flashed right in front of my face. It looked like
a wire wheel. I turned the car around and realized the
intersection was actually a T-junction, with a parking
lot on one side. I looked closer and there was an E-Type
Jag on the roof of a house. A man and woman were
in it, totally inebriated, not a scratch on them. She’d
been driving through the parking lot and hit a log; she
was going so fast, at least a hundred miles an hour,
that they’d become airborne. That car was so close to
me, if I’d been ten seconds, maybe five, ahead, I would
have been dead. I think of that flash now as divine
intervention.
It also made me realize it was time to go home.
It was the end of 1969. The Summer of Love was long
over, and so was my California adventure. So I got in my
car and drove back to Vancouver, all the way in the rain,
without windshield wipers. I got back just in time for
Christmas, parked the car and the axle broke. It never
moved again.
I was twenty-one years old and it was time to figure
out what I was going to do with the rest of my life.
But what, I wondered, was that going to be? JF
John meets a Christian guru, who
invites him down to his place in
California. John hops in his Citroën
ID and heads to San Jose, where
he finds a house full of young men,
expanding their minds. It turns out
not to be his scene, and after a
terrifying near-miss while driving,
he returns home to Vancouver in
time for Christmas and the next
step on his journey.
1969
1969
29
1968
30
THE SHOES
Step into the world of John Fluevog and discover
some of his most iconic footwear.
31
32
In fifty years we have created more than
three hundred shoe families and thousands
of different shoe styles. That’s a lot of funky
footwear. Each year, I start a new sketchbook.
I come up with the initial sketch, the feeling
of the season. My ideas are like a clear, pure
stream that trickles down a mountain and
across the desert floor. Then the design
team gathers that stream of ideas and makes
them into shoes. I also write the messages—
I call them “the thoughts of the season”—
and put them on some of the shoes. It’s these
messages that are the essence of the brand.
PREVIOUS PAGE A display of shoes at the Ottawa store, just steps away from the centre of government,
the House of Commons
33
34
FIVE KEY KICKS
1
Pilgrim
This super-pointy-toed, buckled
T-strap loafer was the first shoe I
designed for women, back in 1986.
It was based on a Victorian design
with cowboy boot influences.
It’s still one of our best sellers
thirty-five years later, although
it has updated features like the
rubber sole plate and 1.25-inch
leather-wrapped heel. Today it’s
part of the Truth family, which
is full of straight-up winners like
the Eileen, a zip-up ankle boot
with ornate buckles. “Truth and
integrity since 1970.”
2
Munster
You know the Munster. It’s the
platform shoe with the sexy,
oversized Louis XIV heel that was
made famous first by Lady Miss
Kier, who wore them on the cover
of Deee-Lite’s 1990 debut album,
World
