A 26-year-old Singaporean, John Chung, was recently in the spotlight for winning the World Championships in Shoe Shining held in London this year.

As a professional shoeshiner and leather-restoration specialist, Chung restores, maintains and repairs shoes for a living.

He is also the founder of Mason & Smith, Singapore's first and only shoeshine bar located along Telok Ayer Street.

NS not reason for shoeshining

When asked if his passion for shoeshining began during his time in National Service, he laughed and hastily responded:

"No, no, no, no! NS had nothing to do with it!"

So, how did this Singaporean man get into the business of shoeshining and becoming the world champion in shoeshining?

An insane love of shoes, apparently.

Chung is a self-proclaimed shoe-lover who owns about 20 pairs of shoes. About four to five of them are antique shoes from a prized collection, which are not to be worn.

Stared with second-hand shoes

Chung's first foray into the industry started with S$700 and a passion for vintage shoes.

After he had just completed his NS, Chung had earned a place at Nanyang Technological University's Art, Design and Media course.

However, he decided not to pursue a university education as he had other plans to dabble in the shoe business.

Chung would procure second-hand vintage shoes from overseas, and then sell them at local vintage flea markets once or twice a month.

As a second-hand vintage shoe seller, he was exposed to the technical aspects of the trade.

Most of the shoes were in need of polishing before they could be sold, and while learning how to properly shine the shoes, it ignited in him a strong passion for the craft.

"I had to learn how to polish them. I watched YouTube videos, read books, spoke to leather craftsman and picked up some basic knowledge of shoe shining... I enjoyed polishing shoes very much and got really deep into the subject."

Despite being just a makeshift store with plastic chairs and printed A4 paper as signage, this humble endeavour inadvertently sowed the seeds for Singapore's first shoeshine bar.

Opening Mason & Smith

Mason & Smith opened in 2013 as an express shoeshining stand in Marina Bay Sands. At that time, Chung ran the business alone, and often had to work over holidays and weekends.

Fast forward four years, he now has a shop space at Telok Ayer Street, and several full-time staff. They must be obsessed with shoes.

Prior experience is certainly not a requirement for the job, he says.

What Chung looks out for is instead a passion for shoes and the willingness to master the craft.

"We are definitely looking for people, but finding the right people takes time...If they're just looking for a job, then it's a no."

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Learning the craft

At Mason & Smith, customers can expect both shoe shine and shoe repair services.

A 10-minute express shoeshine service costs S$18, while the most expensive military-grade mirror shine, boasting 50 layers of wax, costs S$60.

Chung never had a mentor who taught him these skills.

Instead, he relied on various sources to get his knowledge, such as by visiting leather artisans and shoeshiners overseas to learn from their techniques.

He would also learn from internet sources, and formulate his own ideas by improvising on existing material.

"Most of the time I learnt many things by trial and error. I will buy all the shoe waxes and creams available out there in the market and test them out one by one."

Winning the World Championships

Chung says that one can probably "learn all the basics about shoeshining in one hour," but "to be really good you probably need a couple of years of experience."

So, after four years of being in the official shoeshining business, Chung decided to find out how good he is on a global level.

In April this year, Chung went toe-to-toe with professional shoeshiners worldwide at the World Championships in Shoe Shining.

At the finals, he went up against two others who have been in the shoe industry longer than him, and actually won.

His winner's plaque now sits proudly on the counter top in his shop.

While most shoeshiners typically apply the wax onto the shoes and polish them immediately, Chung, however, had a different method that propelled him to victory.

This involved applying the wax with his bare hands for a good 10 minutes before the polishing the leather with his cloth -- a technique he improvised from shoeshiners from Japan and the UK.

What's next for him?

Despite this impressive win, Chung is already hungry to achieve more.

Not content with just shoeshining, he has also been picking up another skill: Shoemaking.

In 2016, the avid shoe-lover got his first apprenticeship with a Japanese bespoke shoemaker based in Hong Kong. He also enrolled in a bespoke shoemaking school and studied shoemaking for six months the following year.

This year, his journey to become a shoemaker takes him to Tokyo, where he is currently working with shoemaker Yohei Fukuda based there.

He hopes to open a flagship store in Singapore in 2019.

Top photo composite image by Mason & Smith and Jesper Ingevaldsson