Vancouver footwear designer John Fluevog has released two new shoes to raise money for the Kidney Foundation. It comes after he received a kidney transplant himself.

The shoes are named after his donor, Patty Carmichael, and her husband Alan.

Fluevog had been living with polycystic kidney disease for more than three decades before his condition worsened in 2025 — but Carmichael, a family friend, ended up being a match for his blood type and offered to donate her kidney.

While in the hospital, after a successful surgery, Fluevog said a doctor came up to him with the idea for the red shoes — which feature three straps, one for the ureter, one for the vein and one for the artery.

“In my weakened state, I’m thinking, ‘Hey, this is actually a pretty good idea.’ So we just made it happen,” the designer told CBC News.

Fluevog said that 15 per cent of the proceeds from the shoes’ sales will go to the Kidney Foundation, saying it was important to raise awareness of organ transplants and how they can give the gift of life.

The CBC’s Shivani Joshi caught up with Fluevog, Carmichael and the doctor who performed the surgery — and found out more about how the unique shoes came to be.