Vancouver Fashion eZine - Online Magazine | Shoe Designer

"Life is to seek out beauty, be kind to your neighbours and love the world you're in." This sums up John Fluevog in a nutshell. Add in a heavy dose of humour, a positive attitude and an amazing selection of quality shoes - shaken not stirred - and you have a small glimpse into the wonderful world of Fluevog and his loyal "Fluevogians."

In his early years Fluevog "wasn't artistic at all - I was a brat." Life after high school was a kaleidoscope of adventures such as road trips up and down the coast, time in a commune and hanging out in an adobe house in the hills near Stanford. "I had a feeling I should go home. I owned an old Citroen car. I laid my hands on the car and prayed for it because it was broken. It went all the way from Palo Alto to Vancouver without stopping, with no windshield wipers, and it didn't move after that. It was done."

Working a shoe store was the first step to where Fluevog is today. It was where he met Peter Fox. When Fox decided to open his own shoe store Fluevog came with him. "We had the coolest, grooviest shoe store in the world - we just didn't know it." The store sold patent leather knee high boots in five colours, lace-ups and pull-ons, really high heel boots and high heel platforms, multi-coloured stuff - all for men. For the next 10 years Fox designed shoes and the business grew. But when Peter left in in the 1980's to move to New York, the economy had changed. Fluevog loaded his car with stock to survive and headed to Seattle where he opened "a store like Seattle had never seen. My name was out there and suddenly I realized people wanted there to be a designer. And that's actually how it started."

Inspiration is never a problem. "I have an old zipper ring binder. Ideas come to me and I'll draw them in. When it comes time to put a line together for a season I'll take everything out of that book and do thumbnail sketches, grouping them together by heel heights, shapes and customer types." Fluevog enjoys making the shoe components, but leaves colour selection to his team. An innovator from the beginning, he created the bio-degradable Angel Sole 20 year ago, long before anyone cared about environmental issues (read more at http://www.fluevog.com/code/families.php?family=Angels) His quality shoes are hand made in small factories with some runs no more than 400 pairs. Fluevog customers are extremely loyal and come from all demographics. They are encouraged to submit ideas for their dream shoes (www.opensourcefootwear.com) and so far 12 designs have been approved for production.

Highest moment - "When I opened my store in New York in 1990. Suddenly I was a big deal. I could get in to all the clubs and the trendiest people were at my opening." His lowest moment was not open for discussion. "I think there are low moments all the time in our lives. What is important is to understand they are just as prevalent as the good moments, they come and go. The key is to understand that you need to keep on doing the same thing as when you're in the high moments."

If you haven't had a chance to check out the website I would do it today (www.fluevog.com). Enjoy the humour and playfulness, check out the original designs and be sure to read the testimonials. "There are only two kinds of people in the world, those who shy away from attention and those who wear Fluevogs."