ABOUT ØSTMO BOOTS

Østmo Boots came to be in 2015, when 1986–born Norwegian Lars Jensen woke up one day with a wish to brush the dust off of Norwegian and Scandinavian footwear heritage. Although Lars himself is completely self-taught, the Østmo name is carried over from his paternal great-grandfather, Karl Johan Østmo, who was the shoemaker and cobbler in Lars' home village Åsa in Ringerike, Norway during the early-to-mid 1900s. In fact, it was due to the discovery of Karl Johan's old tools, lasts and half-finished projects while digging through a shed that Lars decided to try his own hand at the bootmaking craft.

Through Østmo, Lars has revived several boot and shoe designs that were last seen in production during the 1960s, with unique twists that pair well with contemporary aesthetics. Most notable is the Type I pattern, with its unique feature colloquially known as the "ankle swoopty", which stands out among the crowd of other derby boot patterns.

Lars does not take orders for Østmo Boots, but instead makes one pair at the time in a random makeup and posts them for sale on the Østmo Instagram page. Interested buyers have 24 hours to comment on the post to be added to a list for that particular pair, from which a winner (that obviously has to pay for the boots) is randomly drawn using a wheel of fortune type setup.

 Apart from being a bootmaker, Lars has an academic background in folklore & ethnology, as well as being a bona fide washed up rock star of Folk Metal. Nowadays he mostly spends his days occupied with rusty old Japanese 4x4s and the two cat children Siri (8) and Guri (6?) kindly granted to him and his wife Fanny by the Universal Cat Distribution System.