The Japanese shoe shine bar chain and shoe care brand Brift H, founded by the first world champion of shoe shining Yuya Hasegawa, is now part of the Japanese high-end fashion giant United Arrows. A great journey that started with Yuya being a street shoe shiner, and a testament to the importance the shoe shine industry has, not least in Japan.
Yuya Hasegawa grew up in Chiba outside of Tokyo, and started of as a pretty average shoe shiner on the streets of Tokyo. But his competitiveness made him want to learn all he could, and he founded one of the pioneering shoe shine bars in Japan, Brift H, back in 2004. Since then a lot has happened. Now Brift H has several shoe shine bars around Japan and in Thailand, as well as a shoe care brand with the same name, in Yuya Hasegawa’s quest to raise the status of shoe shining in Japan and abroad. Part of it, of course, was when he won the World Championships of Shoe Shining 2017 at the London Super Trunk Show. Yuya is now a pretty famous person in Japan, after several documentaries, TV show appearances, magazine features and so on.
Yuya Hasegawa, founder of Brift H. Picture: Isetan Men’s
Today Yuya Hasegawa announced that Brift H has become part of the United Arrows group. United Arrows is one of Japan’s largest high-end fashion companies, owning almost 300 stores around the country. Brift H will continue to operate as usual, with Yuya Hasegawa running it, but is given a larger opportunity to grow and do new things. The fact that Yuya likely has earned a decent amount of money is also well-deserved. In Japan the shoe shine industry is continuously growing, not least evident with the huge interest for the Japanese shoe shining championships which is organised by Keita Tashiro. United Arrows acquiring Brift H is another proof of this.
One of many United Arrows stores. Picture: Wikimedia Commons / Kazuyuki N
Hasegawa isn’t the only Brift H representative who’ve won the world championships. In 2023 Naoki Hayashida who runs Brift H Sapporo took the title. Here’s his medal next to the shoes he qualified with. Pictures: Brift H
