Report – London Super Trunk Show 2025

The Super Trunk Show in London once again proved its position as a central meeting point for the world of quality men’s footwear. Throughout the day the venue was buzzing with activity, from the busy exhibitor floor to the three world championship finals, and countless conversations between makers, retailers, and shoe enthusiasts from across the globe.

 

As usual the event took place at Showcase.co on 12 Regent Street, an excellent location in the heart of London, with a street level space. And as usual, it was crowdy, about 1,300 visitors once again and many who’ve been part for several years felt that more and more people stay around for longer to talk and catch-up with friends, a bit of a switch from a few years ago when we saw more peak hours and calmer periods. We in the organisation team – me Jesper Ingevaldsson of Shoegazing, Justin FitzPatrick of The Shoe Snob blog, and Kirby Allison of the YouTube channel and webstore with the same name – are really happy about the development.

The contests remain a cornerstone of the super trunk format especially here in London, highlighting the skill that underpins the quality shoe world. The first competition of the day was the patina final, where three patina artists — Rodolphe Baudry of France, Albert Gjukaj from Switzerland,  and former champion Toan Junie also from France— spent five hours transforming crust leather Bridlen shoes using Saphir products. The results were as alway impressive across the board, in the end Rod Baudry was crowned the winner with Toan Junie in 2nd and Albert Gjukaj in 3rd.

Later in the afternoon came the shoe shine final. Here, the task was to achieve the best possible high shine on a Bridlen oxford within 20 minutes using Saphir Medaille d’Or waxes. Competing were Mathew from UK (military staff so only use surname), Atsuhiro Yoshidomi and Ryu Niita from Japan. After a very long jury gathering Ryu was awarded the gold medal, his shoe was the most consistently high shined with no real weak spots. Atsuhiro took silver and Mathew bronze. Both these contests were made possible by sponsors Saphir whose products were used throughout and who also provided prize money and exclusive named polish cans to the contestants, and Bridlen whose shoes were used.

On display at the entrance to the venue were this year’s entries to the shoemaking contest. The brief: a double monk strap in dark brown smooth leather, hand welted with handmade sole stitch. A jury of shoemakers and industry experts assessed the 25 anonymous submissions the day before the event, and final stage session of the day the ten best placed were introduced. On the podium we had 3rd Ken Hishinuma from Japan (last year’s world champion), 2nd Ken Kataoka also from Japan, and winner Louis Lampertsdörfer from Germany.

Louis was on site, and received a lot of praise from the audience for his remarkable shoe, which he’d spent about 200 hours making. The podium placed makers share a £6,000 prize pool sponsored by Kirby Allison, the book project Master Shoemakers and Parker Schenecker, and also receive handmade awls by Phil Norsworthy and of course medals. The top three shoes, along with the patina champion’s pair, will also go on a world tour later this year. Worth noting is that we already now announced that the shoe for the next year’s world champs of shoemaking will be a black chelsea boot, and that we add the points criteria Originality (max 5 points/judge) on top of Difficulty (max 10 points), Execution (max 10 points) and Design / Aesthetics (max 5 points). More info to come in the Call for competition soon, but makers can start thinking about this already now.

New this year was a stage session where Yuya Hasegawa, first world champion and founder of the Japanese shoe bar chain  Brift-H, had a Mirror shine masterclass where he learned out his tips and tricks to the audience. They also got to ask questions directly to him afterwards on how to care for once shoes and how to manage a nice shine. A well-received session, and we plan to add more of this type of sessions going forward, more similar to how the first super trunks not least in Stockholm was a number of years ago.

Another news was the Super Trunk Sweepstakes, where several of our sponsors had donated fine prizes, everything from shoes to clothing, that both people before the event and event visitors who got a second spot in the raffle could win. At the end of the day we announced the happy winners, who all have been contacted by the brands in cases they weren’t present at the event to sort the prize they had won.

The exhibitor line-up this year was as usual filled with some popular ones from previous year’s and some brand new ones. Our main Platinum sponsors had both large displays, where the world’s leading premium shoe care brand Saphir Medaille d’Or brought a wide selection of their offerings to display and sell on-site. They also had Marc of Bowbell Shoe Shine present to shine visitors shoes. The praised Indian shoe brand Bridlen always brings some news, this time they showcased their updated top range Founders line for the first time in London, a very high level of craftsmanship for the prize. With the base of old-school Goodyear welting directly to a thick leather insole they are always a solid choice.

As Gold sponsors we welcomed the new acquaintance Twinkima.G from China. It’s a company that’s been around for a bunch of years and have their own factory making mainly sleek hand welted dress shoes, but also casual espadrilles etc. Now they just started looking internationally. We also had CNES from Vietnam, making hand welted, Goodyear and Blake stitched shoes out of their own factory, offering a lot of bang for the buck. They have expanded the styles in recent years and now all from super sleek dressy to chunky boots can be had from the brand.

We then had a nice bunch of Silver exhibitors showcasing. Arch Kerry is a Japanese brand of hand welted vintage style shoes, that grabs more and more attention also outside their domestic market. Vogel from USA showed their new range called Icons, with among other things chunky soles and an interesting tweaked penny loafers design. Dutch 100 Hands who make fully handmade shirts in their own Indian factory has become a given choice for lovers of fine men’s shirts. And another Dutch brand was Lennertson with their casual, slightly rugged boots and shoes Goodyear welted in Portugal to fine standard. When it comes to fine premium socks few beats the Italian company Bresciani, whose display is like a candy store of socks of all kinds, colours and materials.

Charles Paige is an American tailor that combines classic and contemporary in a way that’s highly suitable for today’s day and age, and most who try them out love their stuff and become long term regulars. Yearn together with their UK partner Arterton is an appreciated exhibitor who makes really well-made fully handmade classic footwear in their own factory in Chengdu, China. Blk Brd was back for the second time, they have among the lowest priced hand welted with handmade sole stitch available, yet quality is really solid. And finally we had the famous hat company Optimo from Chicago, USA, who always attracts customers and here among other things tested out a new digital scan tool for bespoke hats.

While the shoes and competitions form the core of the event, what continues to elevate the super trunks is its role as global meeting poinst. Alongside the practical business opportunities — brands meeting potential retailers, customers placing orders — there’s a strong sense of shared community. We hear it from more and more people— remind us how niche craft can bring people together across borders.

The Super Trunk Show returns to New York on October 4, we also will host the first edition in Singapore on January 31 2026, more info on those will come. To London will be back in May 2026. We’re grateful to everyone who helped make this year’s edition such a memorable one — visitors, contestants, exhibitors, sponsors, and supporters.

At the end of this article, you’ll find video recordings from the three championship finals. Much more will come on Kirby Allison’s YouTube channel later on.

 

Live videos from the event

Mirror shine mastercass with Yuya Hasegawa of Brift-H

 

 

World Championships of Shoe Shining final

 

Award ceremonies for the World Championships of Shoe Patina and the World Championships of Shoemaking