John and his longtime friend and ex - partner, Peter Fox, go back to biblical times. In those days, such scriptural characters as Methuselah lived to be, quite literally, thousands of years old. John, himself, is thousands of years old and Peter Fox is, in fact, Methuselah. Before they founded Fox & Fluevog, in the ancient biblical age of 1970, they were shepherds. Actually, they worked at Sheppard's, a venerable Vancouver shoe emporium, albeit a tad on the conventional side. As you can imagine, John and Peter felt a wee bit constrained, selling brogues all day to businessmen in suits and servicing only the occasional hipster. When, one day, the miraculous happened, it was followed by the inevitable: an old warehouse full of turn - of - the - century footwear (men's & women's, in mint condition, no less) became available to buy at one ridiculously low price. In a nanosecond, John and Peter were out the door and into their own store, fully stocked with brand new fifty year old shoes that, in 1969, were right in style. Fox & Fluevog immediately became the very coolest place to treat the feet and has remained so ever since. Around 1980, Peter heard the siren song of New York City and moved there to open his own store, specializing in design of Ladies' (particularly wedding) shoes. John took over the business and built it into the multinational mega corporation it is today, along the way forging his undaunted reputation for the world's most distinctive shoes.

The earliest sighting we can recall was when director Robert Altman came in during filming of "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" (that's a long time ago, Fluevogers) and bought a pair of knee - high, quasi - mediaeval boots. John had had his picture taken in them, only moments before. But we're not going to give Bob his money back.

In her movie, "Truth Or Dare", HRH Madonna opens a box of hot pink platform Fluevogs, slips them daintily on, clumps down the hall toward the camera and croaks, "Ya like 'em?". Exhibiting good taste. Madonna. Who'da thunk it?

Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth has been spotted regularly, loitering in our New York outpost, as has Perry Farrell, of Jane's Addiction and cofounder of Lollapalooza. Evidently Jane's addicted to Fluevogs. We don't mind.

Marilyn Manson and his merry band of supermodels recently graced (!) our Vancouver head office. But they just wanted free shoes, so we told them to piss off (unlike some of their fans, who tell them to piss on*). Even though we denied them free access to our shoes, they were still nice enough to grant us free access to their show. John went with Keith, who loved it (especially the part when the huge backdrop came down and spelled out the word "DRUGS" in twelve - foot Broadway lights), while John hated it. But then, he and young Mr. Warner have, uh, ideological differences.

*Ew.

You're wearing Angels right now, right? Look around - do you see him?

After a chance encounter in a New York jazz club, in the Summer of 1936, vibraphonist Lionel Hampton found himself invited to join the Benny Goodman Orchestra as a featured soloist. Hampton s playing style fit naturally into the smooth, melodic, yet strongly rhythmic arrangements that characterized the Swing Era and Goodman’s band in particular. In 1940, after distinguishing himself in that organization, Hampton left to form his own band, being later succeeded in his previous position by Red Norvo. A true giant of jazz himself, Hampton shared the stage over the next several decades with the field’s elite, including Gene Kruppa, Charlie Christian, Harry James, Charles Mingus, Illinois Jacquet, Dexter Gordon and Dinah Washington. As well as the vibraphone, Lionel Hampton was proficient on piano, drums and occasionally as a vocalist. His 1954 recording of "Flying Home", made with Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown and Buddy Rich, became his signature tune, as well as his biggest commercial hit.

Montevideo es la ciudad capital de la República Oriental del Uruguay. Un cerro, diversas playas y una bahía dan marco a un departamento convertido en ciudad, un histórico y democrático centro, más de cincuenta barrios, salas de espectáculo y exposiciones, fiestas populares, paseos verdes, el fútbol a la vuelta de cada esquina, ferias y "boliches" son algunas de las notas propias de Montevideo. A las caracteristicas de la vida de la capital del Uruguay, para 1996 le corresponde la responsibilidad de integrarle el privilegio de ser Capital Iberoamericana de la Cultura. 

Most of what you see are John's own original designs. Sometimes, however, they come to him in dreams, so the design credit technically goes to God. In some cases, there is a celestial music and new designs float into the design office on little fairy wings. In other cases, John leaves work very late at night, returning the next morning to find brilliant new shoe designs waiting, with no trace of authorship. As you can understand, the only explanation possible is that God is responsible for the latter two methods, whether directly or through elvin delegation. So, here at John Fluevog Shoes, we officially have two designers: John and God. Sometimes they fight over who's head designer.