The London super trunk week is here, and there’s more happenings than ever this time. We warm up with an evening event at Carmina’s store on Friday, and at Saturday’s big event there’s apart from the exhibitions an expanded stage programme throughout the day. Here’s practical info for those of you who plan to attend, and those who will follow the live streams from the three world championship contests.
The event is organised by Shoegazing, The Shoe Snob and Kirby Allison. As always the event takes place at Showcase.co, located just below Piccadilly Circus and Jermyn Street, on 12 Regent Street. The exhibitor list is as follows: as Platinum sponsors we have Saphir (shoes) and Bridlen (shoes), as Gold sponsors Calzoleria Carlino, (shoes) and CNES (shoes), and then as Silver sponsors there’s Blk Brd (shoes), Bresciani (socks), Castle Forbes (grooming), Euroleathers (leathers), Francesco Maglia (umbrellas), Renav Goods (shoes), Twinkima.G (shoes) and Yearn (shoes). Special partner is The Valet (shoe and clothing care service).
On display are all competition shoes in the World Championships of Shoemaking and the World Championships of Shoe Shining and Shoe Patina will have its finals.
The full schedule for the day:
11.00-18.30 Trunk show open for the public, FREE OF CHARGE AND NO REGISTRATION NEEDED.
11.00-18.30 (on and off) Free shoe shining service by Saphir.
11.15-17.15 (1 hour break 14.45-15.45) Final of the World Championships of Shoe Patina in collaboration with Saphir and Bridlen. The prize pool includes shoes from Bridlen, shoe shine kits from Saphir, medals, and £600 (€720 / $770) in total.
12.00-12.15 Panel talk – The state of bespoke shoemaking, with Daniel Wegan, Catella, and William Efe Laborde (Small stage area)
13.00-13.15 How to polish shoes for an antique finish, with Yuya Hasegawa, Brift-H (Small stage area)
14.00-14.15 Panel talk – How to run a shoe factory, with Affan Mohamed, Bridlen. (Small stage area)
15.00-15.30 Final of the World Championships of Shoe Shining in cooperation with Saphir and Bridlen. Large stage area)
Three finalists compete to polish a pair of Bridlen shoes to perfection in just 20 minutes using Saphir products. The prize pool includes shoes from Bridlen, shoe care kits from Saphir, medals, and £600 (€700 / $800) given by Saphir.
16.00-16.15 How to care for suede shoes, with Ewan Rix, Cheaney, hosted by Saphir (Small stage area)
17.30-17.50 Award ceremony for the patina competition and the World Championships of Shoemaking. (Large stage area)
Organised together with Kirby Allison, Master Shoemakers and Parker Schenecker. The top ten entries will be presented, including the three podium finishers. The shoemaking prize pool totals £6,000 (€7,000 / $8,000), and winners also receive handcrafted shoemaking awls by Phil Norsworthy, medals, and their shoes exhibited around the world including at Isetan Men’s in Tokyo.
18.30 Event closes
Loads of great footwear, shoe care, accessories and other products will be shown.
Here’s the Facebook event page where you’ll get the latest updates. All help spreading the word is greatly appreciated. You may read all about the event and the exhibitors, contests and partners in this article, below are some practical info ahead of Saturday:
– The venue is located at street level on 12 Regent Street, where you pass by the Showcase.co storefront and access the exhibitor space. You can also enter from the side street Carlton Street. There is no mandatory cloakroom service, however, those who wish to hang any coats will have a wardrobe space for that (please note that it’s not under surveillance, we are not responsible for what you hang in the cloakroom). There’s restrooms in the back part of the venue space.
– There’s a bar serving coffee, drinks and snacks throughout the day on site, making for a nice environment. The coffee is really great, do not miss. And a couple of beers or a glass of prosecco in the late afternoon makes the event even more enjoyable. To be able to keep this service we appreciate you visitors also making sure to utilise it.
– At 11.00 we open the doors to the public, and we carry on all day until 18.30. Last couple of years we’ve had well over 1,000 visitors, we of course hope for something similar this year. At times it can be crowded around some exhibitors tables, be prepared for that, have patience, respect each others and it always work out fine.
– At each exhibitors table there will be chairs and mirrors. All exhibitors will have lots of samples on display. If you try on Ready to Wear models, please only wear them gently, don’t walk away with them in the venue. All exhibitors will take orders during the day, and especially those with smaller goods will also sell their products on site. Most exhibitors will accept credit cards, some will use mainly PayPal for the transaction. In many cases there’s exclusive offers during the day, keep your eyes open for a good deal. For example Carlino will offer alligator or crocodile leather at the same price as calf, quite special. Please don’t forget that you visitors have a big part in making it worthwhile for the brands to come to the event, by purchasing their products.
– Saphir will offer a free shoe shining service during the whole day, for any one who wish to have their shoes polished up. This will be done by Marc of Bowbells Shoeshine. He will do quick shines on people’s shoes, around 15 minutes per pair, you just sit down in his chair and watch him do his thing. From time to time they will also offer an exclusive high shine shoe polish service, where former world champion Yoshihiro Nishigami of Boston & Re Olds will do proper mirror gloss on visitors’ shoes. So if you’re lazy, come with your shoes unpolished and have them fixed up by the professionals, or just have your shoes fixed up to an even better state.
Many great stage happenings takes place throughout the day.
– The patina contestants will start painting already 15 minutes after opening, so at 11.15, and will be finished at 17.15. It’s always a treat to follow their work during the day, and see how the undyed crust leather shoes will be transformed. There will be a break for one hour at the middle of the day, to make room for the shoe shining final.
– New this year is that we’ll have a smaller stage area sort of in the back of where we have the large, regular one. This will be utilised for the short sessions throughout the day (schedule above) and there will be no microphone, to not disturb the exhibitions too much. Given it’s a first attempt at this we’ll see how it all works out, hopefully well.
– All shoes in the World Championships of Shoemaking will be on display the whole day. If you lift them up, do handle them carefully, and put them back in the correct position (each shoe will be numbered, since they aren’t branded, there will be signs with the maker and its number). Usually these shoes get the respect they deserve, we trust it will be the same now. There will be a bit over 20 shoes on display.
We hope for large visitor numbers again.
– We will live stream from the large stage happenings where the world champs in shoe shine takes place at 15.00 and the award ceremony for the patina and shoemaking world champs at 17.30, here on Shoegazing.com and on Shoegazing’s Youtube channel. On Instagram the event partner @saphir_medailledor plan to livestream during the day as well. There will also be lots of films coming out later made by Kirby Allison on his YouTube.
– In social media we’ll use 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 can’t wait to meet many of you in London on Saturday!
