The Evolution of the Aurland Shoe

The first shoe that you see in the exhibition is a Tese shoe. This is one of the shoes that inspired Nils Tveranger to make the Aurland shoe. The other shoe you can see is a moccasin shoe from the Iroquois people, which Nils Tveranger learnt to make whilst he was in the USA. The other shoe that you can see on display is the National Shoe, the National Shoe was the first shoe that Nils Tveranger produced. It was with this shoe that he won first place at the national exhibition in Bergan in 1910. Shoe number four in the exhibition are two shoes produced by two different factories here in Aurland. At its peak there were 19 factories in Aurland and Flåm collectively, 17 in Aurland and 2 in Flåm. As mentioned previously, you could see which factory the shoe had been produced in by looking at the cross strap, where the coin sits. Shoe number 5 is a pair of old bunad shoes, these are shoes that are worn with a bunad which is the Norwegian national costume. Locals have used Aurland shoes as bunad shoes for many years. They would use a regular black Aurland shoe and sew a silver buckle onto them. Shoe number six is a shoe from Angstar Wangen’s factory, the factory that you are in now. This is how he made Aurland shoes. The last shoe that you can see in the exhibition is how the shoe looks today. As of today, we have two different styles, the Wangen, which is named after the factory and its former owner, and the Buxton which is a new more elegant version of the Aurland shoe.