New York, NY…This year seven participants from across the country worked hard to stink up their shoes for a chance to win the national title at the Odor-Eaters Rotten Sneaker Contest held at Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! Times Square. The regional winners admitted to wearing no socks, stepping in slop of all sources, and even claimed it was just their “sweet girly essence”, but only one pair of sneakers out-stunk them all and they belonged to 12-year old, Connor, from Eagle River, AK.

For more than 40 years, the Odor-Eaters Rotten Sneaker contest has celebrated kids’ active lives – that is, the truly offensive-smelling footwear resulting from so many of the things kids like to do! Today, kids from all over the U.S. look forward to showing off their foul-smelling sneakers for a chance to win a trip to New York for the national competition. This event is the ultimate test – the worst of the worst – and each year demonstrates how smelly kid’s sneakers can get while they’re doing what they enjoy. This year’s contestants had to work hard to win over the judges because our veteran panel knows what it takes to win this competition. Our professional judges include NASA “Master Sniffer” George Aldrich, Chemical Specialist for NASA space missions, and Rachel Herz, Ph.D., an expert and author on the psychology of smell. Our newest judges, Greg Mocker from WPIX 11 and Buck Wolf from the Huffington Post were up for the task as they joined the other experts this year.

This year Connor was the grand prize winner of $2,500, out-stinking other contestants including Shannon Winckler (Wheaton, IL), Kailyn Casiano (Rutland, VT), Nora Sheirbon (Denver, CO), Vito Mendez (White Sands, NM), Braylon Guy (Aurora, Colorado), and Stone Lowe (Bristol, CT). The champion confessed that his sneakers got dirty and smelly because he steps into a lot of animal poop on his aunt’s farm. He also loves fishing and camping which gets him into a lot of stinky situations.

Connor also received an additional two-night stay in New York City, tickets to the Broadway Show ALADDIN, the Golden Sneaker Award, and a supply of Odor-Eaters products to kick out the odor from his new sneakers. Connor’s rotten sneakers will also be enshrined in the Odor-Eaters “Hall of Fumes”.

For more information about the Odor-Eaters Rotten Sneaker Contest or Odor-Eaters products, visit www.odor-eaters.com.