Now the road to the finals of the World Championships of Shoe Shining and the World Championships of Shoe Patina 2025 starts, with the qualifications. The contests are organised together with the shoe care company Saphir and the shoe brand Bridlen, with finals at the London Super Trunk Show on Saturday May 10. Contestants will battle it out for glory, medals, shoes, shoe care products plus now also with £600 / $750 in the prize pool of each contest, given by Saphir.
Next month we will introduce the line-up of this year’s London Super Trunk Show, organised by Shoegazing, The Shoe Snob, and Kirby Allison. The event takes place on Saturday May 10 2025, in the middle of London at Showcase.co on 12 Regent Street. Here we’ll gather more than ten shoe brands, menswear companies, the World Championships of Shoemaking will have it’s award ceremony and competition shoes displayed, and more. Two of the highlights of the day are always the finals of the two other world champs contests, in shoe shining and shoe patina. The contests and the award ceremonies will be live streamed on Shoegazing’s Youtube channel and here on Shoegazing.com, as well as on Saphir Medaille d’Or’s Instagram, and then articles here on the blogs and videos on Kirby Allison’s YouTube channel will come after the event.
World Championships of Shoe Shining 2025
This is the secenth World Championships of Shoe Shining, held in collaboration with the world’s number one premium shoe care brand Saphir and the praised shoe brand Bridlen from India. Winner gets a shoe care package from Saphir, a pair of shoes from Bridlen, and not least the gold medal. Previous winners are Japanese Yuya Hasegawa, Yuta Sugimura and Naoki Hayashida from Japan, John Chung, Ash Samsudin from Singapore, and last year’s winner was the Japanese Nishigami Yoshihiro. Total Asian domination in other words, albeit many Europeans as well as Americans have came close in the final, maybe this is the year they take the crown. Many of the winners have used being the world champion titles to for example tour around various places in Asia, appear in television and magazines, become huge on TikTok, and build up their respective shoe shining services that they run. They’ve been great ambassadeurs for the shoe shining craft.
One thing we want to stress again, which goes for all three world champs contests, is that previous winners should dare to enter again. It’s actually only one world champion, a patina winner, who won and then tried again, he actually didn’t make it to the final the second time, which is totally fine, and he also just said he will try again this year. That’s exactly the spirit we’re after. Imagine in sports, if athletes who’ve won the world championships would never enter again? That would be ridiculous. So don’t make sense why it would be different here. The title can never be taken away from anyone, and even if one would be beaten you’re still a world champion. So come on, previous winners, don’t be afraid to go for a second win.
A beautiful moment, when last year’s winner Nishigami Yoshihiro just have been announced the world champion.
The final takes place at 15.00 on May 10, here one medium brown plain cap toe oxford from Bridlen is to be polished as beautiful as possible. Jury will not only look at the highest shine, but the most lovely looking work is rewarded, how much of the shoe that is shined, the technique and attention to detail, and so on. The finalists will have one can of Saphir Medaille d’Or Pate de Lux and a can of Mirror Gloss in the colours of their choice, water, a brush, a polishing cloth (this they may bring themselves) and a nylon cloth, and then they have 20 minutes to work on the shoe. In this very short time, some amazing results are always achieved. The winner will be titled the world champion of shoe shining 2024, and gets to keep the shoe he or she has polished and its sibling, receives a shoe care kit from Saphir, plus of course a gold medal. This year, Saphir has also sponsored with prize money, with £300 to the winner, £200 to second place, £100 to third.
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 easily, and it has always resulted in qualified finalists, so in that sense it has worked out well), 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, and so on. What will be judged is how well the shoe is polished, not necessarily the highest shine but also other parameters are taken into consideration, as the depth of the shine, attention to detail, 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 photos should be shined by the one who sends in the entry, and the person of course has to be able to be at the final in London on May 10. 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, but important they show the shine work well. It’s possible to send in entries to both contests, if someone would make it to the finals in both contests it works, we had one in both finals last year, but it will be a tight schedule during the event day.
Entry from last year that made it to the final, by Gordon Choo from China.
The jury (preliminary) consists of Jesper Ingevaldsson of Shoegazing, Justin FitzPatrick of The Shoe Snob, Kirby Allison, Katia Moura, Business Development and Content Manager at Saphir, Affan Mohamed of Bridlen, Tom Beecroft, who runs the shoe shining and patina service at The Valet, who also support with the event, and Yuya Hasegawa of Brift-H, and previous world champion. All will give points to their five favourites, 5-1 points, and the ones with the most points 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 9. Enter “World Championships of Shoe Shining” in the subject field. Finalists will be announced the following week.
It’s 20 minutes of hard work for the finalists.
To the left is the Bridlen shoe that won last year’s final, shined for just 20 minutes, to the right it’s unpolished sibling.
World Championships of Shoe Patina 2025
World Championships of Shoe Patina is also organised in collaboration with Saphir and Bridlen, where the winner gets a shoe care package from Saphir, shoes from Bridlen, and a gold medal. Plus, prize money sponsored by Saphir, with £300 to the winner, £200 to second place, £100 to third. Painting shoes has increased a lot the past decades, especially taking off in France and Italy, but later also in other markets like Japan, the UK and the US. To offer different patinas either as RTW or personalised through MTO has become a common thing for many brands, and we have professional shoe patina makers who paint new and old shoes. A lot of different techniques can be found, which we also see in the contest.
The shoes to paint is a pair of adelaides from Bridlen’s finest Founders line. Here’s from the NYC patina exhibition last year.
Morgane Lévêque, who works as a patina artist for the French brand JM Legazel, congratulated for the world champs win in 2024.
The final starts directly 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 (this when the shoe shining final takes over the stage area). The three finalists will paint a Bridlen crust leather adelaides 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, attention to detail and how well it is executed. Apart from the prizes listed above, the winning shoes will go on a world tour to 10+ destinations first though, together with the top three of the shoemaking world champs.
How the shoes can look when finished. After last year’s final.
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 10. 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’s possible to send in entries to both contests, if someone would be a finalist in both it works.
The jury (preliminary) consists of Tom Beecroft of The Valet, Samuel Norsworthy of Catella Shoemaker, Jesper Ingevaldsson of Shoegazing, Justin FitzPatrick of The Shoe Snob, Katia Moura of Saphir, and Affan Mohamed of Bridlen. All will give points 1-5 to their five favourites, and the three entries that receive the most points 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 9 2025. Enter “World Championships of Shoe Patina” in the subject field. Finalists will be announced the following week.
Big crowds usually follows the contests.
What everyone wants to go home with.
Great post! I really appreciated the insights you shared about the fact. It’s fascinating to see. Your perspective has definitely given me a lot to think about. I look forward to reading more of your work!