It’s time for the third New York Super Trunk Show this Saturday. Same great venue on Manhattan, on Upper East Side between Madison Ave and Central Park, where we gather a bunch of great shoe and menswear exhibitors from around the world, have a free shoe shining service, stage sessions on various shoe topics, and the U.S. Championships of Shoe Shining. Here’s some practical info ahead of the event for visitors, and on the live streaming fro those who can’t attend.
The event is organised by The Shoe Snob blog, Shoegazing and Kirby Allison, and takes place at at The KF House (The Kosciuszko Foundation) on 15 E 65th St. We hope to see hundreds of visitors come by as usual. Below is the full schedule for the day:
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
CNES (shoes)
Charles Paige Atelier (clothes)
Silver sponsors
Blk Brd (shoes)
Caswell Boot Company (shoes)
Divij Bespoke (clothes)
Francis Waplinger (shoes)
Ichigo Ichie (shoes)
Optimo (hats)
Yearn (shoes)
Ten To One rum will serve drinks during the day
On display are also the top three shoes in the World Championships of Shoemaking 2025, and winner in the World Championships of Shoe Patina.
11.00am-6.30pm (on and off) Free shoe shining service by Saphir, at their exhibition space
11.00am-6.30pm (on and off) Live shoemaking with Francis Waplinger, at their exhibition space
Stage programme
12.00-12.15pm – How to make suede shoes look good again, with Levi Elliott, Levi’s Shoe Shine / Saphir
1.00-1.15pm – How a shoe factory work, with Affan Mohammed, Bridlen
2.00-2.15pm – Fix a mirror shine, with Preston Soto, The Elegant Oxford / Saphir
3.00-3.30pm Final of the U.S. Championships in Shoe Shining in cooperation with Saphir and Bridlen Shoemaker, in the prize pool shoes from Bridlen, Saphir shoe care kit, medals and $800 (More info in qualification post here)
4.00-4.15pm – Ask a shoemaker – Q&A with bespoke shoemaker Francis Waplinger
5.00-5.15pm – How to remove salt stains on shoes, with Levi Elliott, Levi’s Shoe Shine / Saphir
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 previous years, The KF House (previously called the Kosciuszko Foundation). It’s a beautiful old town house owned by a Polish organisation. 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 restrooms.
One of several of the beautiful rooms of the venue.
– We open the doors for the public at 11.00am, and we close at 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. Keep your eyes open for a good deal, as many exhibitors have nice offers during the day. 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. Preston Soto of The Elegant Oxford and Levi Elliot of Levi’s Shoe Shine will shine visitors shoes. A good opportunity to get your shoes shined by some of America’s best. Saphir will have loads of products for sale at the event, so a chance to stock up on their products.
Preston Soto shining visitor’s shoes at Saphir’s booth.
– We’ll have the liqueur company Ten To One rum on site serving drinks. It’s free for all visitors. Do enjoy, but of course, drink responsibly.
– At 3pm it’s time for the the U.S. Championships of Shoe Shining. Finalists this time are Nicholas Fuentes, Mario Cesar Samaniego and Ray Chen, they will shine a new Bridlen shoe with Saphir products in just 20 minutes, and battle it out for fine prices and the title. There will be bar tables for the polishing contestants, with some seating for the audience but many will need to stand up. It will be crowdy, but people will get a good view of the impressive work by the contestants.
From the 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 do handle them carefully if you lift them up, but don’t miss to admire the work in full.
– We will be live streaming from the shine contest at 3pm (EDT). It will be here on Shoegazing.com and on Shoegazing’s Youtube channel. We hope we’ll not run into any technical difficulties. 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 as usual have the hashtag #supertrunk for the event, please use it when you post pics in social media. 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.
Me, Justin FitzPatrick and Kirby Allison are looking forward to hosting another great shoe day, hope to see many of you on Saturday!
Testing jackets at Charles Paige.
