The first time Madeline Kevelson stepped foot into a John Fluevog Shoes store, she was immediately greeted by employees wearing dirndls for no reason other than they had all decided it was dirndls day. “So casual, I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is fabulous.’ I was immediately drawn in,” she tells Teen Vogue. She left the store not with new shoes but with a sense of warmth. Four years and 43 pairs later, Kevelson, 27, is now assistant manager at the brand’s Soho location in New York City. She cannot imagine her life without Fluevog looming large.
For collectors like Kevelson, the distinction between fan and muse is next to none, as she and her fellow employees—called Fluevogologists—are integral to the 56-year-old Canadian brand’s identity and following, aptly named the Flummunity. They’re the utmost megafans, and they know the brand nearly as well as its founder John (who is based in Vancouver but does frequent the New York locations).
“That first time I was there, they were so welcoming. I wasn’t even buying anything,” Kevelson continues, reflecting on the always kind experience when shopping (or simply admiring) Vogs, which fans call them colloquially. She had only gone to the store in the first place to borrow her friend Amrit Khalsa’s Munsters, an exaggerated Mary Jane platform, for a Halloween costume. Since Khalsa worked at the Dumbo location, Kevelson figured she would stop by during her shift. Fate must have been listening closely that afternoon because, just weeks later, a part-time position opened up at the Prince Street location.
In 1970, the brand’s earliest iteration arrived on the scene as Fox and Fluevog, a joint operation founded by John Fluevog and Peter Fox after the duo met working at a Vancouver shoe store. For a little over a decade, the two sold Victorian-inspired silhouettes marketed as “brand-new 50-year-old shoes.” After they parted ways, Fluevog went on to found his own label, which brings us to John Fluevog Shoes.
Fluevog makes shoe shopping fun and experiential, rather than a one-and-done transaction. For those who have never been, here’s the run down: You walk in and are greeted by a Fluevogologist donning the latest season’s shoes; they chat you up, asking about your every day. Either you pick out a pair you’re drawn to or have them do the choosing for you. Your Fluevogologist will then bring two or three more—perhaps allowing you to use the store’s basement stairs as a litmus test for comfort and practicality—then it takes off from there. Whether you leave with a bright blue shoebox or empty-handed, your spirits are guaranteed to be lifted.
“Fluevog really has this Alice-in-Wonderland effect,” says Khalsa, 30, the Dumbo store manager, speaking from personal experience and based on observing her customers. “A lot of people, they come in and they’re super overwhelmed,” she says, “[so] it’s really fun to put people in them and then to see the cogs turning in their head.”
This refreshing sincerity draws people into the world of John Fluevog—and once you’re in, it’s hard to ever really leave. Kevelson first wanted to work for the brand to get to the shoes, but it’s the people who have kept her there. “Amrit is really the main reason why I know about Fluevog,” she says. The two were internet friends long before Kevelson moved to New York City, and Khalsa welcomed her into her world upon arrival.
To Khalsa, it was almost like passing a torch. She was introduced to the label in a similar fashion six years ago, when her friends Bella and Hank worked at the Soho shop and encouraged her to apply. Khalsa, too, started out with just the shoes in mind, and somewhere along the road to her now 86-pair collection, her adoration for the family-owned brand and camaraderie with her colleagues continued to deepen. “It’s got a cavity in my heart,” she says fondly.
When Kevelson and Khalsa decided to live with each other, their apartment quickly became a haven for Vogs—and lots of them. “In between our bedrooms, there were two giant closets that were filled with our shoes,” Khalsa reminisces. “She wasn’t going to tell me not to buy them, because she could borrow them, and I wasn’t going to say the same to her.”
It was a Fluetually-beneficial friendship that often resulted in multiples of the same shoe. Though this could also be a good thing, because after purchasing the Clara pumps in different colorways, the two ended up swapping one with the other to make their own mismatched pair of best-friend Vogs. After they wore them at their respective shops, one inspired customer posted on the Flummunity Facebook group about wanting to do the same and eventually found their perfect counterpart.
With an ever-expanding web of shoe families and styles akin to a family tree, exploring the wildly whimsical Fluniverse is endless. Vogs are sorted into families based on their soles, with backstories and cousins of similar styles. Take the 7th Heaven family, for example, with its so-called Angel sole on derby shoes or biker boots, famously engraved with the phrase “Resists: water, fatigue, Satan.” The Mini family features a spool heel and thick rubber soles on Mary Janes and riding-style knee highs, while the Operetta family is known for its comfortable, leather-wrapped block heels. As you explore each fit and look, you might find yourself naturally gravitating toward certain families, digging deeper into their history and shoe relatives. This path may lead you to your Fluenicorn, Vogspeak for dream pair, that many collectors spend years seeking out.
