This is part two of the massive walkthrough of all competition shoes in the World Championships in Shoemaking 2019. Here position 11 to 40 is reviewed with comments and pictures.
Pt.1 with more info about the contest and positions 1-10 can be found here.
Results (click on maker/brand to go directly to summary):
11. Dettagli D`Autore
12. Yim Shoemaker
13. Perticone – Seiichi Yoshimoto
14. EuGo
15. Athanase Sephocle
16. Kiyo
17. Lu Yang
18. Fumiya Ando
19. Barbavitra Shoemaker
20. Sergey Grechushkin
21. Naoki Sugimoto
22. Reid Elrod
23. Masachika Morita
24. Oh Sang Jun
25. Rozsnyai Handmade Shoes
26. Valentin Frunza
27. Tomohiro Inamori
28. Jan Buda
29. Lawart
30. Alexey Sod
31. Andrey Kaveshnikov
32. Taichi Shimizu
33. Ivan Below
34. The Last Shoemaker
35. Mikhail Burov
36. Masami Ishizuka
37. Francesco Masci
38. Batyr Bikbulatov
39. Thivakaran
40. Sebastian Makowski
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11. Dettagli D’Autore
A bit chunkier, yet really refined.
Dettagli D’Autore was born in 2019, in the heart of the Italian shoemaking region of Marche, Montegranaro, from the collaboration between a designer Giulio Giacinti (who made the last and pattern of the shoe) and shoemaker Bogdan Paul Betianu (who did the bottom making), they had help from Giacomo Mezzabotta who did the upper and the company Maximoda who did the brass toe tap. The shoe is a fine example of shoemaking, with not least extremely fine sole stitching, and a heel built from many super thin layers of leather.
Sole with very slim waist and nicely brass nail decorated heel.
Profile view.
Very tight sole stitching, unfortunately didn’t have the possibility to measure the exact spi.
Heel built of very thin layers with a different design of the upper edge.
Quite classic last shape.
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12. Yim Shoemaker
Looks like a sports car.
Chinese Gray Yim, who runs Yim Shoemaker, has made a name of himself first through a collaboration with Japanese firm Hobu, later through his own Instagram. Aggressive last shapes and making is what most recognise him for, which is also evident in the world championship entry. It’s a great shoe, with nice features like the cuban heel, tight sole stitching and a lovely looking sole. It has some minor setbacks in the execution, and received slightly less on design likely due to a bit of an unbalance, but overall a very nice entry.
A truly gorgeous bottom, so clean and well-made.
Fiddle back waist.
A bit heavy towards the front, perhaps not perfectly balanced last and pattern.
One of quite few cuban heels (when they are concave, not only tapering).
Top view, where the spade sole shape comes to show.
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13. Perticone – Seiichi Yoshimoto
Lots of decorations on this fine example of a full brogue.
Perticone, or Seiichi Yoshimoto, a Japanese shoemaker based in Italy, was placed 18th in last years contest. This year he is found five places up, with a very nice entry. Seiichi Yoshimoto has done all parts of the shoe except the upper closing, which has been made by Pina (ITALIANA). It’s a shoe with lots of decorations, mixed types of brogeing, punched decorations on sides and back, wheel marked sole, and so on.
Nicely decorated sole.
Streamlined last shape.
Pretty neat sole stitching.
The closing of the upper has some small mistakes here and there.
Squared toe.
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14. EuGo
An inspired shoe.
Another climber, last years 23rd placed is now up at 14th position. EuGo is the brand of Yeruult Gombosed from Mongolia. He splits the time between Mongolia, where he has his euGo brand, and San Francisco in the US, where he collaborates with American bootmaker Frank Beneducci. A lot of effort has clearly been put into this shoe, with some gorgeous parts like the golden lining and accompanying toe and heel plates. Making is of a really good level, while the difficulty is ok but not special.
Lovely work here.
Precision.
The gold shining from the front, back and upper parts of the shoe looks really good from this angle.
Top view.
Golden lining.
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15. Athanase Sephocle
A shoe with authority.
This is a really well-built shoe, scored high on execution, a bit less on difficulty and design. With that said, Athanase Sephocle who is a bottom maker working for Berluti in France, have made some quite complicated parts, especially the lifted middle part of the sole and the very tight nail pattern in the heel. It’s that type of bottom that you can stand looking at admiring for a long time. Athanase made all parts except the upper making, which was done by Sarah Verlac.
Such a nice sole and heel.
To make this nicely shaped elevation is not easy.
Pretty solid appearance.
Pretty classic full brogue pattern, apart from the upper facing.
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16. Kiyo
Very traditional take on the full brogue oxford.
