Super Trunk Show London 2022
On May 7th the London Super Trunk Show could finally take place after being postponed several times due to the pandemic. An event that has become a meeting point for shoe lovers as well as people from the shoe industry.
Over 1200 visitors attended the event to view the shoes displayed by the several exhibitors from all over the world as well as for the world championships in shoe shining, shoe patina and shoemaking.
Just like the previous Super Trunk Show, the event took place at Showcase on 12 Regent Street in London’s Mayfair. Surrounded by what some might call the epicenter of classic Menswear, with Jermyn Street and Savile Row nearby.
Happy faces after the competition in shoe shining.
Saphir Médaille d’Or is the proud main sponsor of the Super Trunk Show which is organized by the famous shoe bloggers Jesper Ingevaldsson (shoegazing.com) and Justin Fitzpatrick (theshoesnobblog.com) and was of course also present at the event with a Saphir stand that offered a great variety of our products as well as a free shoe shining service.
Among the other exhibitor's where many well known shoe brands like Septieme Largeur from France, Norman Vilalta from Spain or Acme Shoemaker from China but also Italian luxury sock manufacturer Bresciani or the British Tailor Cad and the Dandy.
Katia Moura awarding Ash Samsudin, the winner of the shoe shining competition.
The three award ceremonies for the world championships in shoe patina, shoe shining and shoemaking formed the highlight of the event. The Patina and the shoe shining competition took place on that day while the shoes for the shoemaking competition had already been made before following a certain set of rules and had to be sent to London to be judged before the event.
Visitors discussing shoes at the Super Trunk Show
In the world championships of shoe patina 3 contestants took part, John Chung of Singapore’s Mason and Smith as well as Sony Mai and Toan Junie from Parisian Maison Corthay. These three finalists had qualified before through images of their work and had been chosen to compete in the finals. They had 5 hours time to paint an undyed shoe provided by the brand TLB Mallorca with Saphir dyes, creams and polishes. In the end Toan Junie of Corthay was the well deserved winner with a patina that he calls reverse patina, leaving the toe and quarter area of the shoe lighter and darkening the rest.
During the break of the patina competition the final of the world championships in shoe shining took place. Christian Vingsand from Norway, Naoki Ueda from Japan and Ash Samsudin from Singapore had also qualified for the final before. The task was to polish a shoe provided by Loake’s to the highest possible shine within 20 minutes. Ash Samsudin from Mason and Smith was the winner, creating a beautiful shine on the Loake Aldwych Oxford.
The winner of the competition in shoe patina, Toan Junie from Parisian Maison Corthay.
The award ceremony for the world championships in shoemaking then finished off the event in the late afternoon. During the whole day visitors could view a selection of the 30 competition shoes. This years competition asked for a longwing Derby in reddish brown and as always the shoe had to be made entirely by hand following a strict set of rules.
The shoe had to be welted by hand for example with hand stitched leather soles and handbuilt leather heels. As in the previous world championships the creavity of some of the contestants was truly astonishing. The winning shoe by Japanese Wataru Shimamoto, who works under the name Orma Shoemaker, might not strike you at first compared to other of the competition shoes but the high level of craftsmanship paired with unparalleled fine details earned him the first prize.
All 30 competition shoes from the world championship in shoe making where exhibited during the event.
Second was Japanese shoemaker Ken Karaoke whose shoe featured a strikingly built sculptured heel. The third place was won by Kenjiro Kawashima from South Korea, who is the bespoke maker for Norman Vilalta.
All in all it was a delightful day as well as for exhibitors, contestants and visitors. We are already looking forward to next years Super Trunk Show, a unique place for those that love shoes and everything shoe related.
Written by Louis Lampertsdörfer (@louislampertsdoerfer)