We can now announce the finalists in the two prestigious world championships contests, with finals taking place at the London Super Trunk Show on May 10. We’ll have two Japanese and a Brit going head to head in the shine final, and two Frenchmen and a Swiss to battle it out for the patina title. See their submissions here.
You may read all about the London Super Trunk Show in this article, and we appreciate if you visit the event’s Facebook page and let us know you’re coming and help share the event (or just follow it to get updates on things around it). It’s organised by Shoegazing, The Shoe Snob and Kirby Allison, and takes place on Saturday May 10, at Showcase.co on 12 Regent Street, in the very central parts of London. There’ll be 14 shoe and menswear companies from around the globe exhibiting, a free shoe shining service, a mirror shine masterclass, and more. The World Championships of Shoemaking will have its award ceremony and competition shoes displayed. Plus then the two other world champs contest, which are the focus of this article.
The qualification process, jury members and how the finals will unfold is thoroughly explained in this article, so here we focus on showing the finalists’ submissions and let you know a bit about them. Both the World Championships of Shoe Shining and Shoe Patina are organised in collaboration with the shoe care company Saphir and the shoe brand Bridlen. As been the case for several years now we had about 40 submissions to the two contests (thanks to all who sent in entries,), literally all around the world, some amateurs but nowadays mainly professionals.
The competition is getting tougher and tougher with more quality work shown each year, especially in the shine contest we might need to find a different qualification system that still makes it easy and fair for everyone to enter, but now so many entries are so good based on conditions set out that it’s tough for the jury how to give out the points. Eventually these are the ones who made it to the finals in London.
World Championships of Shoe Shining 2025 finalists
Atsuhiro Yoshidomi, Japan. We’ve seen more and more black shoes as shine entries, and a well-shined such can really be a treat. Here Atsuhiro Yoshidomi has also mixed in gold leaf in the polish, adding a nice touch even if it didn’t really affect the judgement of the actual shine. Atsuhiro has worked as a shiner for seven years, he is from Fukuoka and works for the shoe shine bar Boston & Re Olds, so he’s actually colleague with last year’s world champion Nishigami Yoshihiro.
Mathew, United Kingdom. For the second time in the history of this contest we have a military shoe shiner in the final. Mathew (since he’s serving in the military still, for security reasons, we’ll only use his first name) with many years in the British military runs Mr. Bull & Shine, a shine service geared toward military personnel. His videos on especially TikTok has been viewed by millions. Normally Mathew uses various melted wax techniques, but for this entry he shined them with only Saphir products, and boy did he do it well.
Ryu Niita, Japan. Medium brown aniline leather given a wonderful traditional shine enhancement by Ryu Niita. The fact that the edges have been left relatively subtly shined is in this case positive, it enhances the vintage feel over the shoes and shows understanding of the subject. Ryu is one of the leading shiners in Japan, who’ve won the Japanese shoe shine contest twice in a row. He’s been working for the shine bar chain Brift H* for thirteen years, and shined thousands of shoes by now.
World Championships of Shoe Patina 2025 finalists
Rod Baudry, France. A relatively classic style of patina, executed to perfection. Super smooth transitions, very identical between the two shoes, with great attention to detail. Rod Baudry works for Corthay, has 14 years of experience painting shoes, and was in the final two years ago, but didn’t win that year. He is back for a second chance at glory.
Albet Gjukaj, Switzerland. A really vivid patina with well-made mottling, and great details like the green top of the welt. Neatly done sole as well. Albert Gjukaj has been twice in the shine final, and last year also in the patina final, still chasing his first world championship title. He runs the shoe retailer and shoe service shop Mr. Dapper in Luzern, Switzerland.
Toan Junie, France. He’s back again. For the first time we have three previous finalists in a final, the patina one, but only one of them has previously won. Toan Junie was crowned world champion in 2022, but lost out to Morgane Lévêque last year. His entry is a wholecut painted to look like a cap toe balmoral oxford, really neatly made with excellent technique. Nowadays Toan mainly works for the French shoe brand Septieme Largeur.
*As you may know, one jury member is Yuya Hasegawa, owner of Brift H that finalist Ryu Niita works for. Here entries were judged anonymously, and to double check we also removed Yuya’s points and Ryu was still finalist (similar to how we did when a Berluti shoemaker won with another Berluti member in the jury, even if he didn’t know he judged a colleague). In London jury decision is done after discussion and a mutual agreement between all members, so an objective decision will be guaranteed. And same thing there, we will check if Yuya’s vote will be a deciding factor, and if so they will be removed.
