Arabella Barros is the new creative visionary at John Fluevog Shoes.

Barros, currently chief design officer, steps into the creative director role on Sept. 30. In her new role, Barros will have full leadership of Fluevog’s creative direction and will shape the brand’s evolution while continuing to honor founder John Fluevog’s vision through bold ideas.

“Arabella has always understood my energy, and over the years has tuned into the essence of Fluevog. She is highly skilled in a variety of design capacities, which makes her the obvious choice to move the company forward into a new era,” Fluevog said. “I have great confidence as I pass the torch on to her and could not imagine a person more suited to this role.”

The two have worked together since 2012, forming a close creative partnership where the two share the same values and creative vision.

According to the company website, Fluevog’s start in the shoe industry began in the 1960s when he began working for Sheppard’s Shoes. In 1970, he and a Sheppard’s co-worker Peter Fox opened their own shoe store in Vancouver called Fox and Fluevog. Their partnership lasted ten years, after which Fluevog opened his eponymous shoe store in downtown Vancouver. The site said that Fluevog was possibly the first person to sell Doc Martens in North America, alongside his own creative designs. He opened his second store in 1985 in Seattle, with a second U.S. store two years later in Boston. His eponymous store opened a N.Y.C. location in 1990, followed one in San Francisco on Haight St. in 1997 and in Chicago two years later. In 1985, Fluevog began producing his landmark Angel Soles, made from material that is 100 percent harvested from the Hevea Tree.

Throughout the years, he has continued designing shoes and became know for his line of avant-garde, quirky designs. Those designs have been favored by generations of music and style icons that include Madonna, Alice Cooper, Lady Gaga and Beyoncé. Earlier this year, Fluevog and Anna Sui teamed up for a collaboration on two new shoe designs, a boot retailing for $499 and a buckle-heeled shoe selling at retail for $1,029. The team-up followed their October 2024 collaboration. And this summer, Fluevog collaborated with Jack White’s Third Man Records for the “The Idol Jack” boot, inspired by the original boot release —also influenced by White — 17 years ago.