Japanese shoemaker Hiro Yanagimachi is The Medallion King. Never before have I seen so many options from one shoemaker. When we think of customizations in shoes, we think of lasts, soles, materials, maybe the addition/removal of a pattern piece, but medallions are not often something a shoemaker has more than a handful of. This is why Hiro Yanagimachi is the Medallion King. In this post alone, there are 18 different options represented. And I am sure he has more!
I love these styles of photos by Hiro Yanagimachi, where he shows his magic in these 3×3 grids. This is often a feature you find on his Instagram account, and I love it. It easily showcases his depths of offerings, whether it is medallions, shoe bags, sneaker styles, loafer models, and many other options he shows in these grid-style photos.
As you can guess from the above and below, I am particularly fond of the medallion photos, as I have always had a fascination with medallions and seeing people’s creativity come out in them. Medallions are one of the hardest things about shoe designing. Let me rephrase that. Medallions are one of the hardest things in shoe designing for one to make well. My definition of getting them right is: 1. That they are unique, 2. That they are attractive and 3. That they are marketable.
Getting this trifecta right is very, very difficult. One can make a cool design in one’s opinion, but making a cool design for many people’s opinion is really where the challenge lies. And even more so, doing that in originality, as many medallions look exactly the same with minor changes.
I crown Hiro the Medallion King as he manages to nail that trifecta on many of these. Not only are a lot of them quite unique, but they are mostly all different enough from each other to not look like replicas. Naturally, there are a few that are quite representative of the classic medallion style, but this will be inevitable as it is nearly impossible not to have some like that if you want to appease the masses.
Learn more here: https://hiroyanagimachi.com/
—Justin FitzPatrick, The Shoe Snob
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