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I KNOW WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT MY SHOES:

Creative. Original. Funky. Sassy. Groovy. Artistic. The

funny thing is, I didn’t have a clue that I was artistic

until I was in my thirties. I didn’t even really like artistic

people. I thought they were kind of sketchy.

It turns out that I’m both practical and creative.

That was quite a discovery for a kid who was dyslexic

and bad in school, who almost didn’t graduate and who

never really knew what he wanted to be when he grew

up. A lot of my life was me not thinking I was good at

things, then finding out later that I actually was.

It’s been fifty years since I’ve been selling and making

shoes, and after all this time, I’ve just started to under-

stand who I am. It’s taken me this long to realize that

my business has been my spiritual journey. Now I want

to encourage and maybe inspire others who are setting

foot on the same path.

So let’s start at the beginning. No, let’s start before

the beginning.

I was born on May 15, 1948, to Ruth and Sigurd

Fluevog, in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, on

the far-left coast of the North American continent.

My sister Gail followed three years later and my brother

Glen five years after that. We have an older sister, too,

Karen, who was born in 1943.

We had a very free childhood. Even when I was little,

I rode my bike everywhere. We lived at 6th and Fraser

and one day, when I was eleven or so, I rode my bike

all the way from home across what was then known as

the Second Narrows Bridge, up that steep hill to North

Vancouver and back again. Must have been twenty

kilometres, maybe more. The bridge, which spans the

Burrard Inlet, had just been finished, and it was crazy

and dangerous and a little bit scary. But we just went

off and did stuff like that back then.

My dad was an eccentric character, really smart,

and a big personality, the kind of guy who was never

embarrassed by a moniker like Sigurd Cornelius. It’s

royalty, right? That’s the kind of man he was. He was

a huge influence in my life—it took me a long time to

get over being Sigurd’s son, because that’s what I was,

Sigurd’s son. I didn’t have an identity of my own for a

long, long time. Where Sigurd was often critical and

demanding, Mom was loving and kind; she encouraged

us, whatever we decided to do, as long as we were

good and believed in God.

They were both devout Christians—in fact, my mother

always said she married my dad because he was the only

true Christian around. Their faith was a huge influence

on me as a child and for a long time after that. Even now.

John Fluevog is born to parents

Sigurd and Ruth in Vancouver, BC.

He has an older sister, Karen, and

two younger siblings, Gail and Glen.

To future generations, May 15 will

become known as International

Fluevog Day.

MAY 15, 1948

1948

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