The qualifications are open to the finals of the World Championships in Shoe Shining and the World Championships in Shoe Patina 2022, two great contests organised together with Saphir. Finals take place at the London Super Trunk Show on Saturday May 7 2022. The patina finalists will paint their shoes during the whole event, and the shoe shiners have 20 minutes to shine a shoe as lovely looking as they possibly can.
You may read all about the London Super Trunk Show in this previous post. It takes place on Saturday May 7 2022, in the center of London at Showcase.co on 12 Regent Street, where we gather more than 10 brands from all over the world, interesting partners, and the World Championships in Shoemaking will have it’s award ceremony and competition shoes displayed. Plus then the two other world champs contest that is the topic in this article. As always we will live stream from the different championship competitions and the award ceremonies, on Shoegazing’s Youtube channel and here on Shoegazing.com, as well as on Saphir Medaille d’Or’s Instagram.
World Championships in Shoe Shining 2022
For the fourth time we host the World Championships in Shoe Shining, in collaboration with Saphir, where the winner will receive a pair of shoes from Loake, a gold medal, and of course the prestigious world champion title. Previous winners are Japanese Yuya Hasegawa and Yuta Sugimura from Japan, and John Chung from Singapore, all of them have used being the world champion titles with touring around various places in Asia, appeared in television and magazines, and built up their respective shoe shining services that they run. Great ambassadeurs for the shoe shining craft. New now is that the world champion also will be qualified and get a paid trip to the Shoe Shining Champion of Champions, which I organise together with Isetan Men’s in Tokyo every third year (covid will likely change when next will take place, we’ll know later on), where we gather the three last world champions and selected national champions from the previous years, for a big battle between the best of the best. The first edition of this contest was held 2019 (read more here).
The 2019 world champion in shoe shining, Yuta Sugimura from Japan.
At the final at 15.00 on May 7, one Loake 1880 Aldwych in Mahogany is to be polished as beautiful as possible. We’ll not only look at the highest shine, but the most beautiful polish work is rewarded, how much of the shoe that is shined, etc. The finalists will have a can of Saphir Medaille d’Or Pate de Lux in the colour of their choice, a can of Saphir Medaille d’Or Mirror Gloss in neutral, water, a brush, a polishing cloth (this they bring themselves) and a nylon cloth, and they have 20 minutes to polish the shoe. For those of you who followed the competition previous years you know that there’s some great results even if the time is short. The winner will be titled the World Champion in Shoe Shining 2022, and gets to keep the shoe he or she has polished and its sibling, receives a shoe care kit from Saphir, plus a gold medal.
To qualify for the shoe shining championships (we know the qualification system isn’t perfect, but as stated before it’s the best solution we’ve found to really make it possible for everyone from everywhere to enter, and we’ve tweaked it a bit this year), send in three pictures of a pair of well polished shoes. The picture should show off as much as the shine job as possible, that is their purpose, so vary the angles between the pics, maybe one close-up etc. What will be judged is how well the pair is polished, not necessarily the highest shine but also other parameters will be taken into consideration, as the depth of the shine, any eventual color variations etc.
Only one entry (three pics of the same shoes) per contestant can be sent in, and it should only be maximum one pair of shoes in the picture (for example not a shoe collection with polished shoes). The shoes in the pictures should be polished by the one who sends in the entry, and the person has to be able to attend the final in London on May 7. The contest is open for professionals as well as amateurs, so both patina artists or professional shoe shiners as well as random shoe nerds can enter the competition. You are allowed to make minor adjustments to the picture in for example Photoshop, but more significant changes or filters etc. is not allowed. We have a professional photographer who will examine all entries, and if we suspect that these rules have been violated the person will be disqualified. And please note, it’s the beauty of the polish job that is judged, not how beautiful the pictures are. It is possible to send in entries to both contests, if someone would make it to the finals in both contests it works, though a tight schedule during the event day.
The picture that world champion 2018 John Chung qualified with that year.
The jury consists of Jesper Ingevaldsson of Shoegazing, Justin FitzPatrick of The Shoe Snob, Katia Moura, Business Development and Content Manager at Saphir, Brendon Drage-Dawes of Loake, and Tom Beecroft, who run the shoe shining and patina service at The Valet (previously called The Jaunty Flaneur). All will choose their five favourites, and the three entries that receive the most votes will be qualified for the final. Jesper Ingevaldsson will be the only one who knows which picture is from which person, the other ones will vote without any info about who has sent in the entries. In the case of a tie, Justin FitzPatrick’s votes will be the deciding factor. The jury decision cannot be overruled.
