Tag
Another super trunk done – another amazing shoe day to remember. Almost 1,300 visitors came to the event last Saturday and explored the shoe offerings from the 10+ exhibitors, second hand shoes, shoe care and accessories, plus followed the three world championships contests. Here’s a substantial summary of the day.
This weekend it’s time for the 2023 edition of the London Super Trunk Show. Held in the heart of London at 12 Regent Street, gathering more than ten awesome exhibitors and hosting the World Championships in shoemaking, shoe shining and shoe patina. Saphir will host a free shoe shining service, there’s a second hand shoes marketplace, and more. Here’s some practical info ahead of the event, for those who plan to visit, and on the live streaming we will do for those who can’t attend.
On Saturday May 13 it’s back – one of the world’s largest open event on quality shoes, The London Super Trunk Show, organised by Shoegazing and The Shoe Snob. In the middle of London on 12 Regent Street, we gather 11 brands from all over the world, partners exhibit, there will be the World Championships of Shoe Shining and Shoe Patina, plus the World Championships of Shoemaking have its award ceremony and competition shoes displayed, and for the first time we have a second hand shoe marketplace on site.
In England you’ll find many more interesting bespoke shoemakers than just the usual suspects. In this article I highlight three of them: Efe Laborde, Sebastian Tarek and Tony Slinger. Also briefly about an article in the world’s largest financial newspaper, Nikkei, about the Japanese success in last year’s shoemaking world championships.
This is a photo from the finishing department at the Crockett & Jones factory in Northampton, where the factory worker is going over the final details. One of the strengths, in general, of the British shoemaking factories is the very solid, even quality level, which certainly isn’t the easiest to achieve.
Articles continued:
The famous British shoe brand Church’s Footwear is going through tough times. After a disappointing 2020 they raised prices with around 40-50% last year to try a new approach, which resulted in a drop in sales with another 57%. This means that they’ve dropped a whopping 81% of their turnaround in just two years time, and losses are huge. Question is if they can turn things around.
The Japanese bespoke shoemaker Masaru Okuyama has moved from Hong Kong to England and London, where he is now setting up a workshop and preparing for a new chapter in his shoemaking life.
When Alfred Sargent went into liquidation last winter, fourth generation of the founding family, Paul Sargent, quickly announced that he was leading a project to restart it all under a new name. Now Paul Sargent Shoes has officially launched.
Today the British brand Gaziano & Girling introduced their new Optimum MTO range, it’s shoes made by their bespoke workshop to bespoke standards, but on their regular RTW lasts. The ambition is to make the absolute best craftsmanship available to more people. Shoegazing has had a look at a sample from the new range.
The British brand Church’s has raised their prices with approximately 40-50% across the board of their entire offerings. Over one night a pair of their Custom Grade Goodyear welted shoes went from to €570 to €830. In their newfound decision to enter a new segment they are likely to lose a lot of their existing customers.
