Canadian footwear designer John Fluevog battled kidney disease. Now he’s created shoes to boost awareness and help others.
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John Fluevog was well-aware that his kidneys were something of a ticking time bomb.
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“I’ve known about my condition for years. Since my 40s,” the Vancouver footwear designer says. “I had a genetic condition called Poly Cystic Kidney Disease, something about one in 1,000 people have, which is actually a lot.”
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The disorder sees fluid-filled cysts of varying sizes grow in the kidneys, leading to symptoms such as chronic pain, high blood pressure and kidney failure.
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Despite knowing his diagnosis, Fluevog recalls being in denial about the possibility of facing future kidney problems.
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“Of course, being stubborn and thinking kidney failure happens to others, not me, truthfully I thought I’d be OK,” he says. “My father had the same disease and lived to 82, and kidney disease was not the reason for his death. So I carried on, being monitored, but not really believing it would catch up to me.”
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But it did.
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Through his checkups at the kidney clinic at St. Paul’s Hospital, the footwear designer was surprised to learn that, over the course of just a few years, his kidney function had decreased to a “dangerous” level.
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“I was not feeling well,” he says. “At that point, I was faced with the reality of going on dialysis or finding my own kidney. The reality of my situation was hard for me to grasp.”
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According to The Kidney Foundation of Canada, more than four million Canadians are affected by kidney disease. And kidney failure impacts more than 50,000 people across the country who are currently receiving life-saving dialysis treatment or are living with a kidney transplant. More than 70 per cent of Canadians who are on wait lists to receive an organ transplant are waiting for a kidney.
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In 2025, he received a kidney transplant from a family friend named Patty.
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“It’s not easy to accept this kind of gift. Words cannot express how very grateful I am,” he says. “I owe my life to Patty.”
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To honour his living donor and friend, Fluevog has done what any footwear designer would do: he’s created a limited-edition tribute shoe. Or two.
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Timed for release during Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Month (April), the Patty and The Alan shoe designs — named after Fluevog’s kidney donor and her husband, who Fluevog says “supported her through the process” — will see 15 per cent of proceeds donated to The Kidney Foundation of Canada, while also raising awareness for the heightened need for organ donors across Canada.
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“Living kidney donation offers the best outcomes for many patients, yet the number of donors has not kept pace with demand,” says Megan Owen-Evans, a board director with The Kidney Foundation of B.C. and Yukon branch.
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It’s a fact Fluevog didn’t fully grasp until he was personally facing the need for a donated organ.
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“Going through the process, I realized there are a lot of people struggling and waiting for a donor, and far too few donors,” he says. “If most of the population is like me — unaware of the need — we will never close that gap.
