The Ritual — The First and Only Time

The Space

The Ritual — Marcher's workshop — is located at Louis Wu Studio. A space of white and black, furnished in industrial vintage. Like a chessboard.

This is the only time I will write about the past — about what shaped me and why The Ritual exists. From here, we only talk about the craft.

"Like a chessboard — white and black, simple and complex, with intention behind every move."

Louis Wu Studio, Ho Chi Minh City

Ben Thanh Market and the Small Friends

I grew up in a family that had run a fabric business for two generations at Ben Thanh Market.

As a child, my father would often take me there. I hated it. Outside was all adults trading with each other — no place for a kid.

And then I found my people — the small boys who shined shoes on the streets outside Ben Thanh.

To me back then, shining shoes was just a game. Like playing shop or selling snacks — children's play. But to those friends, it was how they lived. They worked to survive.

"To me it was a game. To them it was survival."

Growing Up, Trying Everything

Growing up, because I never liked the market, I didn't follow the family trade. I tried everything.

But the passion for classic European suits and leather shoes never left me. It never went away.

In 2024, I opened Marcher — with a few tins of Saphir wax and a handful of shoe trees, inside a small tailor shop in Ho Chi Minh City.

Two Phrases That Defined My Purpose

Out in the world, I heard two things I could never forget:

"If you don't study, you'll grow up to be a shoe shiner."

In the mindset of many Vietnamese people, shoe shining is just manual labour — not for the educated. Only for orphans, for those with no other option.

"Don't take your shoes to those street kids — they'll ruin them."

Those people were my childhood friends. No one does something wrong if they know it is wrong. If they did it wrong, it was because no one had ever taught them to do it right.

"They weren't doing it wrong. Nobody had ever shown them how to do it right."

"A Quiet Practice" — The Ritual guide

Why Marcher Exists

Those two phrases became the two missions of Marcher.

First: to change how people think about this craft. We wear suits. We shine shoes in refined spaces, and we are respected for it. We teach workshops at prestigious venues. We collaborate with major brands.

Second: to elevate those who are truly passionate — so they can see that success in this craft is entirely possible.

What Happens Inside The Ritual

What I share with guests inside the workshop is exactly the story I am writing here.

After hearing it, I invite them to shine shoes alongside me.

Not to learn technique. Not to purchase a service. But to enjoy — to spend time caring for their shoes, and to spend time with their own passion.

The guests invited to The Ritual are founders, CEOs of classic menswear brands — or simply people with a deep passion for classic menswear.

Sometimes they have no time to enjoy themselves. Because they are too busy running their own brands.

The Ritual is where they are allowed to stop.

"Even the busiest people need a place to stop. The Ritual is that place."

The Ritual #01 — Louis Wu Studio