We now have the three finalists who are to battle it out at the first U.S. Championships of Shoe Shining, organised in collaboration with the shoe care brand Saphir and the shoe brand Bridlen. At the New York Super Trunk Show on October 14 the finalists will have 20 minutes to shine a shoe as lovely looking as possible, to take the crown as the first American shoe shining champ.
We hope no one have missed the fact that we finally take the successful super trunk show events to USA, where The Shoe Snob, Shoegazing and Kirby Allison will host the first New York Super Trunk Show. This in a great location on the Upper East Side, close to Central Park, on Saturday October 14. Here you can find all info about the event. Worth mentioning is that we have three new exhibitors since we presented the event. We have the American brand George Lyon with Goodyear welted Spanish-made shoes, who always include a belt in the same leather as the shoes. We have Paolo Martorano Bespoke, a New York based tailoring firm, who combines the artisanal tradition with an eye for contemporary style. And then Dapper Woodworks, who handcraft some of the world’s finest wooden tie racks, coat hooks, valet stands, shoehorns and more.
A highlight of the NYC super trunk will be the inaugural edition of the U.S. Championships of Shoe Shining. As you may know, plan was to also have a patina competition, but sadly we had too few entries for this to hold a contest. We know there’s a bunch doing patina in USA, but a bit surprisingly too few who wanted or could enter the contest. However, we will still host a shoe patina exhibition with the two most famous patina names in the US, who were part of the planned jury, Greg Park of Han Core Patina and Chris Dillon of American Patina, together with “Shack” Shackleton who was the only one who sent in an entry. They will use Saphir dyes, creams and waxes and transform a pair of crust Bridlen austerity brogues to something spectacular during the day, and talk to visitors on shoe patina, the techniques used and so on.
For the shoe shine contest though, we had more than ten entries coming in, and many really good ones. The qualification process, jury members and how the final will unfold is thoroughly explained in this article, so here we focus on showcasing the finalists’ submissions and briefly let you know who they are. The U.S. Championships of Shoe Shining is hosted in collaboration with Saphir and Bridlen Shoes, where the winner will receive a shoe care kit from Saphir and win the brown plain cap toe oxford from Bridlen that was shined, plus of course a gold medal. It was very tight in the top, but these received most jury points and made it to the final in NYC:
Levi Elliott, Plymouth, IN. The most famous name of the finalists, who run the company Levi’s Shoe Shine which offer shine services, sell shoe care products and more. He was inspired by the first shoe shine world champion, Yuya Hasegawa, and became obsessed with learning to shine shoes, something he now has done as a side business for five years. His entry surely shows his class, with a very well-balanced high shine.
Sunny Yoo, Elliott City, MD. Nice to see both a black shoe, and a very well-used such, being the base of an entry. Excellently spit shined toe and heel, with nice transitions to the rest of the shoe. Shined by cobbler Sunny Yoo, who runs a shoe repair and leather restoration shop. He started shining shoes already at the age of 15, and with years became better and better at it, to eventually have it part of his job.
SSG Chadwick Winget, Arlington, VA. We all know that the skill of shining shoes are strong in the army, and military representatives have been shine finalists both in the world champs and Swedish champs. SSG Chadwick Winget is representing the Society of the Honor Guard, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and 3rd United States Infantry Regiment. He makes shoes for the Army’s ceremonial units, and apprentice at the Best Foot Forward cobbler and leather studio. Don’t really need to explain why his entry took him to the final, just look at the photos.
