International Mr. Leather, IML, is the big Chicago gathering every Memorial Day weekend, and leather still treats it as an unofficial world title. It comes out of the Gold Coast leather bar: owner Chuck Renslow and his partner, the artist Etienne, whose name was Dom Orejudos. In the 1970s the bar already had a Mr. Gold Coast contest. In 1979 Renslow renamed it International Mr. Leather and moved it into a larger room. The first weekend ran May 18–20. Advertising promised “some of the world’s hottest men,” and the winner’s prizes were worth $5,000, including a motorcycle. Etienne drew the Wingman logo, still in use. David Kloss won. Durk Dehner and Jesse Capello were first and second runners-up. Twelve contestants came from six U.S. states. Tom of Finland could not judge that first year for health reasons and did not sit as a judge until 1983.
Over time the weekend became a men’s pageant that both copies the old form and laughs at it. Contestants have to be 21 or older and present as male. A slot comes one of two ways: win a bar, local, or regional preliminary, or arrive with a sponsor from leather, uniform, SM, western, or gear circles. Nine judges score the preliminary interview at 60 percent and Saturday’s Pecs and Personality at 40 percent. High and low scores drop. What remains decides the twenty men who reach Sunday. On Sunday, leather image is 40 points, presentation and speech are 40, and physical appearance is 20. Lived-in gear and a speech that holds up count for more than a body contest. A brand-new suit of chrome can read as a costume. Broken-in boots and a harness that fits do better. Old-guard details, including how someone shakes hands or wears a hat, still affect some judges.
In 1980 Australia’s Patrick Brooks beat the American field and became the first winner from outside the United States. In 1984 Ron Moore became the first Black IML. On the 1989 weekend Tony DeBlase showed the leather pride flag. The design later went onto the winner’s sash and showed up in the look of events such as Folsom. That same year the writer Guy Baldwin won, which tied the sash to leather writing. In 1997 Ron Moore’s sister, Genelle Moore, won International Ms. Leather. They are the first siblings to have held the two global titles, in different years. The weekend kept going through the AIDS years. Since 2009 contest proceeds have gone into a trust for the Leather Archives & Museum, which Renslow and DeBlase co-founded and which holds a large leather archive.
By 2025 more than 2,200 contestants from 28 countries had taken part. Forty-four U.S. states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico have sent contestants. Delaware, Maine, and a few other states have no official record. Some winners immigrated from countries that did not yet have their own preliminary. Venezuela-born Gary Iriza won in 2008, before Venezuela had a national title of its own. In 2025 the gay men’s kink hookup site Recon paid for the first live stream to people who had not bought a seat. COVID canceled the in-person weekends in 2020 and 2021. IML returned in May 2022. The titleholder is a free agent, with no required duties, and is often invited to judge, speak, or just stand in a bar. The speech score is there because the year is an audition nobody can force.
International Mr. Bootblack
International Mr. Bootblack runs beside IML. It started in 1993 as the mixed-gender International Bootblack Competition. In 1998 it split: IMBB stayed with IML, and International Ms. Bootblack moved to International Ms. Leather. From 1999 IMBB has been limited to people 21 or older who present as male. The stated reason was that IML’s audience is mostly gay men, and women were losing the ballot to contestants those men wanted to cruise. Bootblacks work a station in the market and shine boots for the public. Ballots go to weekend-package holders, judges, contestants, and vendors, and each ballot is one vote. In 2019 Dutch bootblack Kriszly de Hond became the first IMBB winner who competed primarily in a language other than English, and the first winner from outside North America. In early 2023 the whole IMBB staff resigned, citing mistreatment and fading interest, and the contest stalled. It returned at IML 48 in 2026, when Atlas Rose won International Mr. Bootblack.
The market, the sash, and Clark Street
The weekend is also a market. For days the floor sells leather, rubber, uniforms, books, and safer-sex supplies. Booths have included the Chicago Department of Public Health and Nasty Pig. Judges look at whether the gear looks worn: old boots, a harness that fits. Head-to-toe new chrome looks more like a costume. Newer contestants bring rubber, pup hoods, or sports gear. In 2026 Honey Davenport, of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 11 and Mr. Palm Springs Leather 2026, won IML, the second Palm Springs winner in a row after Rene Hebert in 2025. Hebert was the first bootblack to win International Mr. Leather. In 2019 Jack Thompson became the first openly transgender person of color to take the title. In 2012 a married pair of contestants competed against each other for the first time. The weekend moves money toward grassroots groups and gives people a place to trade goods, information, and kinship. In 2018 the city of Chicago named a stretch of Clark Street Chuck Renslow Way. From the film Kink Crusaders to the documentary High Shine, the contest keeps being written down as living leather folklore.
