You know the drill by now. Since it always takes some time for me to finish the huge articles covering all contest shoes of the world champs, we have a picture special showing the top three that were appointed at the London super trunk the past weekend. Winner this year was Ken Kataoka, runner up Twinkima.G and 3rd Dmitry Avdyukhov.
This past Saturday over 1,000 visitors once again visited the London Super Trunk Show, the eight edition. There will be much more on the event in a large report later this week, and as mentioned earlier, I will also do a separate summary of all 20 contest shoes for the World Championships of Shoemaking. The contest is organised by Shoegazing, The Shoe Snob, and Kirby Allison with the book Master Shoemakers, plus Parker Schenecker (brother of contest co-founder Edmund Schenecker who sadly passed away a few years ago).
Since those contest articles take quite a lot of work to put together and will take some time to complete, here’s a first look at this year’s top three.
1st place – Ken Kataoka, Japan
The winning shoe this year is a spectacular showpiece. Victorian era inspiration, with upper featuring a Victorian flowering design, a bevelled waist and “bumpy art sole”, and a superb sculptural heel with piano finish. Scored very high on difficulty, execution and originality, less on design / aesthetics. A shoe that likely will divide people, some love it, some don’t, since it’s so special.
Ken Kataoka is a Japanese maker based in Tokyo, first known under the brand Siroeno Yosui but no use his own name. He trained partly at the shoemaking school of Noriyuki Misawa. Has one of the largest Japanese YouTube channels showcasing shoemaking. Finished second in 2023 and 2025, so now he really wanted that gold medal, and finally managed to grab the top position. Ken Kataoka made all himself.
A true showpiece, that could have been found among the 100+ years old exhibition pieces one find at the Northampton shoe museum.
The sole with special bumps in the front, that must have required quite some to shape this well.
2nd place – Twinkima.G, China
A shoe with an upper with hidden seams, building a pattern that gives it character, even if the base is very classic. The hand-compressed engraving on the sole looks really nice. Very high points especially in execution and design / aesthetics, an entry that shows that a really well-made, lovely looking shoe can take you very far in this contest.
Twinkima.G is a brand founded by Meng Guan, that normally make mainly RTW shoes, albeit fully handmade ones. Have its own factory in Dongguan in southern China. The team behind the shoe are the following, who all are full time employees in the Twinkima.G factory: Yukun Zhang – organiser, Jay Chu – lastmaker and shoe designer, Jack Wang – bottom maker, Daniel Lee – carving artisan specialist, and Felix Yip – shoe shine.
A more classic take on the chelsea boot, albeit with a special pattern, and made to a very high standard.
Bottom with neatly made markings in a balanced design.
3rd place – Dmitry Avdyukhov, Russia
Dmitry Avdyukhov is a bespoke shoemaker from Kalach-on-the Don of the Volgograd region in Russia. Dmitry Avdyukhov was responsible for making of the last, pattern making, upper making and bottoming. He had help by Evgeny Tabunshchikov who made the stacked leather heel and the brass decorations.
A beautiful shoe, with an overall high score throughout the criteria categories. Large section of the upper is seamless, and it has a super fine 24 spi (stitches per inch) sole stitch, and lovely looking brass toe and heel plates decorated with urushi lacquer. The decorative lacing gives it a balmoral boot look, which is a nice thing given that the chelsea when invented had its base in a lace-up balmoral boot.
A lot to admire with this shoe, for example how the thread that laces were made of goes through in the elastics, and the thin heel lifts.
The toe plate and heel mirrors each other, and has an intricate brass design with urushi lacquer making it pop.
Really enjoyed this post! Finding comfortable and stylish footwear can be difficult with so many options available today. I’ve recently been exploring different shoe trends and comfort guides on ShoeNord, and it’s interesting to see how important proper footwear has become for both fashion and everyday comfort. Thanks for sharing these helpful insights!
Interesante, aunque el primer lugar en este caso si es muy extraño, me hubiese gustado que las obras de arte premiadas también fueran zapatos funcionales, al parecer Siroeno se inspiró demás, si no puedes usarlo, no es un zapato, es mi opinión
How can this monstrosity be put first? If the judges are crazy, then we’re normal and reasonable people. At the first championship, first place was given to someone with a hoof-shaped heel. So the jury prioritizes the uglier, the better! Third place, where the edges are trimmed, like in mass-produced footwear; the “master” didn’t even bother to fold the edges. The judges’ knowledge of shoemaking is below par! Outrageous! With disrespect, Valery Makhmutov!
Valeriy: It was a clear win this time. And most of those who saw the shoes in real life at the event agreed with it. You do know that Design / Aesthetics is only max 5 points out of a total max of 30 points? So even if the winner got less in this category, high on Difficulty, Execution and Originality was well enough.
On the edges of the upper, if one fold it, only add edge finishing or leave them raw varies both for bespoke footwear and for mass-produced footwear, it all depends on what you are after. For the third placed shoe, he has folded some edges, while left some raw, likely highly intentional.