Emcee & Mr. Michigan Leather 2016, Brian Mailley. (Photo by Brad Link)
DOUGLAS, MI – This past weekend I had the privilege of covering the Mr. Dunes Leather contest at the Dunes Resort in Douglas Michigan. This year was the third annual Mr. Dunes Leather contest and winner of the contest will go on to compete at Mr. Michigan Leather in September.
Friday evening featured the LeatherUNITED 5th Anniversary party. LeatherUnited is an event that focuses on bringing together the Leather community for a night of brotherhood & bringing in new people to the community.
Saturday evening was the Mr. Dunes Leather Contest, where three men competed for the Mr. Dunes Leather 2016 title. This years contestants were Levi Berkshire from Kalamazoo, Tim Koski from Chesaning, & Steven Joseph from Grand Rapids.
Judges for this years contest included Mr. Michigan 2015 Josh Fortuna, Mr. Michigan 2001 Doug VanKirk, & Mr. Dunes Leather 2015 Adam Way. Emcee this year was Mr. Michigan 2016, Brian Mailley. This year Tallymaster was Mr. Michigan Leather 2006, Tony Wolfram, Judges boy was Mr. Dunes Leather 2014, David Peterman, & pulling double duty as both Den Daddy & Event Producer was Mr. Michigan Leather 2011, David German.
Mr. Dunes Leather 2016, Steven Joseph (Photo by Brad Link)
The format for Mr. Dunes Leather is a bit different than other Leather Contests. The contest starts with the Dress Leather/Formal Wear portion where contestants introduce themselves with a short speech. Up next is the Pecs & Personality portion where contestants show off their assets in jocks & harnesses and answer pop question. The final part of the contest is the bar/cruise wear portion of the contest where the contestants dress in more casual leathers or what they might wear to the leather bar.
Before the winners were to be announced Mr. Dunes Leather 2015, Adam Way gave his step down speech.
This is the part of the article many of you came here specifically to see, the announcement of the new Mr. Dunes. Your Mr. Dunes 2016 is Steven Joseph.
During his speech portion Steven spoke about the need for everyone to exercise their right to vote. Being that voting in the right people is the only way to see real change. This is a message that everyone in the Leather community should take to heart.
All photos taken by Brad Link.