Send in your competition entry to shoegazingblog@gmail.com no later than Sunday March 13. Enter “World Championships in Shoe Shining” in the subject field. Finalists will be announced the following week.
During one of the finals, 20 hectic minutes to achieve a great shine.
World Championships in Shoe Patina 2022
The newest contest, which completed the holy triangle of shoe crafts. The World Championships in Shoe Patina is organised in collaboration with Saphir, where winner gets a pair of TLB Mallorca shoes, a shoe care package from Saphir, and a glass plaquette. Painting shoes has been growing massively the past decades, especially taking off in France and Italy, but later also in other markets like Japan and the UK. We see both brands offer different patinas either as RTW or personalised through MTO, and we see professional shoe patina makers who paint new and old shoes. A lot of different techniques can be found, and it will be interesting what type of patinas we’ll see in the contest this year.
Before the start of the final 2019.
The final will start directly after opening of the super trunk, at 11.15, and will finish at 17.15 with a one hour break between 14.45-15.45 (since the shoe shining final takes over the stage area at that time). The three finalists will paint a TLB Mallorca Artista crust leather special adelaide shoe, the crust comes from Annonay. They will get to choose five colours of the leather dye Saphir Teinture Francais, which they may mix and use as they please during the day. They will also receive one Saphir Medaille d’Or Pommadier shoe cream and one can of Pate de Luxe wax in the colours they wish, plus a horsehair brush and nylon cloth. Apart from this, they bring their own brushes and equipment for painting and polishing, and they may paint the shoes in any way possible.
As with the shoe shining contest, the jury will judge the overall beauty of the paint job, but also look close at the quality of the patina, the techniques used and how well it is executed. The winner will be titled the World Champion in Shoe Patina 2022, and gets to keep the shoes he or she has painted, receives a shoe care kit from Saphir, plus a glass award. The winning shoes will go on a world tour to ten destinations first though, together with the top three of the shoemaking champs.
The TLB Mallorca Artista model to be painted (in natural crust leather though).
To qualify for the shoe patina championship, three pictures from different angles of a pair of painted shoes should be sent in. It should be taken of a full pair but all pics of the same shoes, and it’s recommended to show as much of the shoes and the paint job as possible, at least one picture showing the shoes in full. What will be judged is the same parameters as described above. Only one entry (three pics) per contestant can be sent in, and it should only be maximum one pair of shoes in the picture. The shoes in the picture should be painted and polished by the one who sends in the entry, and the person has to be able to attend the final in London on May 7. It’s open for both professionals and amateurs. As for the shining qualification you are allowed to make minor adjustments to the pictures in for example Photoshop, but more significant changes or filters etc is not allowed. We have a professional photographer who will examine all entries, and if we suspect that these rules have been violated the person will be disqualified. And also here, do note that it’s the beauty of the patina that is judged, not how beautiful the pictures are. It is possible to send in entries to both contests, if someone would be a finalist in both it would work, though May 7 will be a very busy day.
The jury consists of Tom Beecroft of The Valet (previously called The Jaunty Flaneur), Neus Benavent previously at Corthay and Gaziano & Girling, and Mathieu Preiss of Septieme Largeur, shoemaker and patina maker Norman Vilalta, Jesper Ingevaldsson of Shoegazing, Justin FitzPatrick of The Shoe Snob, Katia Moura of Saphir, and Toni Llobera of TLB Mallorca. All will choose their five favourites, and the three entries that receive the most votes will be qualified for the final. Jesper Ingevaldsson will be the only one who knows which picture is from which contestant, the other ones will vote without any info about who has sent in the entries. In the case of a tie, Justin FitzPatrick’s votes will be the deciding factor. The jury decision cannot be overruled.
Send in your competition entry to shoegazingblog@gmail.com no later than Sunday March 13 2022. Enter “World Championships in Shoe Patina” in the subject field. Finalists will be announced the following week.
The three finished shoes after final 2019.
What everyone wants to bring home.
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