Nils Tveranger

The creator of the iconic Aurland shoe was Nils Tveranger, who in his early twenties travelled to America, where he learnt the trade of shoe making. Whilst there, it is claimed he found inspiration from the Indian moccasin shoes of the Iroquois people, he was also inspired by the Tese shoes of the "indigenous people of Norway". Tveranger used both these sources of inspiration in his shoemaking in Aurland in the development of the Aurland shoe. After several years in America, Tveranger returned to Norway and settled in Aurland, where he met Hansine Torlandsdotter Ohnstad who later became his wife. The two of them married and had four children. Tveranger firstly designed an Aurland shoe which was known as the "National Shoe". The shoe which had a heel and laces won first prize at the National Exhibition in Bergen in 1910. From 1930 to 1935, Gustav Nesbø and Kristin Ohnstad took over production of The National Shoe. In the interim, Tveranger designed a new shoe, which became the Aurland shoe as you know it today. This shoe takes a lot of its inspiration from the local tese shoe, which brothers Vedbjørn S. Vangen and Andreas O. Vangen designed and exhibited in the Norwegian Pavilion during the World Exhibition in Chicago in 1893. Tveranger's new model was a huge success both at home and abroad, and in Denmark it was known as the "Norwegian cabin shoe".