The London Super Trunk Show 2024 last weekend was another brilliant shoe day. A new visitor record of over 1,300 people coming to browse the men’s shoe and menswear exhibitors from around the world and follow the three world championships contests: in shoe shining, shoe patina, and shoemaking. Here’s a report from the day with loads of pictures plus videos.
The Super Trunk Show events are many things – which is what makes them so special. You have the obvious perk of being able to see, try on shoes, and order from a huge amount of shoe and menswear brands from around the world in one place. You have exciting contests that crown the world champions in shoemaking, shoe shining and shoe patina, which all are a celebration of the various crafts in the best ways possible. And you have the buzzling meeting place the events has become for both people working with shoes and those with a big interest, coming in from various part of the world.
The latter is the part that we in the organization team – Jesper Ingevaldsson of Shoegazing, Justin FitzPatrick of The Shoe Snob blog, and Kirby Allison of the webshop and YouTube channel with the same name – have the least chance to affect, which in a way makes it even more exciting to see the importance it has taken. In many different ways as well. Last Saturday we could see everything from a beautiful reunion of the in-house group of shoemakers that once were the Fosters & Son workshop on Jermyn Street, which hadn’t met in many years, to brands from far away who met with new potential retailers that wanted to represent the brand in Europe. And it is amazing to see so many people traveling from near and far to be part of these happenings.
We had a new record with the amount of visitors, over 1,300, that came through the doors of Showcase.co last Saturday, a venue located on 12 South Regent Street, literally in the heart of central London. We also noticed that it was more crowded than usual throughout the whole day, people seemed to stay around for longer, so also between the peak hours around the opening and the stage happenings, there were a lot of people on site. Already 15 minutes after opening, the World Championships of Shoe Patina started.
In this contest, three patina artists had qualified to battle it out during five hectic hours, we had Albert Gjukaj from Switzerland, Morgane Lévêque from France, and previous world champion Toan Junie, also from France. The contest is organized in collaboration with the shoe care company Saphir, whose products were used, and the shoe manufacturer Bridlen, whose shoes were to be painted. As always it’s inspiring to see how the completely undyed crust leather shoes are turned into lovely artistic objects with the use of dyes, creams, and waxes. In the end, the jury awarded Morgane Lévêque with the title, in a very tight contest with amazing end results for all three, but her fine work with the use of some complicated techniques put her in front.
Our Platinum Sponsors support both two of the contests and the event as such in the biggest way, both monetary and by providing all things needed for the patina and shine contests. Saphir is well-known to most readers of this blog, it’s the leading premium shoe care brand in the world, not least with their top range Medaille d’Or, developed and manufactured in their own factory in central France with only the finest ingredients. During the day they not only showcased and sold a large selection of their products to the visitors, they also educated visitors on how to care for their shoes in the best way, and together with Bowbells Shoeshine offered a free shoe shining service for all. Very appreciated by the visitors.
Bridlen is a shoe manufacturer from India who has – partly through the super trunk shows in London, New York, and Amsterdam which is a testament to the strength of these events and all that comes with them – established itself as a great choice in the upper entry-level / mid-range segment of welted footwear. They have a good range of styles, solid make, and really excellent materials for the price level. Affan Mohammed and Zahan Anes who are two of the driving forces at the company have worked hard to get people to understand the strengths of their offer and learn the high level that one can find in Indian shoemaking, and it’s nice to see them succeed.
Also for the World Championships of Shoe Shining, shoe care products and shoes are provided by the above. Here the three who qualified for the final are to use Saphir Medaille d’Or waxes to shine a factory new plain cap toe oxford from Bridlen as lovely looking as possible in just 20 minutes. Not an easy feat, for those who’ve tried, but here we have professionals at work. The Swiss Albert Gjukaj had made it to the Shine final as well, he met Choo Gordon from China and Nishigami Yoshihiro from Japan. The latter became the Shine World Champion 2024 after impressive work with a completely high-shine with nice depth all around.
