Report from the Shoegazing Super Trunk Show 2016

Amazingly enough the interest continues to be huge for the super trunk, this was obvious this Saturday when the third edition was held at Scandic Anglais in Stockholm. 900 visitors, 170 pairs of shoes were sold or ordered for a value of approximately €63 000, and then usually a bunch of orders are placed the coming weeks now afterwards as well, and there was a number of briefcases, accessories and shoe care products to add to that. Here is a summary of the day with lots of pictures and also films from the scene programme.

 

The number of visitors was as large as last year, while there was few more pairs of shoes sold but at a bit lower value. When we saw that the onslaught was great during the day one began to dream to reach the symbolicly big 1000 visitors, but it’s obviously difficult to be disappointed with 900. The feedback we have received has almost exclusively been positive as well, where many meant it was the best super trunk so far, input we organizers appreciate greatly.
We were once again back in the part of Stockholm that’s called Östermalm, like the first year, and in many ways it’s an ideal location with many other interesting shoe shops and menswear stores nearby, which many who had travelled took the opportunity to also visit during the day. The premises were more or less the same size as last year, but we had placed the scene directly outside the exhibition hall this time and more as part of the bar and lounge area, which felt just right, it was a good number people in the audience at all scene happenings.

 

 

Once again we started with a VIP opening for 150 pre-registered visitors, in order to spread out the visitors a bit, and although it was very busy and pretty hot in the exhibition hall of perhaps a couple of hours after we at 11am opened for everyone, it did feel like it worked out pretty well throughout the day.
Popular Meermin had three people this year, which enabled them to serve visitors even better than before, although there still were a long line at some points it seem managable. They had a very large number of shoes with them, including some of its ongoing group-MTO models, and as usual they sold very well.
The other major visitor agnet is the Hungarian brand Vass,, whose completely handmade shoes have become very popular in Sweden, partly thanks to the super trunk that provides an excellent opportunity to try out ones size in their different lasts, and maybe even find what your after on site. Vass showed, among other things, a new shade of the mottled museum calf leather, medium brown walnut, which many visitors were really positive about.

A bit extra exciting was the fact that we had Roberto Ugolini in place, who has made the two of Vass’ most popular lasts U and F. The kinship with especially the U last could be seen on several of the sample shoes that they had with them, and most of the models were very Italian with wider sole edges and often quite daring model variants.
Skolyx showed a large amount of models from the Spanish brand Yanko, and had a little more structured testing with numbers and so on. There were many of you visitors who were happy to see and try Yanko, and a lot of shoes were sold during the day.
The shoes from Japanese Hiro Yanagimachi  was probably the most impressive ones for the visitors, with its extremely high level of craftmanship. Among other things, there were several Swedish cobblers who said it was the finest shoes they’ve ever seen. To keep the prices down Hiro offered a smaller selection of models and leathers to choose from for MTO orders, and a number of Japanese shoes will walk on Swedish streets next year.

 

 

Also the event’s partners exhibited during the day. At the main partner Brunngård the focus was on their own organic shoe care products Springyard Shoe Therapy, which now has a wide range of different kinds of products. A favorite here at home, as I mentioned before, is the impregnation spray that can be sprayed on indoor. They also had with them a lot of stuff from the German brand Collonil’s top range 1909, plus shoe trees, shoe care cabinets, insoles and more.
Oppermann London was here for the second time, and their expensive briefcases, bags and accessories made in Italy of in some cases Tärnsjö leather has been well received by the super trunk visitors. The label is run by the Swedish brothers Niklas and Matthis Oppermann, this year it was the latter that was in place during the day.
Also Frank Clegg has two brothers in the forefront of their company, the founder’s sons Ian and Andrew were the two that were here in Stockholm. Accompanying them were a good quantity of products from the company’s voluminous range of high quality bags and leather accessories, and they also accepted MTO orders on several of their most popular bags.

