Shone-shine champs...oh my...shine on!
Gou Ishimi in a charcoal double-breasted suit, and Naoki Terashima in a lighter grey, single-breasted suit.
"Last year, nearly fifty people, amateurs and professionals included, gathered into a room to compete for the title of being the best shoeshiner in Japan. The rules were simple. After the field was narrowed through a series of eliminations, the finalists were given twenty minutes to shine up identical pairs of shoes using the same leather cleaners, creams, and waxes (Saphir’s mirror gloss wax was banned because it makes producing a mirror [spit-shine] shine too easy [I'll have to buy & try this polish]). Afterward, a panel of keen eye judges rated the shoes on dimensions such as the shine’s 'balance, refinement, and something called movement'.
Competitions such as this one aren’t unique. In the last ten years, as interest in traditional men’s tailoring and footwear has grown, so has interest in adjacent fields, including bespoke craft and even the prosaic shoeshine. In Europe, there are multiple competitions, such as the one in Brussels and ShoeGazing’s contests around shoemaking, shoe shining, and shoe patinas. In East Asia, people upload videos onto platforms such as YouTube, where they present shoe care as high art. The Armoury has a shoeshine tutorial with former shoeshine champion Yuya Hasegawa. Another year’s winner, John Cheung, shows his technique for proper detailing. And these two videos are so downright soothing, they almost trigger the low-grade euphoria felt in ASMR.
Naoki Terashima won this year’s competition in Japan, scoring the second trophy in a row for the Osaka-based shoe care store The Way Things Go (the shop’s founder and owner, Gou Ishimi, won the 2018 title). Ishimi started the store in 2012 after having worked for ten years as a Prudential sales rep. Tired of his regular routine, he decided to take a chance on something he loved: shining shoes. His shop is named after a 1987 Swiss film, which was directed by the art duo Peter Fischli and David Weiss. “When I watched the film for the first time, I was so impressed by the backgrounds,” he said. “I imagined the hours of calculation, deliberation, and rehearsal necessary to make those backgrounds possible. It made me think that I could apply the same thought and consideration to what I do, so I named my store after the film.”
Who makes your favorite shoe brushes, leather conditioners, and polishes? And what makes those companies good?
Naoki: At TWTG, everyone uses the same products in the same ways. This allows us to control the quality of our services. Our shoe brushes are all original TWTG brushes. We have three types, each of which are designed for a specific purpose. We use Brift H’s cream polish because it penetrates the leather well and comes in a beautiful range of colors. For wax polish, we use Saphir’s. Their wax polishes have a lot of moisture, so you can add a sense of transparency to the finish.
Naoki Terashima takes care of a pair of black, cap toe oxfords [damn...talk about a 'spit-shine].
Since winning the competition two years in a row, The Way Things Go has garnered some attention from style enthusiasts. The Japanese YouTube channel Forza Style has a few videos featuring Ishimi and Terashima (possibly the result of a clumsy Google translation, this one is amusingly titled, “God’s hands of Japanese shoeshine king!”). Earlier this year, the company also opened a new store in Tokyo in collaboration with the shoe repair shop Union Works. We sat down with both men to talk about how readers can better take care of their leather footwear.
Most of our readers are familiar with proper shoe care — using cedar shoe trees, cream, and wax polish, and leather conditioner — but what do you think is often missed in a good routine?
Naoki: When brushing your shoes, pay attention to the gap between the sole and upper. Many people know that it’s essential to clean your shoes every once in a while with a horsehair brush, but they miss this area, which is where dirt and dust tend to accumulate. Also, when applying cream polish, take care to spread it around with a pig bristle brush, then wipe off excess cream with a soft cloth. This way, when you apply wax polish, the cream won’t get in the way of how the wax sits on the surface.
In some of your YouTube videos, you do a mirror shine. Typically, those take a very long time, sometimes up to an hour to complete. But you’re able to do it fairly quickly. What’s the secret to a better and faster mirror polish?
Gou: A mirror polish is about building up layers. You want to apply a bit of wax, then evenly flatten it out with a small bit of water. Repeat these steps for about an hour, so the layers build up to a smooth, glossy surface.
We do something similar, but we apply the wax with our fingers, which we find quickens the process so we can finish in about a tenth of the time. That means, we apply the wax, flatten it out with a bit of water for about five minutes, and then repeat. It takes about 20 minutes to complete a shoe at the heel and toe, but it’s all about feeling for the right combination. A lot depends on the hardness of the wax, the amount of water used, the type of cloth, and how you’re polishing. Since this is a very tactile thing, it’s hard to explain in words.
Who makes your favorite shoe brushes, leather conditioners, and polishes? And what makes those companies good?
Naoki: At TWTG, everyone uses the same products in the same ways. This allows us to control the quality of our services. Our shoe brushes are all original TWTG brushes. We have three types, each of which are designed for a specific purpose. We use Brift H’s cream polish because it penetrates the leather well and comes in a beautiful range of colors. For wax polish, we use Saphir’s. Their wax polishes have a lot of moisture, so you can add a sense of transparency to the finish".
Read More: Japan's Shoe-shine Champions