Kiyo, or Kiyo Uda as is his full name, is a bespoke shoemaker based in Tokyo. He does some MTO, MTM and bespoke under his own name, and also outwork for other firms. The shoe is made solely by him. It’s a very traditional shoe, with square outside waist and a basic pattern. The closing and making is perfectly fine, although you can find areas that aren’t 100%, like the heel with a bit uneven lifts and a sligthly flimsy sole edge at some places. Nice shoe, but a bit plain.
Also the bottom is very traditional.
Here you can see a couple of the areas where there is room for improvement, the heel and sole edge at the waist that are a bit uneven.
Clean good work here.
Last with soft square toe.
Neat closing.
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17. Lu Yang
Special designed shoe.
Another Chinese contestant, Lu Yang is a bespoke shoemaker, who have made all parts of the shoe, while Jiao Yang made the design. It was a bit debated in the jury if it were to be seen as proper brogueing, but we decided to leave it with no deduction of points. It’s a pretty cool shoe, perhaps not perfectly balanced, and the degree of difficulty is higher than the level of the execution. Super slim waist with especially an outside part that goes in long, gives the shoe a special character.
Very narrow waist.
Arrow shaped heel.
From above.
You get a bit of a cowboy boot feel when looking at the shoe in profile.
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18. Fumiya Ando
A relatively round version.
Japanese maker Fumiya Ando managed to snap a fifth place in last year’s world championships, this year he is found a bit further down. It’s still a good entry he gives us this year, no doubt a bout it, both the making and difficulty level is good, though not at the absolute highest level. The aesthetics of the shoe also appears a bit off, with a bulkier front part clashing a bit against a slim, elegant back part of the shoe. Fumiya Ando used to be an art student, but has now made shoes for about four years, so quite new in this game.
Clean and classic.
Here you can see how the back and front parts of the shoe doesn’t really go together aesthetically.
Very tapered, elegant heel., with some visible lighter areas between some of the heel lifts.
Very nice work here.
Short toe, long vamp.
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19. Barbavitra Shoemaker
Another super classic full brogue.
Barbavitra Shoemaker is the brand of another Japanese, Yasuhiro Koui. He has made the whole shoe himself. A beautiful shoe, classic style that looks like it could come from an old British bespoke firm, and also well-made. Nothing that really stands out in either way, but an overall level that show skill. Nice parts include the proper welt finishing and the lovely way the tapered heel continues the shape of the back when seen in profile.
The glue from closing the channel has caused some darker areas on the sole towards the edges, otherwise neat and nice.
Classic round last shape.
Slight fiddle back.
Worth mentioning, although it’s not part of what the jury look at, is the leather which is a lovely dark brown colour of super nice quality.
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20. Sergey Grechushkin
A streamlined version.
Russian bespoke shoemaker Sergey Grechushkin, who run the brand G-shoes, has made a shoe that varies a bit in the level of the making. Heel and waist work is nice and very elegantly done and the closing is at a good leve, while the welt and sole edge finishing is a bit coarse and has its flaws. Evgeniy Zelentinov did the design and upper, Sergey Gregushkin did the making.
Plain sole, with a “peach bottom”, which is when the sole is only sanded.
Top view.
The very thin waist is evident from this view.
Almont toe.
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21. Naoki Sugimoto
A “battleship” version of the full brogue model.
Naoki Sugimoto is one of many independent Japanese bespoke shoemakers who work buy themselves, and the shoe is a good piece of footwear. Especially the well-made heel stands out, with the evenly made concave shape and with a clear levelling towards the waist, making it stand alone in nice looking way.
Bottom is really nice, with a super sharp toe.
The heel is one of the things that stand out when it comes to the level of difficulty, with the slight Cuban heel shape, the lifted top part and the distinct nodge over to the waist edge.
The unfinished inside surely removed some points on the execution side.
Good heel.
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22. Reid Elrod
Cool shoe.
Reid Elrod of Elrod Shoes, a young shoemaker based in Portland, USA, studied shoemaking in Europe a few years ago, and has been working from home in the US, connecting the European and American shoemaking traditions in a nice way. He has some interesting pattern work on this shoe, and parts were high on difficulty, like the tight sole stitching.
“Fish bone” decorations.
Tight sole stitching.
The closing of the upper is good, but still some room for improvement.
Profile view, with the special heel counter showing off.
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23. Masachika Morita
A good shoe.
We are now down on 23rd place, and as evident here the level of the shoes are still on a high level. This slightly special pattern full brogue is made by Japanese Masachika Morita, now based in Italy, who also run the brand GranGoron. It’s solid shoemaking, and the level of difficulty is still rather high. Aesthetically maybe not everyones cup of tea with the pointy toe and the high toe spring.
Nicely finished sole.
Relatively long toe and high toe spring.
Very pointy last.
The nail decorations in the toe were a bit raised, which looks nice.
