Report from the Shoegazing Super Trunk Show 2017

Another super trunk has passed, and once again we are very happy with the day. Over 700 people visited the event, over 100 pairs of shoes were bought for a value of about €35 000 (and many more orders placed the following days). Here’s a summary of the day in text and picture.

 

It was the first year we hadn’t invited the two popular brands Meermin and Vass, which meant we had calculated with slightly reduced number of visitors. So it was, but you can’t be dissatisfied with over 700 visitors, and as usual a very nice and open atmoshphere during the day. Both exhibitors, partners, performers and visitors were very pleased afterwards. The response from you visitors giving us organizers so nice feedback is very much appreciated! As usual, I arranged the event together with Joakim Berggren, Roland Olsson and Adrien Combier Hogg (who unfortunately could not be there during the day). And we were back at Scandic Anglais at Humlegården, in rooms that work very well for the purpose.

As mentioned before, we had switched focus a bit with the exhibitors this year, where we let more Swedish online stores take place with their nice range of shoes in different price ranges. Many were curious about Myrqvist, the webshop Herrstil’s own brand with a basic range of Goodyear welted shoes in the lower price range. A good gateway to the world of classic quality shoes and nice options for those who can’t or don’t want to spend too much on a pair. Skolyx with Spanish Yanko jumped in as replacement last year, and was well welcomed by the visitors. This year, interest was even greater, many have understood that it is really affordable shoes.
The Sabot was the newest brand in the line-up, the online store launched this summer and sells its own brand made by Italian Antonio Meccariello, really impressive shoes for its price range, and also the mentioned Italian’s Argentum Dux range, Andrés Sendra and the Japanese Yohei Fukuda’s brand new RTW/MTO shoes. The latter had many people drooling over them.

The ones most happy to be here were probably father and son Kielman, who was out on the Polish brands first trunk show ever. A lot of people took the chance to try their relatively low priced bespoke shoes, where really anything you could imagine could be ordered. Also their bags under the brand Malton & Kielman got good attention.
Hiro Yanagimachi is considered by many to do some of the finest shoes in the world. For the second consecutive year they visited Stockholm, and it feels good that people in Sweden have seen and experience, and in some cases bought, their impressive craftsmanship.
The British premium brand and bespoke manufacturer Gaziano & Girling were also in place this year again, also here it is about real top grade shoes. Daniel Wegan, Sweden’s largest star in the industry, who heads their custom department was in place.

Another appreciated re-visit was Michael Håkansson, aka Magic Mike Patina, who painted shoes live during the day, and answered many questions from the visitors.
In addition to the shoes, the event’s partners also exhibited. The Swedish shoe care brand Springyard, owned by Brunngård, was the main partner. Among other things, they showed their series of organic shoe care products, including, for example, impregnation spray, eco labelled by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, and their new series of footbeds and soles under the name Springyard Sense.
New partners for this year were Berg & Berg with stylish and affordable ties, accessories and clothes that showed a selection of their offerings. And Fred & Matt, who developed a modern form of galosch in functional materials, which more and more people get their eyes on as an alternative to the usual rubber overshoe. The bag brand Carl Friedrik unfortunately couldn’t come.

The scene programme began with Dennis Boström from Södermalm’s sko & nyckelservice held a shoe care workshop, where several visitors joined and polished shoes together with Dennis, others followed it all from the side. It became a good grip, where you could try Dennis’s tips right away, and got a clearer picture of what it was about, while many questions could be asked and answered, techniques discussed and so forth.

Then it was time for the big finals of this year’s Swedish Championship in shoe shining, in collaboration with Springyard. A contest that was featured in the media before the competition, both newspapers and national Swedish television. The finalists Anders Sundström, Jonathan Petersson and Johan Wennerholm had 20 minutes to polish up a Loake 1880 Aldwych in Mahogany as beautiful as possible. Brilliant results by all three, but the jury finally awarded the former champion Johan Wennerholm, who also won two years ago, the title. With that he also won the shoes from Loake and a package with products from Springyard, plus of course the honor.

As usual, we ended with a panel on stage, this year in the form of open question session which were held for the first time in English, since one of the participants was Neus Benavent, store manager of Gaziano & Girling’s shop at Savile Row in London. She was accompanied by Emil Jansson, founder of Skolyx, and Emelie Stenlund, bespoke shoemaker and cobbler at Skomakeri Framåt and Södermalm’s sko & nyckelservice. They were asked questions about many things, for example whether the interest of classical men’s shoes reached its peak or continued upwards, where consensus was that the real boom had diminished but that it still went upwards.
Unfortunately, the live streaming service used to broadcast live from the scene had technical issues, which means it was not recorded as it should. Very sad, as there are usually many who look at the videos afterwards.

We would like to thank everyone who was part of the event in various ways, making it as enjoyable as it was! We organizers are happy to receive input from your visitors on what has been good and what can be improved so we can continue to develop the event.