Benjamin Palmer turns boot blacking into Green for Mclaren Housing. It’s a typical Saturday night in the
Pumpjack Pub on Davie Street. The lights are dim and the air is scented with hops and leather. Among the busy taps and floor littered with peanut shells good things are happening for McLaren Housing Society.
Tucked in the only quiet corner of the bar Benjamin Palmer sits crouched on a stool in front of a barber chair with a desk light focused on the feet of his latest client carefully polishing their boots. Benjamin is the bartender at the pub and has used a cornerstone of the leather community to hone his skills for competitive boot blacking and to raise money for McLaren at the same time.
Boot blacking is a shoeshine of sorts but Benjamin is quick to point out this is not your usual shine on your way to the office. “It’s a combination of skill, performance and eroticism,” Benjamin explains, “a spa for your feet.”
Boot blacking is a shoeshine of sorts but Benjamin is quick to point out this is not your usual shine on your way to the office: “It’s a combination of skill, performance and eroticism,” Benjamin explains, “a spa for your feet.”
Boot blacking finds its roots in a military past. Rich in tradition, boot blacking dates back to the time when soldiers were charged with caring for their superiors’ leathers. The leather community adopted boot blacking as homage to this time-honoured tradition; the undercurrent of eroticism just comes with the territory. Boot blacking competitions have since become de rigueur at leather festivals around the world; the premier event coming in the spring at the International Mr. Leather competition in Chicago.
Wearing a worn pair of black boots I jumped into the old barber chair donated by the Pumpjack Pub where Benjamin practises his art. Benjamin comes from a military family and spent time as a cadet and reserve in the Canadian Forces. This is where his interest in boot blacking found its start. He now wants to take his boot blacking to a competitive level and is using the Pumpjack patrons as an eager and never-ending supply of boots. If the shine on my boots was any indication he’ll be a fierce competitor.
Charging $10 for a turn in the chair, Benjamin uses half the proceeds he collects for the materials common to a boot blacker and the other half he donates to McLaren Housing Society. To date Benjamin has raised $350 for McLaren.
When asking one of his clients on this night, Ed Brown had this to say: “Good boot cleaning, good conversation, good cause.” Indeed.
