Chicken Poop and Fish Guts Turn Shoes in to Disgusting Winner

Chock up another national stinky shoes win for an Eagle River kiddo.

For the second year in a row, the winner of the Odor Eaters Rotten Sneaker Contest is an Alaska boy who says he trashed his shoes just doing what kids in Alaska do.

You know, stuff such as riding his bike through all kinds of mud puddles, tromping around in the woods and muddy fields, standing in piles of fish guts as he helps dad clean the day’s catch, fishing for trout at Beach Lake where mud abounds, mowing the lawn, skateboarding through gravel and don’t forget those daily trips in and out of the chicken coop.

“I just wore them all the time,” Hunter Hamm said, with an emphasis on the word all. “I just really wore them out.”

As winner of the 2017 regional competition at July’s Bear Paw Festival in Eagle River, Humm earned the right to represent Alaska at the national competition held in New York City in March.

He had some big shoes to fill as the 2017 regional winner. His cousin, Connor Slocombe – also of Eagle River – won the 2016 regional competition at Bear Paw and went on in March 2017 to win the national competition.

That chicken coop owned by Hamm’s parents – Lauren and Mark Hamm – turned out to be the winning ingredient for both boys.

Connor spent the summer before his big win regularly hanging out with his cousin and tending the chickens.

The putrid smell of chicken poop is a distinct odor – much more pungent than feces from other animals such as cows or horses. In 2017, when officials from the Chugiak-Eagle River Chamber of Commerce boxed up Connor’s shoes for overnight delivery to the national Odor Eaters headquarters, they said they could still smell his shoes from the outside of the box.

Connor’s shoes still reeked of the chicken poop in March 2018 when Hunter had the honor of placing his cousin’s shoes in to the Hall of Fumes for posterity.

‘Oh, yeah,” Hunter said. “They still smelled.”

His mom confirmed that and added, “they were actually still moist,” as her upturned nose certainly proved a visual verification Monday night as this reporter visited with the Hamm family at their home in the Eagle River’s Birchwood area.

Hunter’s shoes also carried the fowl (foul) odor.

His mother retrieved Hunter’s shoes from a tightly-wrapped bag in the utility room of the family’s home and handed them to Hunter for a photo outside on the front porch steps.

What was once dark black slip-on shoes made of sturdy canvas material is now pocked with a few holes and a tannish-color with orange splotches.

“That is the fish eggs and guts,” Hunter informed.

Even Hunter wasn’t quite sure he wanted to handle the shoes again with bare hands. He took hold of the very top edge of the heel of each shoe with corresponding left and right hands to display the winning inkiness.

But he couldn’t be more proud of those shoes.

Now age eight – he was seven when he won the regional competition July 2017 – winning the national competition brought him exposure to things he doesn’t see in Alaska.

He and his parents got to see the Lion King on Broadway and took a cruise to see the Statute of Liberty. They took the elevator to the top floor of the newly-opened Freedom Tower (the structure built where the Twin Towers once stood) and then down to floor 100 to the observation deck for a 360 degree view of New York City.

He also received the Golden Sneaker Award, a $2,500 prize and a year’s supply of Odor Eaters products to help ward stench of the shoes he now wears.

His prize-winning shoes are now too small for the eight-year-old’s growing feet.

He had to put them on as part of the competition in late March.

“They were very tight,” he said with an emphasis on the word tight. “I slipped them off as quickly as I could.”

Hunter’s younger brother, Bennett, won second place at the 2017 regional Bear Paw Festival competition.

He’ll be working on following in his brother’s winning footsteps wearing his own version of disgusting, gross shoes this year.

Second place paid off from him though. Hunter used some of his winnings to buy his brother a hand-held video game. Hunter had bought one for himself – his first ever – and quickly realized it might be a good idea if he purchased one for his younger brother.

Something about the challenge of young boys “sharing” electronics.

“We found out it worked better if they each had one,” Lauren joked.

Aside from Bennet, Hunter has two other younger brothers for whom the dirty, icky sneaker competition might be a feature event.

His youngest brother – Everett – was born just five days before the regional competition in 2017.

Mom promised Hunter that if the baby was born, she would take him to the event held annually in the Chief Alex Park to enter his shoes.

“Good thing he was born when he was,” Hunter said letting out a sigh of relief that only a boy in elementary school can produce.

If his father’s assessment of the competition from regional winners in the Lower 48 remains spot on, the Hamm family may just become one of the most consecutive winners yet.

“In terms of the dirty factor and being the most beat up, Hunter’s shoes were just a whole different level; a big whole step up in being trashed as compared to the ones from the Lower 48,” Mark said. “Alaskan kids just put their shoes through it all.”

The national competition is judged interior and exterior conditions of the shoe, and most importantly odor, by a professional panel that includes NASA "Master Sniffer" George Aldrich, a NASA chemical specialist, Rachel Herz, an expert and author on the psychology of smell and Buck Wolf, executive editor at Huffington Post.

Reach Amy Armstrong via email at: asocialbutterfly@gci.net.