“You’ve got your people wearing Fluevogs since the ’90s, [who] were buying them at Trash and Vaudeville on St. Mark’s back in the day, and then you have the younger, new people who are fascinated with the rich history of the brand,” Kevelson says of the two distinct demographics that make up the Flummunity, both eager to share their corner of the fandom with one another—gatekeepers be gone!
For Harriet McIsaac, 25, and Amaya Gonzalez-Møllmann, 23, it is that very intergenerational appeal that got them into the shoes, having grown up admiring their mothers’ pairs. “Every day she’d walk past the Fluevog store [in Boston], and she saved up all her money to buy her first pair,” McIsaac says of her mother, recalling moments in middle and high school spent gazing at those original, highly coveted 1990s Munsters. In a full-circle moment, McIsaac started working at that very location in September 2019, and after moving to Brooklyn in 2021, is now assistant manager at the Dumbo store.
Today, McIsaac has a collection of 52 pairs—and one style named after her: Harriet, a platform slingback with ruffle straps from the brand’s spring-summer 2025 collection. Members of the design team had gone into the Brooklyn store the season prior, and she complimented one on a rather chunky pair of sandals. A few months later, when her store received the roster of upcoming styles, McIsaac freaked. “I instantly got on the phone with my mom…. She never thought a shoe would be named after her daughter in this funky store she used to go to in her 20s,” she says cheekily.
When McIsaac looks at the high school-senior version of herself at the start of her role with the brand vs. her present-day self, she sees clear growth in confidence. “This job allowed me to be more expressive and come out of my shell,” she says. “I love that Fluevog has grown with me.”
For Gonzalez-Møllmann, who began working at the Dumbo location in mid-March, fond childhood memories include winters in Brooklyn, when she would walk behind her mom outside and watch her leave a little trail of F-prints in the snow from her Sugar boot soles—which she has since added to her nine-pair collection. “Honestly, she was kind of more excited about the job than I was,” Gonzalez-Møllmann says jokingly. When the news broke, she knew that the next time her mom visited her in New York, they would partake in a longtime tradition of what Fluevogologist consider a “shoe party:” an impromptu styling blitz with all the newest silhouettes.
At Fluevog, individuality is sacred. The brand has remained true to its roots, and its soulful whimsy and whimsically soulful shoes feel so out of time, they’re timeless. It’s craft and play and wearable camp, and there’s a reason artists, punkers, retired goths, enfants de bohème, and archiveheads now and then have embraced them, and why musicians such as Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, and Chappell Roan have sported them throughout the decades.
Plus, the shoes are really comfy. “We’re consistently looking back in time at fashion, and I think Fluevog’s done a really good job at staying true and core to the initial vision of the brand,” McIsaac says, as the founder is continually paying homage to past shoes and silhouettes—often highlighted on the Flueblog—with uncompromising eccentricity. “It’s hard not to be obsessed with all of the funkiness.”
“Sometimes we’re a little so behind that we’re ahead,” says Khalsa, “and I think that’s really cool. Fluevogers are not afraid to be a little cringe and very sincere.” That sincerity is on full display, as stores host regular afterhour events like shoe swap meets (the perfect place to find your Fluenicorn), tea times, and mending classes, while each October brings Flummunity Fest, a day of programming, trades, and meeting other shoe-minded folks. This past Fest, Kevelson, Khalsa, and McIsaac all brought some of their beloved pairs for an employee-led Flueseum, and Gonzalez-Møllmann is bound to take part in the next one.
In 2019, the book Fluevog: 50 Years of Unique Soles for Unique Souls was published as a retelling of John’s own life and early beginnings in shoemaking, though the brand has never had an official archive. At such events, members of the Flummunity often take it upon themselves to contribute anecdotal knowledge and donate rare shoes back to the brand. McIsaac has had multiple customers sell their shoes to her, and Kevelson notes that one member of the Facebook group has a Google Drive including all her vintage shoe catalogs throughout the decades, helping preserve the brand’s history for generations of Fluevogers to come.
“The older Fluevog customers that come in really do inspire me,” says Khalsa. “They are so fearless, so quirky, and so unapologetically themselves. Sometimes I’ll hear from customers, ‘Oh, these are too young for me.’ And then the next day I literally will have an 80-year-old customer come in and buy them.”
Dirndls, dress up, and merriment! It’s as hard to forget your first encounter with Fluevog as it is to stop growing one’s collection. On a recent excursion to find new boots for myself, my friend tagged along for encouragement, only to find herself in the hot seat. I watched pure giddiness build up as she saw herself in the full-length mirror, swiveling her foot to catch a glimpse of metallic heels, pondering all the outfits she’d get to pair them with. We practically skipped out of the store, hand-in-hand with our jumbo, shoe-themed totes. Maybe Fluevogs are a promise to an older, kookier, future self to never stop dressing up for joy’s sake. Perhaps we’re already there.
