Top doc puts shoe designer Fluevog in spotlight

The initial announcement of the shoe collaboration between Vancouver shoe designer John Fluevog and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry was met with an “overwhelming” amount of interest and support.

But few on the footwear company’s team could have imagined just how fast the presale launch would go.

“One estimate that I was given is that we would have sold 5,000 shoes in a minute if we had the production and bandwidth capacity to do so,” Stephen Bailey, the chief marketing officer of John Fluevog Shoes, says.

“We were just totally overwhelmed by it.”

The design, priced at $339, was set to go on presale on Thursday, April 23, at 4 p.m. The site crashed at 3:58 p.m.

“We had every single communication channel ready to fire out a message at 4 p.m. to tell everybody — and we cancelled all of them at 3:59,” Bailey says. “So, we didn’t even drive any inthe-moment traffic to the site. We had quadrupled capacity already.”

The Fluevog team was forced to turn off the sale function on the site after three hours because the number of shoes sold had “reached the maximum, and then some.”

Some shoppers managed to make it through and complete their purchase before the site crashed, and then again once it went back online before the maximum was reached, he says. Many others, didn’t. “You can imagine the thousands of emails we’ve gotten with suggestions for how to do it better next time and what we should have done better this time,” Bailey says.

Buyers came from New Zealand, Australia and even Europe to purchase the limited-edition shoe when the presale went live on the afternoon of April 23.

But “most of the sales went to people in B.C.,” Bailey assures.

The final number of shoes sold has yet to be tallied, but, for those wondering why more weren’t made, Bailey says it’s a simple question of supply.

“We only have so much ability,” Bailey says.

“We only have access to so many materials.”

Overall, the Fluevog team is proud of it they achieved with the design, which will see full proceeds go toward B.C. food banks.

“The charity is thrilled, Dr. Bonnie Henry is thrilled, everybody is excited,” Bailey says. “The grand overview was one of immense love and admiration for the people who are on the front lines.”