Purists of the sport claim that it was started in 1997 in Leicester, England, by resident Phil Shaw in his back garden.[2] Shaw came home from what he recalls as a hard day in a Leicester knitwear factory.[6] Preferring the idea of an evening out rock climbing, he decided to combine the two activities into a new extreme sport. In June 1999, Shaw, who uses the nickname "Steam", embarked on an international tour to promote the activity. The stops included the United States, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. An encounter with German tourists in New Zealand led to the formation of a group called "Extreme Ironing International", and the German Extreme Ironing Section or GEIS.