Phil Shaw, known as Steam in extreme ironing circles, is the founder of extreme ironing. Steam invented the sport in 1997 when he came home from a hard day in a Leicester knitwear factory. Preferring the idea of an evening out rock climbing, he decided to combine the two activities into a new extreme sport.

Steam was the team captain of the British Extreme Ironing team that scooped Gold and Bronze in the team section of the 1st Extreme Ironing World Championships in Munich 2002.

Writing under the name, Phil Shaw, Steam has recently written a book, also entitled Extreme Ironing, which was published October 2003.