World Championships of Shoe Shining 2025

The "World Championships of Shoe Shining 2025" was held in London to decide the world's best shoe shiner. Takashi Arai of Brift H participated and won the championship. This was a great achievement following his win in the domestic championship, and he became the first Japanese to win two championships. It was a moment when the craftsmanship and passion of the master captivated the world.

The "World Champions of Shoe Shining" is held annually in London. This competition to determine the world's best shoe shiner began in 2017 and this year marks its 7th year.

So far, the winners have been four Japanese and two Singaporeans, showing the overwhelming strength of Asian competitors in this competition. This year, Takashi Arai from Brift H was selected as a finalist and will be competing. Arai has won the Japanese shoe shine competition in 2023 and 2024, so this is his long-awaited challenge to the world.

This competition is held within the Super Trunk Show, an international leather shoe exhibition event, and in addition to the shoe shine competition, there are also other events such as a patina competition to test shoe dyeing techniques, and the World Championships of Shoemaking, which competes for the highest level of shoemaking.

The three finalists this year were Arata, Sumihiro Yoshitomi from Boston & Re Olds in Fukuoka, and Matthew from the UK, who has experience shining shoes in the military. These three will compete to be the world's best in 2025.

The rules of the competition are simple. Participants must polish one pair of brand new shoes within the 20-minute time limit. The only tools that can be used are Saphir products, and participants are only allowed to bring in cloths and brushes. The event is hosted and managed by a Swedish man named Jesper.

This was my first time participating as a judge, too. Although I have experience judging at the Russian competition, this was my first time on such a big stage as the world competition, and I felt humbled. There were six judges, including me, and the other five were representatives selected from the companies that sponsored the "Super Trunk Show."

The competition started at 15:00 on May 10, 2025 (23:00 Japan time). From the beginning, each contestant quickly applied cream and wax. Applying wax with bare hands, which is common in Japan, is a rare method overseas, but Matthew from the UK adopted this method.

After about seven minutes, Arai also applied wax to the soles and quickly moved on to polishing with a cloth. Yoshitomi and Matthew continued with the base wax process, and after about 12 minutes, Yoshitomi also moved on to finishing with a cloth.

Towards the end of the match, each player's shoes began to shine brightly, making it difficult to judge which was better from a distance. However, Arai's shoes stood out from the crowd with their shiny soles, clearly showing a difference.

Polishing the soles is an extremely rare technique, and while some European craftsmen are skilled in this area, it was unprecedented for it to be carried out at a competition, making it a truly innovative approach.

After the 20-minute competition, the judges inspect the shoes polished in front of the competitors, then the final judging takes place in a separate room.

The judges were divided on the opinions, with Yoshitomi receiving high marks for the shine, and Arata for the beauty of the sole and the overall balance. Matthew must have made some mistake along the way, as the shine on the toes was lacking, and unfortunately he did not make it to the top.

During the judging process, when I was asked, "What is Yuya's opinion?" I gave my overall opinion from the perspective of "If I were a customer, which shoes would I be happy to receive?"

As a result, Takashi Arai was selected as the champion for 2025. After winning the Japanese tournament for the second time in a row, he also won the world tournament, becoming the first Japanese player to win both the domestic and world championships.

Brift H has also achieved the great feat of producing three world champions: Yuya Hasegawa in 2017, Naoki Hayashida in 2023, and Takashi Arai in 2025. This is all thanks to everyone who supports us on a daily basis. We would like to express our sincere gratitude.

We at Brift H will not rest on our laurels and will continue to work hard to further hone our technology and bring new value to feet around the world.