FORT LUPTON — Brian Shaw doesn’t do weddings. Well, some weddings, but only when he has to.
Why? We’ll let Kerry Brunton, Shaw’s high school basketball coach, tell the story.
“He was the best man at a wedding a few years ago,” said Brunton. “He had this tuxedo specially made, but he barely fit in it. When it came time to sign the documents, he bent over to sign his name and a button shot off his tux across the church.”
Stuff happens when you’re 6-feet-8 and weigh 390 pounds and counting. But Shaw isn’t your typical 390-pound man, if there is such a thing. He’s relatively lean, with a body-fat estimate of 14 percent, and his shoulders are enormous, to say the least.
Add it all up and it isn’t easy being in his size-16 shoes or 5X shirt. No wonder Shaw spends most of his time in shorts and T-shirts provided by sponsors.
“If you were to tell me today to go down to the mall and get something, no way,” said Shaw. “If you told me to go get jeans, I don’t know what I’d do. Jeans that fit me are few and far between. Clothes aren’t a comfortable thing for me. It’s just kind of a sacrifice, part of the deal, you know?”
The list of hardships for this aspiring World’s Strongest Man winner doesn’t end with clothes shopping. There will be no sports cars in Shaw’s future. He’s an SUV kind of guy, always will be. Amusement parks? Yeah, right.
“I couldn’t go to Elitch’s,” he said. “I can’t fit on the rides.”
One of the ironies of his life is that he has to eat 10,000 calories a day to maintain body mass, but isn’t comfortable in restaurants.
“I’ve got to watch out when it comes to chairs,” he said. “I’ve gone to different restaurants where I’ll sit down and the chair will break. You’re like, ‘Wait a minute, here.’ It’s little stuff like that that you wouldn’t think of, but I have to pay attention to.”
Shaw spent a few hours last week talking to a Post reporter and pulling a fire engine, all 60,000 pounds of it, for the camera. Two days later, he was scheduled to fly to Romania for a strongman competition.
In coach, not first class.
Forget hoisting 400-pound rocks and pulling trucks. Flying is Shaw’s greatest challenge, particularly when it involves a trek to Europe.
“It’s terrible, just terrible,” he said. “I’m trying to wrap my head around getting on that plane right now. You basically try to get an exit row and make it happen.”
