Seven young contestants put their best and smelliest shoe forward at the 42nd National Rotten Sneaker Contest in New York City on Tuesday. Twelve-year-old Connor Slocombe claimed the first place title for having the worst-smelling sneaker after three prior attempts to win the contest in years past. The four judges of the contest, which was held at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Times Square, all cringed at the smell of Slocombe’s beat-up shoe. George Aldrich, a chemical specialist at Nasa, said Slocombe managed to create all the smells he sniffs for in a shoe. “One is the very putrid and then the pungent that kind of gets up your nose and makes your eyes water,” Aldrich said. “And then the heave part, which is just an involuntary reaction. He had all three of them.” Techniques for developing the putrid odours included never wearing socks and walking through mud.

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