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24. Oh Sang Jun
Slightly bulkier appearance.
Oh Sang Jun is from South Korea, though he learned to make shoes in Japan about ten years ago, while now working from his home country. His shoe shows of some pretty good making overall and nice features like the tight sole stitching, close-cut waist edge etc. Some minor errors here and there that took away on the scoreboard.
Had some errors in finishing the edge ink, otherwise a really clean sole.
Really tight edge at the waist.
A nice detail is the fully punched upper of the tongue.
The shoe isn’t perfectly balanced, with the heel raising from the ground in the back.
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25. Rozsnyai Handmade Shoes
A shoe with a lot of nice design features.
A shoe made by the Hungarian firm Rozsnyai, located on the same street as other famous Hungarian brands like Vass, and who make hand welted RTW, MTO and MTM. Good to see this type of companies entering the contest as well. The shoe is a nicely designed one, with various “peaks” returning on different elements of the shoe, everywhere from the lining and several places on the upper toe the breast of the heel and the toe tap. Sándor Rozsnyai did the pattern, Mária Kocsis the upper, and Sándor Blaskó the bottom making.
The sole.
The peaks as design element were use throughout the shoe.
Top view.
The making was quite ok, but not the most refined.
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26. Valentin Frunza
A shoe that has some cowboy boot feel about it.
Moldovan shoemaker Valentin Frunza started to learn shoemaking in his fathers workshop already at the age of 12, and has run his own brand for many years now. The shoe has some clear influences from cowboy boots, with the toe shape and high toe spring, the accentuated waist shape, and the large brogue holes. Both the level of difficulty as well as the execution is at a more than decent level, while a bit plain perhaps.
Hour glass shaped bottom.
Toe.
A high toe spring.
Pointy from the top.
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27. Tomohiro Inamori
Here a much rounder take.
More Japanese representatives, Tomohiri Inamori has done the whole shoe himself, a pretty round full brogue that gets a slightly special appearance with the sparse brogueing and small tweaks of a classic pattern. The shoe looks better from above than from below, upper, welt and heel making is overall quite good.
Not the cleanest sole finishing, and waist not super refined.
Pretty nice closing, really lovely with the contrasting piping at the opening.
The pattern clashes a bit between the squarish corners at the quarter and the very soft rounded vamp edge, while it still manage to look quite balanced.
Sole stitching and welt finishing is well-made.
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28. Jan Buda
A Polish entry.
Jan Buda is a Polish bespoke shoemaker, who has worked for many years, although somewhat under the radar for many internationally. He was a bit stressed putting together his shoe, which is a bit evident, for example with the relatively sloppy toe burnishing that makes the immediate appearance lack a bit. One of only a few entries with pegged waist. Best part is probably the lovely built and finished heel.
Nicely balanced bottom.
Waist made with pegs of Brazilian Tatajuba wood, very hard wearing.
The toe has a distinctly chiseled top.
The closing is not the most refined.
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29. Lawart
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A very ambitious shoe by the Czech bespoke brand Lawart, where Erik Martin Lawart has made last, pattern and making, and Aneta Gretzova made the upper. It’s a fully hand stitched shoe, where the upper stitching is dense and well-made, which were part in gaining the shoes relatively high points for difficulty. A bit less well on execution, where there still is some way to go to be as clean as some higher placed shoes, and the design was not fully liked by the jury.
Sole with a bunch of brass nail decorations.
The hand stitched is lovely made.
Almond toe last shape.
Cute sock lining, also hand stitched.
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30. Alexey Sod
Strong shoe.
Another ambitious entry, this shoe is made by Alexey Sod, a Russian bespoke shoemaker working out of the city Nizhny Tagil. If the upper was the big feat on the previous shoe, here it’s the sole stitching, which is at very high spi and also made to a nice level. Besides this there’s some good and some less good parts, and designwise it comes of as a bit off.
Nice decoration in the back, while the toe tap wasn’t to nicely done, thick and not flush with the sole.
Profile view, very heavy heel.
Excellent sole stitching, very tight and very well-made.
Top view.
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31. Andrey Kaveshnikov
A shoe with only single rows of holes, bordering not being a full brogue.
Andrey Kaveshnikov is know under the name Moscow Shoemaker on Instagram. It’s a shoe that is a bit two-faced, with the quite large and bulbous toe in contrast with the small, tapered heel. Could have been better balanced. As last year good sole stitching.
The bottom looks pretty neat.
Large in front.
Here you can see how the small, tapered heel doesn’t add up together with the rest of the shoe.
Seen from below though, it looks excellent, with nice nail pattern.
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32. Taichi Shimizu
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Taichi Shimizu is a Japanese who works as an apprentice for Carlino in Italy. He’s quite new in shoemaking, which you can see on the shoe, where the execution is a bit shaky. Heel building and heel bottom finishing is nice, while the sole edge and sole finishing is not on the same level. Also the upper stitching is varied in quality.
