Los Gatos local designs shoes worn by Kylie Jenner, Megan Foxx

Flor de Maria Rivera has had 4 profession alterations in her existence, and has lived throughout the country and traveled around the planet — but now she feels like she’s wherever she belongs.

“Everything in lifestyle works out the way it is supposed to,’ stated the Los Gatos neighborhood, who has long gone from reporting sports activities to developing sneakers.

Rivera was born in Peru and moved to the South Bay with her family members when she was 14. She went on to have a productive career in tv and general public relations just before kickstarting her vogue profession, moving to New York Metropolis and launching an eponymous shoe line.

Her vibrant, on pattern sneakers have plenty of straps, so a single pair can be worn many various means. Stars like Kylie Jenner, Megan Foxx, Saweetie and Jayda Pinkett Smith have worn Flor de Maria Rivera types.

Now back again in Los Gatos, Rivera stated she hopes to inspire some others to acquire command of their daily life and go right after their dreams.

“At the conclude of the working day, I like to encourage gals. I like to tell them that they can do all the things and just about anything simply because I did it. I did not communicate English, I was not a shoe designer — I switched professions 3 situations in my lifetime,” Rivera claimed. “If I can sense that I impressed at minimum 1 or two men and women, then I experience I’ve performed my task.”

despite life pulling her throughout the state and around the globe, Rivera has often observed her way again to Los Gatos.

“I went to college, I lived in LA, I lived in San Diego, I lived in Manhattan, and constantly arrived back again in this article,” she stated.

Her journey has not been quick. Rivera stated when she started off her freshman year at Los Gatos Significant College, she couldn’t communicate English and did not know anyone. Quickly forward 20 several years and she was voted “Most Famous” among her classmates at her higher school reunion.

“It was so humorous, because when I to start with obtained there, I didn’t definitely have any close friends. And a whole lot of people today wouldn’t discuss to me and matters like that, or they could not even communicate,” Rivera said. “So existence is just, you in no way know what is going to come about.”

Just after attending higher education at the University of San Diego, Rivera labored as a sporting activities reporter in San Jose for 7 decades ahead of she manufactured the initial of quite a few occupation modifications.

Her father had just died of most cancers, and she mentioned she made a decision to get a phase back and do publicity for the San Jose Earthquakes.

“I felt I could not give 200{a0ae49ae04129c4068d784f4a35ae39a7b56de88307d03cceed9a41caec42547}. All the things I do, I try out to do a lot more than 200{a0ae49ae04129c4068d784f4a35ae39a7b56de88307d03cceed9a41caec42547} and I set my total coronary heart and soul into it. I experienced to be honest with myself,” Rivera claimed.

Lifestyle threw Rivera an additional curveball a several decades later when a again injury stored her from staying able to journey with the soccer workforce. To preserve herself chaotic, she started out what was one particular of the only bilingual manner blogs at the time.

“That’s why I say almost everything in life works out the way it is meant to,” Rivera said. “You really don’t know at the instant, but afterwards on you locate out why it is. As I glance back into my lifestyle, everything that’s occurred for me, regardless of whether I imagined it was negative at the moment, has been these a discovering practical experience, and I would not be right here if it weren’t for these small problems.”

She give up her job with the Earthquakes and moved to New York City, in which she started off her fashion occupation. She labored with numerous makes and publications for recorded Tv set segments about manner information and shoe traits.

Rivera reported talking so frequently about shoe trends encouraged her to commence a line of her own in 2017.

She invested 2-1/2 many years getting ready to start her line. She studied shoemaking in Italy for a summer season, took entrepreneurship programs at Stanford to learn about organization and pooled all her price savings to fund the venture.

By tumble of 2019, she was all set to launch the line.

“It was these a hazard. I experienced set every thing on the line for the reason that I believed in and bet on myself,“ Rivera reported. “My business enterprise grew 90{a0ae49ae04129c4068d784f4a35ae39a7b56de88307d03cceed9a41caec42547} in the course of the pandemic, and it’s nonetheless escalating to this working day. I reinvented myself, altered my organization composition to see what operates.”

She leveraged the Instagram following she accrued as a fashion blogger, as well as her associations with people in the media and the fashion market, to get the term out on her shoes.

Rivera claimed she owned extra than 500 pairs of footwear just before she introduced her personal line.

“I wore everything from footwear that have been actually inexpensive to sneakers that ended up very pricey designer footwear, so I felt like I realized all the things,” Rivera stated. “For me, I constantly wished to create a thing that is not out there that I usually preferred.”

Her shoes range from $295 to $350 and can be purchased on the internet at https://flordemariacollection.com

“I feel for me, they do not only buy the shoes, they obtain the aspiration. They get the story powering it, simply because I am really clear with men and women in sharing my story and where I arrive from,” Rivera said.