Driving shoes

Skinwarrior

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Joined
Sep 22, 2021
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Location
San Francisco
Emira Status
Emira Owner
I’ve had my Emira for about 3 months now and I love it.

I haven’t owned a manual in 12 years so I no longer have my old driving shoes.
I’m not an expert in heel-toe but I’m trying to get better. I’m not planning on tracking the car.

I’ve been mostly wearing some leather sneakers but I don’t love them because the sole is studded.

What is your preferred shoe with the Emira?

Any opinions about the following types of shoes:
- indoor soccer shoes
- boxing or wrestling shoes
- “barefoot” shoes (Xero, Vivo)
- Piloti driving shoes
- Puma speedcats or other Pumas
 
I have some Piloti's, but so far I've just been using a pair of slip-on driving loafers ala Ayrton Senna. One of my favorite videos is the one of him driving an NSX while wearing a pair of loafers, and putting on a master class of heel and toe technique.

 
For racing I have the Sparco Race 2 Racing Shoe and they’re great. So much more room by the pedal box - the amount of foot travel is huge. Highly recommend.

Otherwise I just wear my converse-like sneakers
 
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I’ve had my Emira for about 3 months now and I love it.

I haven’t owned a manual in 12 years so I no longer have my old driving shoes.
I’m not an expert in heel-toe but I’m trying to get better. I’m not planning on tracking the car.

I’ve been mostly wearing some leather sneakers but I don’t love them because the sole is studded.

What is your preferred shoe with the Emira?

Any opinions about the following types of shoes:
- indoor soccer shoes
- boxing or wrestling shoes
- “barefoot” shoes (Xero, Vivo)
- Piloti driving shoes
- Puma speedcats or other Pumas
I've found Piloti driving shoes to be the right compromise for driving and casual wear.
 
Just to be on the safe side, and make sure my recommendation was reasonable, I took my car for a 45 minute Sunday afternoon drive, with lots of heel and toe and throttle blips.

The I can vouch for the Xero HFS II.

It’s kind of like recommending a candy to my kids during Halloween. I have to test it again to make sure nothing in the recipe has changed since I ate it last.
 
I have a pair of the light grey Icona by Piloti. Great build quality, and something different than your average Puma, Samba, Etc. I wear a US size 10/10.5 and the Icona is just wide enough to apply steady braking and use the little-toe side to blip the throttle. But a run-of-the-mill Asics sneaker (Contend 8 running shoe) is just a bit wider and covers the brake a bit more confidently while rolling on to the throttle.

I also have a pair of Puma Sparco's and they are a great shoe, but require a more literal heal/toe as they are too narrow to span both pedals for me.
 
Love my Puma Sparcos, but I always bring another pair of comfy sneakers to walk around in whenever I get where I'm going. They aren't bad for quick walks from the car to a restaurant or something but your feet will hate you if you try to spend a whole day in them. I think most Piloti shoes are a good compromise, but they're expensive and I've been hearing mixed reviews on quality lately.
 
Piloti size 14 (US) (48 European) here. It is a problem to have too large feet when driving a sportscar, especially when you live in Japan 🤣🤣🤣

I drove lots of manual cars with clutch, including three Mazda RX-7, receiving driving lessons from Japanese Le Mans drivers Yorino and Terada. But this time around I chose the Emira Turbo with AMG engine and DCT gearbox. Luckily most of the early «snags» have now been corrected by software updates.

And the issue with too large feet is still there even with two pedals only 😅😇😵‍💫🤪
 

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