Blue Sole Shoes Father’s Day contest is not a typical gift giveaway. Steve Jamison, who has run the Center City boutique at 18th and Chestnut since February 2007, will select one nominated Philadelphia father, dress him in shoes and clothing of his own choosing, and send him home in all of it — no gift card, no store credit, no voucher. The father keeps what he is wearing when he walks out.
The Blue Sole Shoes Father’s Day Contest
Nominations are open through @bluesoleshoesphilly on Instagram. Follow the account and send a direct message with a photo of the father being nominated, estimated shoe, shirt, and pant sizes, and a case for why he should win in 100 words or less. An Instagram handle for the nominee is helpful but not required.
Submissions close Monday, June 15. Jamison will select the winner personally and notify him by direct message on July 19. The Blue Sole Shoes Father’s Day prize is a full in-store session — Jamison does the styling himself, selects every piece, and the father walks out in what he is wearing.
The contest follows from something Jamison talks about consistently: that the men who come into Blue Sole Shoes are often looking for more than a new pair of shoes. Fathers, he has said, are particularly likely to put their own needs last. The Blue Sole Shoes Father’s Day contest is a direct response — a chance for someone in that position to be on the receiving end. Jamison, who is a father himself, said that feeling of being cared for is what he wants the winner to carry out of the store.
Eighteen Years at 18th and Chestnut
Jamison grew up in North Philadelphia and came to retail through Philadelphia boutiques and department stores — including Bottino, one of the city’s established specialty shoe shops — before opening Blue Sole Shoes in February 2007. The store carries a curated mix of European and American brands: Magnanni, Jo Ghost, Dami, and Res Ipsa among them, alongside socks, leather bags, belts, and a capsule clothing collection. With more than twenty-five years in the industry behind him, Jamison built the store into a recognized stop for men within Philadelphia’s fashion community.
He expanded and renovated the storefront in 2016, opening more of the inventory to foot traffic along one of Center City’s busiest pedestrian corridors. In 2015, the International Footwear Forum in Milan honored Jamison with the MICAM Award for Best Italian Foreign Buyer, a distinction given by the Association of Italian Footwear Manufacturers. Philadelphia Magazine and Metro Philly’s Best have each recognized Blue Sole Shoes as a men’s destination in the city.
The store has run through the 2008 recession, acts of vandalism, and the disruptions of 2020. Jamison has remained visible in the community beyond the boutique — speaking at financial literacy events in North Philadelphia, mentoring young people interested in entrepreneurship, and building a customer base that extends well past Center City. His staff consists largely of young people of color, reflecting how he has thought about the store’s place in the city from the beginning.
Jamison has described the store’s mission the same way for years: that clothing is not just something a man puts on but something that affects how he sees himself and how others see him. “When you put on something that fits well, it changes your energy entirely,” he said. The Blue Sole Shoes Father’s Day contest takes that idea and directs it at one Philadelphia father — someone who could use the experience on the receiving end.
Nominations are open now through @bluesoleshoesphilly on Instagram. More about the store is at bluesoleshoes.com.
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