Competition – Find the difference

Time for a really nerdy contest where you have a number of images where you will find construction details that differ between different shoes. The ones who has all or the highest number of correct answers and who has described things most correctly wins a really nice shoe care package with organic products from Springyard, and also all the contestants and those who sign up for the newsletter I will now start will be included in the lottery of a smaller kit from Springyard.

The newsletter will come about every two weeks, and mainly summarize the various articles posted on the blog recently, and also have a calendar for various shoe happenings that takes place around the world. There will also be some newsletter exclusive stuff, like pre-access to different manufacturers/stores’ sales, coupon codes, and more. All participants in the contest have to register their e-mail, and will then receive the newsletter (it is, however, very easy to unsubscribe if you don’t wish to receive them), and then you can then also simply register the email address for the newsletter if you want that but aren’t interested in the competition.

The one who has all or the highest number of correct answers and write most accurate descriptions wins a large shoe care package from Springyards collection Shoe Therapy (if two or more would have the same number of correct answers and equivalent descriptions the will be a drawing of lots). Shoe Therapy  is the Swedish shoe care and shoe accessory wholesaler Brunngård’s recently launched line with completely organic products, and it is about to become the first shoe care products ever to get the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency’s environmental stamp. They smell sort of like shampoo, and even the waterproofing spray may be used indoors. I myself have begun to try the products (review coming later this fall) and got a really good impression of them, and my wife is very happy to not have the turpentine scent in the whole house every time I go over a pair of shoes.
In the large shoe care package this is included:
Wood valet box
A shoe cream – Shoe Therapy Leather Cream Formula (any color of choice)
A can of polish – Shoe Therapy Wax Formula (neutral)
A leather schampoo – Shoe Therapy Cleaning Formula
An impregnation spray – Shoe Therapy Waterproofing Formula
A cloth – Classic Polishing Cloth
The total value of the package is over €1100.
As mentioned there will also be a lottery of a smaller kit among the contestants who did not win the grand prize above, and then also those who only registered their email address for the newsletter. The kit includes:
A shoe polish – Shoe Therapy Leather Cream Formula (any color)
A can of polish – Shoe Therapy Wax Formula (neutral)

All the Springyard products the winner will get sent to him or her. Picture: Brunngård

The competition goes as follows, below are five different pairs of images, each pair has focus on a specific detail of the work on and around the sole of any kind. Between the shoes of each pair of images, it is a more or less significative construction or finishing detail that distinguishes the shoes a part. It is not necessarily the case that one is better than the other, it may only be about different solutions. There’s sometimes a bit more guidance for what to look at in the captions below, and in most cases you can by clicking on the image and then on the expand icon in the top right corner of the picture get a bigger picture to look more closely at. Then write down an as clear description as possible of the differences in the form below (if you are only interested in the newsletter only write your name and e-mail address in the bottom of the form). And yes, it is relatively difficult, one can get to look very closely at the pictures, you may get help from Google in creative ways, and really use your analytical part of yourself. Good luck and enjoy!

Nr. 1

A shoe from Saint Crispin’s, where it’s the upper part of the welt that’s supposed to be looked at more closely. Picture: Manolo

Here’s a shoe from Maftei, to be compared with the one above. It’s not, however, the fact that SC is having a machine made sole stitch and Maftei have a handmade dito.

Nr. 2

The waists of a pair of Cheaney Imperial, which one should look closer at…

…and then compare to this waist on a shoe from Paolo Scafora. Picture: Noveporte

Nr. 3

The waist seen from the side of an Antonio Meccariello Aurum shoe. Picture: Meccariello

And here’s a picture of a Hiro Yanagimachi shoe.

Nr. 4

The underside of an Italigente shoe. Picture: Italigente

And here’s a Carmina shoe. Observe that it’s not the brass pegs in the toe that I’m thinking of here, nor the different ways the sol, that would be too easy. Picture: Epaulet

Nr. 5

Picture from the side of a shoe from Crownhill Shoes. Picture: Crownhill Shoes

And one of a Loake Aldwych. Picture: Cdon

Winners will be contacted within a few days after the answers and the results are presented next week. Please note that the newsletter list can be assigned / sold to external parties, however, only to those who are highly relevant to you readers, and mailings from these will then be just like this newsletter very limited. No one will get a lot of spam. And as I said, it will always be easy to unsubscribe if you change your mind.

FYI, all income I have from the blog, that is banner advertising, and from my consulting work for Italigente, goes exclusively to activities for new blog content. It’s mainly about trips, such as this summer’s London trip from which I have published and will publish more articles and an upcoming trip to Tokyo in November, where I will meet many of the most exciting Japanese makers. Next year I hope to go to Budapest and Paris and write about the quality shoe scenes there.