How Benny seized the day and reframed his future
- Benny spent more than 20 years working as a printer before switching midlife to pursue his passion for construction
- Benny’s wife, Claudette, asked Benny to remodel her hair salon, then encouraged him to follow his trade career dreams
- A collector of Air Jordans, Benny loves a comfortable shoe. It’s one key reason he loves his Steel Blue work boots
New Zealander Benny Lewington’s pathway into his trade was not the usual one.
In 2021, his wife, Claudette, came to him with a set of plans an interior design company had done to remodel her hair dressing salon.
“I’d done a few bits and pieces around our house over the years and things for other people, but she came to me with the plans and said ‘I think it’s time you give this a go’,” he said. “So, I undertook the construction and the redesign of the salon, working on it over weekends and after hours.”
At the time, Benny had spent almost a quarter of a century in a completely different trade—commercial printing.
“I was a production manager for a print company, but I’d got to a point in my life where I thought I wanted to pursue the passion that had always been burning inside me,” he said.
View this post on Instagram
Seizing the day
When Benny’s remodelling of the salon won Best Salon Design in The Industry Awards—the New Zealand beauty industry’s premier awards—everything crystallised. It was time for a midlife career change.
“That’s when my wife and I sat down together and decided that was the turning point for me to pursue the career that I probably should have pursued 20-something years earlier,” he said. “She was like, ‘you have to go for your dreams’.”
Although stepping into the unknown was “frightening”, Benny started to pick up bits of work, including renovating and flipping a house. While working on the house, he met his current boss.
“I asked him if he was willing to take on an adult apprentice and he said sure,” Benny said.
He hasn’t looked back. Benny is mostly working on residential new builds and renovations. Now, every day presents a new and rewarding challenge.
“I enjoy all of it,” he said. “I don’t mind digging a hole and concreting a pile or doing architraves and scotia. Most of all I like that you actually get to see the smile on the client’s face, their satisfaction with the job. I like seeing my workmanship and knowing it’s going to be around when I’m gone.”
Why Benny chooses to wear Steel Blue work boots
When he’s not onsite, Benny is probably found wearing a pair of Air Jordans.
“I’ve been collecting them for a long time, mostly nineties and late eighties Jordans,” he said.
“I wear some of them but some of them are ‘on ice’, as they say, so I stock them but don’t rock them. It’s terrible really. I’m a bit of an addict. But they’re just iconic. It’s pure happiness when you’re wearing them.”
So, you know Benny cares about his footwear and the comfort of his feet. Is that why he chooses to wear Steel Blue work boots when he’s onsite?
“Definitely,” he said. “They almost become a part of you; they’re such a comfortable work boot when you’re doing big days.”
Benny said he tends to crouch or squat a lot on the job, so he really values the cut-out at the back of the boot, by the Achilles heel. He also finds the zip on the Southern Cross work boot makes getting them on and off super easy.
Head to your local Steel Blue stockist to discover work boots that are a mark of true skill, or shop online.
