diff --git a/etc/mime.types-sample b/etc/mime.types-sample
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..456cfec4e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/etc/mime.types-sample
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+#########################################################
+# A nice place to put custom Mime-Types for Swift       #
+# Please enter Mime-Types in standard mime.types format #
+# Mime-Type Extension ex. image/jpeg jpg                #
+#########################################################
+
+#EX. Mime-Type Extension
+#    foo/bar   foo
+
+
diff --git a/swift/proxy/server.py b/swift/proxy/server.py
index f402a770d4..c71f136741 100644
--- a/swift/proxy/server.py
+++ b/swift/proxy/server.py
@@ -1326,6 +1326,8 @@ class BaseApplication(object):
         self.account_ring = account_ring or \
             Ring(os.path.join(swift_dir, 'account.ring.gz'))
         self.memcache = memcache
+        mimetypes.init(mimetypes.knownfiles + 
+                       [os.path.join(swift_dir, 'mime.types')])
 
     def get_controller(self, path):
         """
diff --git a/test/unit/proxy/test_server.py b/test/unit/proxy/test_server.py
index 13a7e9ddc5..11633dfcc7 100644
--- a/test/unit/proxy/test_server.py
+++ b/test/unit/proxy/test_server.py
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ from shutil import rmtree
 from time import time
 from urllib import unquote, quote
 from hashlib import md5
+from tempfile import mkdtemp
 
 import eventlet
 from eventlet import sleep, spawn, TimeoutError, util, wsgi, listen
@@ -362,6 +363,20 @@ class TestObjectController(unittest.TestCase):
                                                  'text/html', 'text/html']))
             test_content_type('test.css', iter(['', '', '', 'text/css',
                                                 'text/css', 'text/css']))
+    def test_custom_mime_types_files(self):
+        swift_dir = mkdtemp()
+        try:
+            with open(os.path.join(swift_dir, 'mime.types'), 'w') as fp:
+                fp.write('foo/bar foo\n')
+            ba = proxy_server.BaseApplication({'swift_dir': swift_dir},
+                FakeMemcache(), NullLoggingHandler(), FakeRing(), FakeRing(),
+                FakeRing())
+            self.assertEquals(proxy_server.mimetypes.guess_type('blah.foo')[0],
+                              'foo/bar')
+            self.assertEquals(proxy_server.mimetypes.guess_type('blah.jpg')[0],
+                              'image/jpeg')
+        finally:
+            rmtree(swift_dir, ignore_errors=True)
 
     def test_PUT(self):
         with save_globals():