Good heel, less good sole finishing.
Some big mistakes of the upper, like the center of the wingtip, made for a less good impression.
Profile view.
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33. Ivan Below
Shoe by Ivan Below.
If the two shoes above are a bit uneven in their making, this one by Russian shoemaker Ivan Below is more levelled throughout. He made the whole shoe himself. No real hits or misses in any directions, but not any real complicated parts either that makes the difficulty points rise.
Bottom work.
Welt looks pretty nice.
Seen from the side.
Closing of the upper is pretty well-made.
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34. The Last Shoemaker
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The Last Shoemaker is a new brand from Thailand, which is a high-end offering of Don’s Footwear, offering hand welted and MTM/bespoke. The contest entry is made by several people: Allan Donnely made the last, Chan Onthaisong the upper, and Vinia Chartwong the bottom making. It’s not the most refined shoe, lacking some quality at for example the stitching of the upper, while sole finishing and lining looks really good.
Clean sole, with nice sharp edges.
The brogue parts has some stitching going very wide, which doesn’t look 100%.
Classic round last.
Lovely green lining
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35. Mikhail Burov
Traditional with a twist.
Another Russian bespoke shoemaker, Mikhail Burov, who made the shoe himself except stitching of the upper which was done by Alexander Kosimovsky. Best part if probably the relatively clean bottom and good sole stitching, while other parts lacked a bit in refinement and skill.
Sole au natural.
Last balance is a bit off, with the wides part of the shoe not being levelled on the ground.
The widening spacing of the laces gives a special look.
Traditional last shape.
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36. Masami Ishizuka
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Masami Ishizuka is training shoemaking in Tokyo, Japan. She has done a shoe with a rather special pattern, not least with the medallion that looks sort of like a graphic atom sign. It is evident that this shoe is made by someone who is new into shoemaking, it’s simply made and not that exact in the execution.
Sole is pretty proper.
Side view.
Wide last.
A different version of a medallion.
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37. Francesco Masci
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Francesco Masci is a former lawyer, who now works as a bespoke shoemaker in Rome, Italy, with his brand F&F. The level of difficulty on the shoe, with the tight tapered heel etc, was higher than the level of the execution. Sole edge is wobbly and not the neatest of making in general. Cool red contrasting toe medallion.
Shoe with flush metal toe tap.
Elongated last.
The sole edge is wobbly and not even. Nice curve along the back.
The contrasting medallion.
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38. Batyr Bikbulatov
Classic stuff.
Batyr Bikbulatov is a Russian living in Germany since 20 years. He does shoemaking part time outside his regular job, and has an entry that is a very classic full brogue. Upper stitching is of a quite good level, bottom making has some room for improvement, now sole is a bit dirty and not completely even.
Sole isn’t the cleanest.
Profile view.
Upper closing is neat and well made.
Very traditional shoe.
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39. Thivakaran
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An entry from India, from another amateur shoemaker, Thivakaran Palani. The upper is rather special with diamond punching and swirling stitching. It’s not a neatly made shoe, especially the welt finishing is harsh. The shoe also got 10% deduction of points due to the painted sole.
Sole with an open channel.
Top view.
Edge finishing and balance not too good.
Swirling stitching of the upper.
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40. Sebastian Makowski
The final shoe of the World Championships in Shoemaking 2019.
Sebastian Makowski from Poland does shoemaking as a hobby, and you can’t expect a super shoe then. It’s upper making is the best part, while bottom making is a bit harsh. A nice touch is the red lining.
A sole that could do well with more glassing and sanding, to take finishing better.
Side-view.
Hand punched holes.
Red lining is a nice detail.
Pt.1 with more info about the contest and positions 1-10 can be found here.
This bit of the article is the most entertaining
Is this a blind competition?
Thomas: I like both parts.
Tim: I don’t understand?
Lovely stuff! To be in the top 20 is certainly an achievement for any shoemaker and a personal target for next year.
Don: Yes, lots of great shoes. Great that you already plan for next year!
Jesper:
Blind competition meaning the judges do not see makers’ name before scoring the shoes. This limits prejudice; shoemaking is a small world after all!
Tim: Yeah sure, there have been occasions where jury members can see that a shoe is made by someone, or at least suspect it, but surprisingly few times actually. After the jury review is done, I get the list with all the names from the guys who have unpacked the shoes and we go through them all together, it’s a lot of “ohh”, “him, really” and so on. And my view is that jury members are professional enough to judge objectively even if the would realise a shoe is made by someone. But sure, it’s hard to have it 100% certainly 100% objective, then we would need to have a jury that didn’t know much about shoes…