Rennie Scaysbrook | November 25, 2016
Based out of Sturgis, SD, Gary Kinzler of Lightshoe has been crafting the world’s finest dirt track shoes for some of the world’s fastest racers since 1998 like Marc Marquez and Brad Baker, to name a few, taking over the mantle from the late, great Ken Maely as the main man in the steel show game.
The Lightshoe Steel Shoe couldn’t make up for Rennie’s lack of talent.
Each shoe is custom made using lightweight steel, not aluminum. Gary has a selection of boots at his shop, but if he doesn’t, he will ask for your shoe to be sent to him to ensure a perfect custom fit.
He starts with a 4×10 sheet of steel, builds the standard toecaps and pre-forms the sides. Once he gets your boot, he’ll trace the bottom to create the template, tack the toe cap to the base and weld it together, then give it a polish to look all shiny. It’s old school craftsmanship at its finest—no CAD stuff going on here—and when you get your new steel shoe ready for its first race, you can’t help but feel you’ve joined a super-cool secret club.
(Left) Beautiful craftsmanship abounds, and you get your name punched into the shoe so you know it’s yours! (Right) Smooth bottom surface enables maximum sliding.
List Price: $275 (Promotional price to December 31 is $225)
Website: http://lightshoe.com/
Standout Feature: Faster, safer racing
I’ve never had a steel shoe before. Always wanted one but never raced enough to want one. Then I tried an ill-fitting one at the Texas Tornado Boot Camp a while back and that was it, I had to have one.
That shoe fitted so bad I had to wedge a crushed coke can in the toe to take up the slack, but this is not the case with my new shoe. Fitted to my Sidi Crossfire 2 SRS boots, the shoe fits like a glove (sorry, couldn’t help myself). The clink/clank is there and I look badass. But that stuff doesn’t matter.
What does matter is this shoe has transformed how I approach dirt track. As an amateur knockabout rider, you don’t realize you need something until you’ve tried it, and never has that been more true than with one of Gary’s shoes.
My corner entries are safer and faster; no longer does my left foot get ripped back if the heel digs in too hard—everything feels as it should when sliding a dirt bike.
Gary’s work is absolutely superb. Welding is an art form and the best welders out there are worth their weight in gold. Seeing as I don’t ride dirt track as often as I like, I’ve no doubt this thing will last much longer than the boots they’re made for.
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