It always take a while before I’m finished with the huge article coverage of all the 25 contest shoes of the shoemaking world champs displayed at the super trunk this past Saturday in London, so here’s a quick picture special showcasing the top three. Admire the work of Ken Hishinuma (1st), Hiroshi Takagi (2nd), and Aria Badia (3rd). Also on BBC News coverage of the shoemaking contest and the event.
This past Saturday we had another new visitor record with over 1,300 visitors coming through the doors at 12 Regent Street, for the sixth London Super Trunk Show. There will be much more on that in a large report later this week, and as mentioned above, later on I will summarise all the 25 contest shoes for the World Championships of Shoemaking, a contest organised by Shoegazing, The Shoe Snob, and Kirby Allison with the book Master Shoemakers, plus Parker Schenecker (brother of contest co-founder Edmund Schenecker who passed away three years ago). But since there is a lot of work putting those contest articles together and it will take a while, here is a look at the top trio.
The shoe to be made this year was a loafer for the first time, with a full strap and separate apron piece made of tan calf leather, hand welted with hand stitched leather sole, and a bit more freedom to work with decorations without any set specs there. The absolute top level has been very high already since Patrick Frei’s magic winner in 2018, and the overall quality below the top positioned shoes has been pushed higher every year, which continues to be the case.
So, this year’s top three are:
Ken Hishinuma, 1 st place
Ken Hishinuma is from Japan, he recently relocated from Yokohama to Hokuto City, Yamanashi Prefecture. He used to work for an architectural design company, but when he attended Ishihara Shoe School in 2019, he decided to take up shoemaking seriously. He attended the class for two years, learning about shoes while also studying on his own. In 2021 he started the shoe brand Khish the Work, offer MTO, MTM and bespoke, and has one of Japan’s largest YouTube channels on shoemaking, called Crazy about Shoes.
He ticks of two of the biggest trends on his shoe, the horse shoe heel and the non-existing waist, here pie-crust stitched as part of the upper, which is a surely interesting solution. Other parts worth mentioning is the tight fine sole stitching and lovely hand braided seams on the upper. The shoe received high scores in all judging criteria: execution, difficulty and design / aesthetics.
Ken Hishinuma made all himself, apart from polishing which was made by Go Ishimi.
The best shoe made in the world this year.
Spectacular bottom.
Ken has uploaded a full hour video following the entire process of making the shoe, well worth a view:
Hiroshi Takagi, 2nd place
Another Japanese, Hiroshi Takagi was trained by the Japanese bespoke shoemaker So Tsuchiya. Hiroshi finished seventh in the world championships back in 2022, this is his second entry. If you check out his Instagram _hytee, you get so seem some lovely shoes of various character. The shoe features a superbly executed sole stitch, a playful nicely made design, hand braided stitches and more. The simulated upper continuing under the heel looks great.
Hiroshi Takagi made all himself.
An upper with lots of things going on, but manage to create a nice whole.
Another horse shoe heel, and narrow waist.
Aria Badia, 3rd place
The Chinese hobby shoemakers Jiang “Dao” Daoyuan and Zhun is behind the newly started brand Aria Badia. They have made the shoe after their regular jobs, which is quite remarkable. Both studied shoemaking in Florence, and their shoe has a lot of inspiration from their time there. The sweeping shapes are inspired by the bridges of Florence, and there’s an Italian stamp is hidden in a drawer of the heel. Neatly made, scored high on execution, and was the highest of all shoes in the contest on design / aesthetics.
Design, pattern, upper, bottom making by Jiang, finishing by Zhun, details by Xiyun.
A lovely looking, well executed shoe.
Classic sole and heel, apart from the small compartment.
A BBC producer was on site during the event this Saturday, and on Monday morning I was interviewed by the BBC News show World Business Report (which will change name to Business Today) about mainly the World Championships of Shoemaking, and some on the event and patina and shine contests. It’s one of the most viewed programmes of BBC News, which airs on BBC One, BBC News and BBC World News (several times in various editions on some of them), with millions of viewers around the world, of course an awesome chance to highlight the contest and the craftmsanship. Below you can see a shortened down summary, and those in the UK with a TV license can find the whole Monday show on the website linked above.
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BBC interview was nicely done, Jesper 🙂
Best
Anthony
Terrific shows as always! And great with the BBC coverage, well-deserved recognition for such a fine contest.
Anthony and Brian: Thanks a lot!