Story – Heel and Toe Footwear

Hotelier Johannes Einemo is energetic, passionate and creative. The young man runs what is fast becoming Norways premiere petrolhead destination, Lærdalsøren Hotel.

This tiny 1880s hotel is a petrolhead gateway to fantastic driving experiences on Norways west coast.
When it's winter, those roads are closed It's dark outside because Lærdal doesn't see the sun for months during winter and Covid has your hotel shut-down, it can get a bit boring.

It was one such dark night that spawned the crazy idea that made our fantastic Heel and Toe shoes. "I was sitting in the hotel pub by myself enjoying a beer and looking back at some of the summers fantastic driving experiences", Johannes reminiscences. "One beer turned to four and for some reason I started thinking of the fact that I didn't have a good pair of driving shoes. A search of the internet did not yield any viable results.

As an owner of several classic sports cars I didn't want modern shoes, they just don't fit the vintage look of classic helmet, classic race suit and the kind of vintage manual shift driving I enjoy so much" he says with a smile.

Johannes' mind started drifting and images from videos of the past were conjured.

Senna testing the Honda NSX with the camera focusing on the driving legends heel and toe shifting wearing moccasins.

RUFs Yellow Bird movie where the car is dancing around the Nurburgring and the heel and toe shifting is done with the driver also wearing moccasins.

A few more beers was all it took. Heel and Toe footwear was born.

It had to be those moccasins, it had to be quality footwear, preferably local and of the best possible quality.

Lucky for us Aurlandskoen fits the bill perfectly.

Their shoes are handmade from premium leather using the same processses for over 100 years.

The shoe is narrow, light and fits snugly, and the quality of the product is from a bygone era when pride in your craft was the key to your livelyhood.

But a quality shoe was not enough. You have to see that Heel and Toe footwear are specially made for heel and toe driving.

This spawned the idea of the heel and toe markings. Brake, clutch and throttle, making the shoes a statement boldly giving away the wearers intentions.

The shoes also had to be colorful says Johannes, and being fascinated by the Gulf brand colours the first prototype pair had to be Gulf inspired. More colours are of course on their way. The first two being Maranello red and British Racing green.

Custom shoes will also be made available so your Ivory white 1970 Porsche 911 with black details could be represented by custom made white shoes with black text

And the shoes have been tested of course. Proper testing too. Johannes has a few poster cars sitting in his garage. The ones you had on the wall during your formative years.

Heel and toe footwear will be stresstested by it's petrolhead creator in The Ferrari Testarossa, Lamborghini Diablo, Porsche 930 Turbo and Mercedes 190E Evo 1.

Oh - and in his Ford GT40 of course - The worlds fastest pizza delivery car.

Petrolhead product development as good as any wouldn't you say?

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