John Fluevog: Rebel Sole – SPIN

Walk into any Fluevog store—from Vancouver to Amsterdam—and you feel it immediately: this is not fashion as usual. It’s part art gallery, part spiritual sanctuary, part joyful rebellion. 

For 55 years, Vancouver-born legendary designer John Fluevog has been quietly reshaping what a shoe can mean, building a world where craftsmanship, whimsy, and radical self-acceptance stand at the center. Unlike most fashion designers, Fluevog never chased trends, celebrity approval, or commercial polish. Instead, he pursued the stranger, more soulful path and made magical, inspired shoes that feel alive, shoes that whisper to the wearer that you’re already enough exactly as you are.

His earliest creations in the 1970s artsy Gastown section of Vancouver, made with company co-founder Peter Fox, quickly became a magnet for musicians, theater kids, spiritual seekers, and anyone who didn’t quite fit the mainstream mold. Decades later, the fan list includes drag royalty, artists, Lady Gaga, collectors, and Jack White, who owns custom red-and-white Fluevogs and joined Fluevog’s anniversary celebrations with a collaboration: The Idol Jack. Yellow straps, embossed leather, metal hardware, logos stamped into the footbed—it’s a boot that captures the playful, alt-rock energy both are known for.

Today, 55 years in, Fluevog remains a designer who listens more to intuition than industry. His work is still made in family-owned factories, still sculptural, still spiritually inflected, and still a love letter to the people who feel a little different. 

I spoke with John about craft, inner worlds, community, dyslexia, and the surprising ways shoes can teach you who you are.

How have you built your fabulous, very unique shoe company?

There aren’t many companies where the owner is also the designer, and because of that, I have complete autonomy. I can do what I feel like doing—and I design from feeling. I’ll notice something, stop, think about why I noticed it, and then follow that thread. Anna Sui once said to me, “I’ve been noticing this,” and it helped me realize how creativity starts with attention. If we stop and notice, the creativity is already there.

I don’t look at trends. Every shoe we make is made by hand, in family-owned factories. We know these families; we know their kids. The craft matters. Especially in places like the little factory in Peru where my Peruvian shoes are made—those people are true craftsmen. So humanity isn’t just in my designs; it runs through every hand that touches the shoe. That’s rare.

What’s the origin story?

The company has a very simple ethos: I’m telling people they’re okay. I grew up dyslexic, and I didn’t think I was worthy or smart because I couldn’t transfer things from one page to another without mistakes. My business became a vehicle to realize that I am okay—and I want my customers to feel that too. You might think you’re weird, but you’re not. You’re exactly as you were meant to be. No mistake was made.

Who buys your shoes?

People who are fine being themselves. People who don’t need to follow rules someone else invented. 

Sometimes something just looks right to me, and I can’t explain why. When a design is correct, all the details come together and it starts to speak—really speak. It’s like looking at a piece of art across the room. The colors, the lines, the texture…it gives you joy. My customers respond to that joy.

Do you travel a lot?

I don’t need to travel to travel. I can go forward or backward in my mind. I can pick up energies from places I haven’t been. Travel is external and internal. That internal world is spiritual—I can move through time there.

After 55 years in the shoe business, I don’t feel less creative. In fact, I feel more creative. That’s a blessing.

Your shoes feel sculptural, whimsical, like an antidote to the heaviness of the world.

I try to keep seeing beyond the physical world—into another place. When I’m there, I’m not bothered by what’s happening here, because it’ll fade. It always changes.

What media inspires you?

I haven’t been reading much—it’s hard to concentrate sometimes. But I’ve been watching period pieces. I love the backgrounds, the settings, the way people are depicted. I enjoy when a film tries to understand what people were thinking then, instead of giving everything a modern twist. I’ve also been looking at a lot of historical shoes.

What’s your creative life like?

I find my life ordinary—I’m a watcher. I don’t think in black and white. Creativity, to me, lives in another world entirely. When I open stores, when I watch how factories operate, when I listen to my staff… I’m influenced by all these little comments and moments.

I feel like a conduit for what’s happening around me. My goal would be to walk fully in that spirit. Walk by faith. Walk in the wonderful world.