Info on the New York Super Trunk Show 2024

This Saturday the second edition of the New York Super Trunk Show takes place. In a lovely venue on Manhattan, on Upper East Side between Madison Ave and Central Park, we’ll gather 15 exhibitors from all over the world, host a patina exhibition, a free shoe shining service, and the U.S. Championships of Shoe Shining. Here’s some practical info ahead of the event, for those who plan to visit, and on the live streaming we will do for those who can’t attend.

The event is organised by The Shoe Snob blog, Shoegazing and Kirby Allison, and takes place at at The Kosciuszko Foundation on 15 E 65th St. Last year about 1,200 people visited the event, and we hope for a similar success this year. Below is the full schedule for the day:

11.00am-6.30pm Trunk show open for the public, FREE OF CHARGE AND NO REGISTRATION NEEDED. Exhibitions with:
Platinum sponsors
Saphir (shoe care)
Bridlen (shoes)

Gold sponsors
Acme (shoes)
CNES (shoes)
Vogel (shoes)

Silver sponsors
Blk Brd (shoes)
Charles Paige Atelier (clothes)
Divij Bespoke (clothes)
Francis Waplinger (shoes)
Ichigo Ichie (shoes)
Majordome (shoes)
Optimo (hats)
Raymar (shoes)
Yearn (shoes)

Godka will serve drinks during the day.

On display are also the top three shoes in the World Championships of Shoemaking 2024, and winner in the World Championships of Shoe Patina.

11.00am-6.30pm Free shoe shining service by Saphir.

11.15am-5.15pm (1 hour break 2.45-3.45pm) Shoe patina exhibition in collaboration with Saphir and Bridlen Shoemaker.

3.00-3.30pm Final of the U.S. Championships in Shoe Shining in cooperation with Saphir and Bridlen Shoemaker, 1st prize shoes from Bridlen, Saphir shoe care kit, gold medal (More info in qualification post here)

6.30pm Event closes.

Here’s the Facebook event page, all help spreading the word these final days is appreciated. You may read all about the event and the exhibitors, contests and partners in this article, below is some practical info ahead of Saturday:

– The venue is the same as last year, The Kosciuszko Foundation. It’s a Polish organisation that work with educational and cultural exchange with the US, and they have a beautiful old town house which we will host the event in. As mentioned, it’s located on 15 E 65th St, with street front entrance. There is no mandatory cloakroom service, but a coat hanger is located at the bottom floor (we are not responsible for items left there). There you’ll also find restroom.

Entrance room at the venue, where shine contest and patina exhibition takes place.

– At 11.00am we open the doors to the public, and we carry on all day until 6.30pm in the evening. At times it may be a bit crowded around some exhibitors tables, be prepared for that, have patience, respect each others and it always work out just fine.

– Most exhibitors will have lots of samples on display. If you try on Ready to Wear shoes, please try them on carefully, don’t walk away with them in the venue. If you place orders, some exhibitors will accept credit cards, some will use mainly PayPal for the transaction. In some cases there’s exclusive offers during the day, so keep your eyes open for a good deal. And remember, one important thing to be able to keep doing these events is that the brands get sales and value from participating.

– There will be a free shoe shine by Saphir service throughout the day. None other than Preston Soto, of The Elegant Oxford, and Levi Elliot who was last year’s US Shoe Shine Champion will be there on the day providing the service. This is your chance to meet both of them as well as get your shoes gleamed up by some of America’s best. Saphir will also run a special offer with 15% off their entire range (very rare with sales on their products), so great chance to stock up on their products.

A free shoe shine service will be offered for the visitors.

– We’ll have the liqueur company Godka present serving drinks. It’s free for all visitors. Do enjoy, but of course, drink responsibly.

– The patina exhibition will start already 15 minutes after opening, so at 11.15am, and will be finished at 5.15pm. Here Greg Park of Han Core Patina, Chris Dillon of American Patina, and Alberto Suastez of Patina Works Arizona will paint a pair of Bridlen crust leather austerity brogues, using Saphir products. Do check the amazing development that will take place here, you’ll be amazed, and the guys will gladly talk shoe patina, shoe care and what not with visitors.

– At 3pm we’ll host the U.S. Championships of Shoe Shining, where Ray Chen, Caleb Malinowski and Hang Li, will battle it out for the title, and shine a new Bridlen shoe with Saphir products in just 20 minutes. There will be bar tables for the polishing contestants and jury presenting winners. It will be crowdy, but last year it worked out well and people could ge a good view of the impressive work by the contestants.

From the shine final last year.

– The top three shoes from the World Championships of Shoemaking competition, plus the patina world champs winner, will be on display the whole day. Please, if you lift them up, do handle them carefully, but don’t miss to admire the work in full.

– We will be live streaming from the shine contest at 3pm (EDT), and around 5.15pm when the patina artists are finished we’ll show their work, and do a tour of the venue. It will be here on Shoegazing.com and on Shoegazing’s Youtube channel. We hope we’ll not run into any technical difficulties, at least it worked well last year. There will also be lots of films coming out later by Kirby Allison, and always from a bunch of others visiting as well.

– In social media we’ll use the hashtag #supertrunk for the event, please use it when you post pics in social media. And it’s a great way to follow what happens and see lots of nice shoes, for those of you who can’t visit the event.

Hope to meet many of you on Saturday! me, Justin FitzPatrick and Kirby Allison are looking forward to experience another great super trunk day.