 

 

In addition to the main international exhibitors and the partners we had in the large exhibition hall also Michael Håkansson, aka Magic Mike Patina, who showed patina painting live, something that was very appreciated. The Swedish Cobblers’ Association showed among other things the repair that won a major international cobbler competition, and talked about their activities. Skomakeri Framåt showed samples of various bespoke-women’s shoes and talked about their courses. Gaziano & Girling‘s Daniel Wegan and Savile Row store manager Neus Benavent showed their bespoke shoes and MTO samples. And outside Italigente once again had a popular outlet, where you could pick up a bargain with old discontinued models, subs, sample shoes and so on at low prices.

 

 

The scene was as mentioned directly adjacent to the exhibition hall this year, and the programme followed the previous year’s arrangement with a school of some kind with a cobbler, Swedish Championship in Shoe Shining and a panel, all these broadcasted live and can be viewed below. Starting things up on the stage did Carina Eneroth from Skomakeri Framåt who had a shoe repair school where she showed off several different types of repairs and gave examples of what a cobbler can do, what you can do to avoid wearing the shoes in vain, and other tips and tricks.
The Swedish Championship in Shoe Shining gathered a record audience, 100-150 visitors thronged in front of the stage when Tor Jonsson, Jacob Mattsson, Anders Ericsson and Michael Håkansson would battle it up for the prestigious title. They had 20 minutes to polish up a Loake 1880 Aldwych in light brown as beautiful as possible, using a can of regular wax polsih from Collonil 1909, goat hair brush from the same brand, buffing cloth or cotton balls, water and nylon cloth. It’s surprisingly entertaining to follow the competition and see the different participants’ techniques, such as Tor who spectacularly enough applied the wax with palm of his hands initially to the audience’s delight. When 20 minutes had passed all had an impressive shine, and the jury which consisted of me, forum moderators and co-organizers Roland Olsson, Joakim Berggren and Adrien Combier Hogg, Niclas Andersson from Brunngård and Loake’s Philip Hallerfelt. Announced as winner was Anders Ericson who had polished the most beautiful shoe, and thus is  the Swedish Champion in Shoe Shining 2016.

When the mingle cava was out and the day came to an end, it was time for an open question and answer session with representatives from the footwear sector, on stage, we had Daniel Wegan who’ the head of  Gaziano & Girling’s bespoke department, Skoaktiebolaget’s founder and owner Patrik Löf, and the bespoke shoemaker Janne Melkersson who runs Melker Shoes. I felt that there were good discussions, with several interesting questions from the audience. Among other things, they talked about what is most difficult when it comes to fit, what made the three on stage to become interested in classical shoes, the most popular shoe model, and more.
Later in the evening there was a dinner ending the super trunk, where about 60 people were present, both exhibitors, Swedish shoe industry people and visitors. Unfortunately the hotel had made a mistake and instead of large canapés that would be a complete dinner they delivered little tiny canapés that was gone in minutes. Quite embarrassing for us organizers, but it worked out fine in the end. We went over to a pizza place on the opposite side of the street and picked up 21 pizzas, all of which was eaten except one. Nice shoe talk continued long into the night.

 

 

We organizers, who are making this entirely on a voluntary basis, are extremely grateful that the event once again was a great success, and would like to thank all exhibitors, partners, participants and of course visitors! As mentioned feedback has been very good, and it’s always very appreciated to hear kind words about what one have worked hard with. We have plans to continue the event next year, although we would like to develop it further so that it continues to be interesting and exciting for you visitors. How remains to be seen, but we are grateful for tips and both large and small suggestions on how we can develop the event. Write in the comments section below, or email shoegazingblog@gmail.com.

Again, many thanks for this year!

 

 

 

 

Movies:

The movie summarising the event will be published later on. Below are films from the live streaming of the scene programme. Unfortunately, due to technical issues two of them are separated in two parts, and you have to go forward a bit before it begins. Hopefully I can fix this soon. Hope it works anyway (please note that the language used is Swedish).

 

Shoe repair school with Carina Eneroth, Skomakeri Framåt:

 

 

Swedish Championship in Shoe Shining, in cooperation with Brunngård:

 

 

Open question and answer session with people from the shoe industry: