The ones who will battle it out for the title at the U.S. Shoe Shining Championship of 2025 have now been appointed. The contest is organised in collaboration with Saphir and Bridlen, with the final taking place at the New York Super Trunk Show on Saturday, October 4th, where finalists will have 20 minutes to achieve the best mirror shine.
In just a bit over a month, on October 4th, the third edition of the New York Super Trunk Show, a large shoe event that takes place at The Kosciuszko Foundation on the Upper East Side, close to Central Park. The organizers are Justin FitzPatrick of The Shoe Snob, Jesper Ingevaldsson of Shoegazing, and Kirby Allison.
You can read much more about the event, all the exhibitors that come from near and far, and all the shoe happenings that will take place, in this article.
The highlight of the event’s stage happenings is the U.S. Championships of Shoe Shining. The qualification process, jury members, and how the final will unfold are thoroughly explained in this article. Here, we showcase the finalists’ submissions and briefly introduce you to them.
The contest is hosted in collaboration with Saphir and Bridlen Shoes, where the the prize pool consists of medals, shoes, shoe care products plus $800 in the prize pool, given by Saphir.
These contestants received the most jury points and made it to the final on October 4th:
Nicholas Fuentes – Los Angeles, CA
A really neatly shined pair of Allen Edmonds punched cap toes with burnished high-shined toes and a nice, lovely functional shine over the rest of the shoe. Nicholas Fuentes got into the menswear world when he got a management position at his company, and needed to dress more formally on occasions. He started buying proper welted shoes, discovered Kirby Allison’s YouTube videos on shoe shining, started learning himself, and now he has an Instagram account showcasing his shine on his own shoes, second-hand shoes he fixes up, and so on, and where he started connecting with shoe shiners from around the world.
Mario Cesar Samaniego – Pharr, TX.
Mario presented a pair of dark brown plain cap toe oxfords that have an extreme shine on the toe and heel, but also over the rest of the shoe. A well-used pair that has been revived to a lovely state. Mario Samaniego has suffered severe PTSD after the Uvalde school shooting, where he worked during the tragic event in 2022.
Nowadays, he works part-time, and when he was searching for a coping mechanism to deal with his trauma, he found shoe shining. Now he goes all in, has shined over 200 pairs in just seven months, been to several Saphir shine master classes, and has been helped by Steven Skippen of Shoe Shine UK to develop his technique. Mario also runs the site The Dapper Chaplain.
Ray Chen, Huntington, NY.
A pair of properly shined black shoes is hard to beat, which certainly shows here with Ray Chen’s entry. The shoes are black Allen Edmonds Leeds plain toe Bluchers, his first proper Goodyear welted shoes. Ray was one of last year’s finalists, who gladly gives it another shot this year.
He began shining shoes two years ago as a hobby that stemmed from a big menswear interest and a father who taught him the basics of shoe shining. His Instagram account can be found here.
We very much look forward to the U.S. Shoe Shining Championship of 2025 event and hope that all of you are able to come make it, not only to experience this fun contest but enjoy the NY Super Trunk Show event, where you will be able to meet like minded shoe enthusiasts, see amazing products from all around the world, get a free shoe shine and complimentary drinks served by Ten to One rum.
And the best yet?! There is no RSVP and no charge to come. Just show up and enjoy!
—Justin FitzPatrick, The Shoe Snob