On the exhibition floor we had more companies than ever showcasing. Apart from the mentioned Platinum Sponsors we also had two Gold Sponsors taking up extra large tables. Acme from China is offering some of the absolute finest RTW and MTO shoes in the world, made to the same high standard as their full bespoke offerings. It was the first time as the brand representative themselves could travel here, which surely added extra value for those who were interested in their fine shoes. CNES is a leading manufacturer of quality shoes in Vietnam, who offer Blake, Bologna, Goodyear welted and Hand Welted shoes at an excellent quality-price ratio. Everything from the sleekest of dress shoes to really sturdy boots were found on their well-filled table, and as always they were one of the brands that took most orders during the day.
As Silver exhibitors we had the shirtmakers extraordinaire 100 Hands showcasing their handmade shirts of top-class quality, and measure and fit customers. Attila from Hungary chose a slightly different take this year, instead of displaying their handmade RTW offerings the table was filled with various exhibition pieces and contest shoes, some spectacular stuff. Blk Brd made their super trunk debut, an Indian maker with highly affordable, hand-welted shoes and boots that surely sparked interest among many visitors.
From Italy the premium sock manufacturer Bresciani was back, and they barely had any of their high-quality, comfortable socks left on their table by the end of the day, due to high customer demand. The first that greeted the visitors coming through the doors was a bunch of lovely vintage shoes from the Kensington-based luxury men’s vintage store Hornets, just a very small selection of all the goodies they have in their two stores, and they also handled a second-hand shoes marketplace where visitors could sell-off their used welted shoes. Another newcomer on the exhibition floor was Oct. Tenth, a Chinese brand with exquisitely looking hand-welded shoes, a sort of premium footwear at a midrange price tag, that impressed many visitors.
The popular entry-level welted brand Raymar from Japan brought among other things a new last suitable for the international market, their quite British-styled classic footwear has a lot of fans. The famous Italian brand Stefano Bemer were on site, showcasing both some nice samples as well as introducing their shoemaking school section called Schola Academy, where many shoemakers around the world have started their journey. Finally, we had Yearn from China, sleek hand-welted footwear with a really exclusive appearance, not least thanks to the excellent lasts they are built on. A mention should also go out to The Valet, the premium clothing and shoe care service in London, which helps out with a lot of practical things around the event.
At the venue, we of course also had the entries of the World Championships of Shoemaking 2024. 25 amazing full-strap loafers with aprons, where the overall level continues to be higher and higher. A jury of shoemakers and shoe experts gathered the afternoon the day before the event to anonymously judge all the shoes. The winner of the contest was Ken Hishinuma from Japan, second placed Hiroshi Takagi from the same country, and third the brand Aria Badia from China. There is a bit more on them in this article, and much more in the large summary to come later on. The trio will share a prize sum of £6,000 which comes from contest sponsors Kirby Allison, Master Shoemakers and Parker Schenecker, brother of shoe entusiast Edmund Schenecker who passed away a few years ago. The three also get a handmade shoemaking awl made by Phil Norsworthy. These amazing shoes along with the patina winner will go on a world tour later this year. There will be more info about that coming as well.
We want to thank all of those who attended The London Super Trunk Show 2024 and hope to see you back next year!
Next on the Super Trunk Show agenda is the second edition of the New York Super Trunk Show, this on October 5. And the London event will of course be back again next May. Thank you all who were part of this year, see you again next year!
At the bottom, you’ll also find the live stream videos from the three World Champ contests, as well as, a tour around the venue.
Thank you for sharing Justin. I know a tremendous amount of work went into the trunk show and this blog post. I hope to make to NY this Oct.
My pleasure. I cannot take the credit for the posts though. Jesper does most of that work. But yes, settng the event up does take a lot of work. Cheers for appreciating our efforts
Tremendous to see the turnout at this years Championships. Congratulations on growing this event! You should consider taking the event to other locations worldwide in addition to London and New York.
Thank you and glad that you enjoyed it. And yes, we have considered that but it is also a lot harder than it sounds. There is A LOT involved in one show and finding brands who are able to attend each event is not easy either. We hope for a show in Asia in the future but most likely that will conclude the amount of shows.