We now open the qualifications to the finals of the World Championships of Shoe Shining and the World Championships of Shoe Patina 2023, two prestigious contests organised together with Saphir. Finals take place at the London Super Trunk Show on Saturday May 13. 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.
We will soon present this year’s line-up of the London Super Trunk Show, it’s a great one for sure, and we’ll also introduce some new exciting stuff. Stay tuned for this. The event takes place on Saturday May 13 2023, in the heart of London at Showcase.co on 12 Regent Street, where we gather more than 10 brands from all over the world, interesting partners, the World Championships in Shoemaking will have it’s award ceremony and competition shoes displayed, and more. And then of course, the finals of the two other world champs contests that are the focus in this article. As usual we will live stream from the different championship competitions and the award ceremonies, on Shoegazing’s Youtube channel and here on Shoegazing.com (hopefully without hiccups this time), as well as on Saphir Medaille d’Or’s Instagram.
World Championships of Shoe Shining 2023
For the fifth time we host the World Championships of 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 and Ash Samsudin 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, and been ambassadeurs for the shoe shining craft. For example last year’s winner Ash is now huge on TikTok, where a video from last year’s contest has over 7,8 million (!) views.
World champion of shoe shining 2022, Ash Sam.
Ash on TikTok, where he has had a lot of attention since the contest last year.
The final takes place at 15.00 on May 13, here one Loake 1880 Aldwych in Mahogany is to be polished as beautiful as possible. Jury will not only look at the highest shine, but the most beautiful work is rewarded, how much of the shoe that is shined, etc. The finalists will have one 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 may bring themselves) and a nylon cloth, and then they have 20 minutes to shine the shoe. For those of you who have 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 of shoe shining 2023, and gets to keep the shoe he or she has polished and its sibling, receives a shoe care kit from Saphir, plus of course the 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), send in three pictures of a pair of well polished shoes. The pictures should show off as much of 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 shoe 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, same things we look at during the final.
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 shined 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 13. 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’s possible to send in entries to both contests, if someone would make it to the finals in both contests it works, but it will be a tight schedule during the event day.
One of finalist Christian Vingsand’s pictures from last years qualification round.
The jury (preliminary) consists of Jesper Ingevaldsson of Shoegazing, Justin FitzPatrick of The Shoe Snob, Katia Moura, Business Development and Content Manager at Saphir, a representative from Loake, and Tom Beecroft, who runs the shoe shining and patina service at The Valet. 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 12. Enter “World Championships of Shoe Shining” in the subject field. Finalists will be announced the following week.
Naoki Ueda in the 2022 final, working hard. Pictures: Christopher L Proctor
What everyone is after. Picture: Mason & Smith
World Championships of Shoe Patina 2023
The latest contest, which completed the holy triangle of shoe crafts. The World Championships of Shoe Patina is organised in collaboration with Saphir, where the winner gets a pair of TLB Mallorca shoes, a shoe care package from Saphir, and a gold medal. Painting shoes has increased a lot the past decades, especially taking off in France and Italy, but later also in other markets like Japan and the UK. We have brands offering different patinas either as RTW or personalised through MTO, and we have professional shoe patina makers who paint new and old shoes. A lot of different techniques can be found, and it’s always interesting to see what type of patinas we’ll have in the contest.
Early in the contest last year.
Patina world champ last year, Toan Junie.
The final will start right after the opening of the super trunk, at 11.15, and will finish at 17.15 with a one hour break between 14.45-15.45 (then the shoe shining final takes over the stage area). The three finalists will paint a TLB Mallorca Artista crust penny loafer this year, where the leather 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 get one Saphir Medaille d’Or Pommadier shoe cream, one can of Pate de Luxe wax and one Mirror Gloss 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.
Similar to 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 of Shoe Patina 2023, and gets to keep the shoes he or she has painted, receives a shoe care kit from Saphir, plus a gold medal. The winning shoes will go on a world tour to ten destinations first though, together with the top three of the shoemaking champs.
The shoe to be painted this year, penny loafers from TLB Mallorca’s Artista range (though then in undyed crust leather).
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 13. It’s open for both professionals and amateurs.
As with 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 13 will be a very busy day.
The jury (preliminary) consists of Tom Beecroft of The Valet , Neus Benavent previously at Corthay and Gaziano & Girling, and Alan Lee of CNES Shoemaker, 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 pictures are 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 12 2023. Enter “World Championships of Shoe Patina” in the subject field. Finalists will be announced the following week.
Last year’s finished shoes.
