Driving Shoes

[akirk]

If you do a search on driving shoes, you tend to see shoes like these:


for racing you see shoes like these:


common theme seems to be fairly thin and presumably an ability to feel the pedals / not have the shoes touching each other... yet in real life I certainly wear all sorts of shoes, from loafers to trainers for tennis to wellies...

do you choose any specific shoes for driving?

Alasdair

[chriskay]

I have shoes very like the ones in the upper picture, although I didn't buy them specifically as driving shoes. Having said that, I find them remarkably suitable for driving.

[sussex2]

There are shoes I wouldn't wear for driving such as new leather soled ones.
I find that different shoes alter the feel and the way I drive the car so I do have favourites - Reebok Classics seem the best over all.
The size of my paws at 46 (11) and very wide can often mean care for a few miles in an unfamiliar car.
It seems pedals these days are set a more sensible distance apart than a decade or so ago when great care was needed not to surprise the traffic behind

[Gareth]

common theme seems to be fairly thin and presumably an ability to feel the pedals / not have the shoes touching each other... yet in real life I certainly wear all sorts of shoes, from loafers to trainers for tennis to wellies...

I mentioned this to a coach, saying I sometimes wear walking boots and that I thought driving 'feel' is actually in the head rather than the bottom of your feet. His comment was that police officers normally wear fairly chunky footwear ...

[jont-]

Yes - particularly in cars like the Caterham or Elise where the footwell is rather narrow, and you don't want to risk catching the wrong pedal. Even the first picture shoes shoes with a lip around the sole - which I dislike.

I spent a while recently struggling to find anything suitable after my last pair of "driving" shoes disintegrated and they appeared to have been discontinued - I ended up with some Merrell Barefoot shoes which seem to fit the bill nicely.

[sussex2]

A good point about the police drivers footwear.
I wonder if someone on here knows whether distance between pedals is regulated? There certainly seems to be more these days; certainly acres more than an Alfasud I had as a youth.
Perhaps peoples feet are getting bigger as I used to be laughed at in Spain asking for a size 46 but they are now commonplace.

[Mr Cholmondeley-Warner]

Various models of Puma trainer are often to be seen modelled on driving days although I've never got round to getting any. I have some Asda shoes that are nearly worn out so they work nicely (although they are lethal on a slippery surface). Anything with much of a welt is to be avoided in my case as they catch on each other. I have some Racewear boots but they are bright blue so don't see the light of day much as people take the p*ss!

[Carbon Based]

I ended up with some Merrell Barefoot shoes which seem to fit the bill nicely.

+1
I used to spend most of my time in heavily cushioned running shoes and didn't appreciate just how little feel they allowed. switching to the barefoot type certainly appears to have helped - even my co driver commented about an improvement in smoothness.

A new job has meant I'm driving a lot in a suit and heavy, smart shoes - feel isn't as "nice" so I keep a pair of the loafer types type from the top picture in the boot. Although can be an audible "tap" when first making contact with a pedal so I guess it probably encorages smoothness even more.

At the extreme, I wash the car wearing wellies and wouldn't recommend driving in those unless you are in a tractor/Land Rover.

Is this actual or just psychological? I reckon a bit of both.

[akirk]

my range rovers and land rovers always had wider pedals so that you could wear wellies! the z3 in wellies is more tricky... I tend to wear suede loafers a lot, a leather sole seems to be a qutie good in terms of feel

Alasdair

[gannet]

I use Adidas Kundo trainers - they seem to be discontinued now though They are narrow enough and thin soled.

I cannot wear flat soled shoes without orthotic insoles due to a lack of arch support - I have strange feet!

I have a pair of Adidas trainers which I bought recently which are quite thick soled - certainly notice the difference in pedal feel between those and my usual driving trainers.