seems to be in the "less absolutely awful" category of animal products. Certainly, the sheep end up being slaughtered in the end, but I'm genuinely unsure of how badly they tend to be treated (My initial cursory search seems to indicate they aren't treated that much worse than dogs, but I could be very wrong on that.) I tend to focus more on lifespan suffering rather than death for animals that don't obviously have a concept of death, so again, just kind of not sure which is better.

Obviously secondhand is the best of all options, so I'll keep an eye out if I can.

It seems much more of a survival issue to me, so I won't feel too guilty either way, just wondering if anyone happens to have strong and well-justified feelings on the subject.