Shoes hanging from power lines

[franjava]

There's a dangling pair of shoes that I pass every day. They've been there for a couple months. I'll have to see how long it takes them to fall down.

[llewtrah]

It depends on what the laces are made of. Some materials are designed to be highly resistant to the elements.

I don' t know how helpful that can be, but I read in a comic book about extreme sports that skateboarders who eventually decide to get rid of the old pair of shoes they used to skateboard with and get new ones hang their old pair of shoes to stuff (wires, lampposts, etc...) to leave their mark in their district.

[Stoneage Dinosaur]

It is a mystery to baffle the brightest gumshoe.

Why is this ash tree always festooned with footwear?

For almost 40 years, no one has been able to muddle out why people keep hanging shoes from the branches.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-solve-it.html

[snopes]

If you look up, you might spot them hanging from telephone wires and power lines by their shoelaces.

Some people say the suspended sneakers, high-tops and boots mark a place where drugs are sold. Other lore holds they commemorate a killing, mark gang territory or vow retaliation.

Others insist throwing shoes tied together by their laces over a wire is just a kid's prank, an effort to leave a mark that's as pointless as sticking gum under a table.

No matter why they're there, so-called shoefiti isn't exactly a welcome-to-the-neighborhood message.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,1378631.story

[Der Induktionator]

The explanation I heard when I was little was that there was someone nearby that wanted sex, and they would throw a pair of old shoes up there to say that they lived somewhere nearby. You could tell if it was a boy or girl and what kind of sports they liked or if they were a preppie by the kind of shoes.

Most of the ones I remember seeing were probably from teenage boys. I'm not sure anyone ever told the girls about this though.

Gangs mark their territory almsot exclusively with tags (graffiti), not, as fas I know, shoes hanging on power lines.

I've seen this plenty of times, too, in different areas, and always figured it was just one of those things that "is what it is."

I don't think it has anything to do with drug dealers or gangs. If so, they really need to take some marketing courses.

[Embra]

Originally Posted by SsnakeBite

I don' t know how helpful that can be, but I read in a comic book about extreme sports that skateboarders who eventually decide to get rid of the old pair of shoes they used to skateboard with and get new ones hang their old pair of shoes to stuff (wires, lampposts, etc...) to leave their mark in their district.

Interesting: there is a tree next to the little skate park in our town, and it is indeed festooned with skate shoes. I only noticed it earlier this year, and the parl itself has only been there a few years.

[Canuckistan]

The mystery hangs above our streets, as much a part of the cityscape as pigeons and litter, but tangled up in urban myth: those sneakers dangling from overhead wires.

Some say the errant shoes stake out gang turf. Others suggest they mark the site of a murder. Less nefarious theories say the shoes celebrate pending marriages or the loss of one’s virginity.

But the most persistent rumour is that “crack tennies” act as signposts for drug dens. But if you ask Toronto police Det. John Margetson, the theory is bunk.

“It’s an urban legend,” he said. “We’ve never found that to be true."

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/...s-it-mean?bn=1

I've never thought much about the shoes-over-wires thing except in the film 'Big Fish' when the little girl steals the man's shoes and throws them over a cable. I'd seen the in old photos etc. and I thought they must have symbolised that you were settling in the town - i.e. you don't have any shoes so you can't leave. :P Anyone else used to think this or did I just read to much into it!

Karl

[Floater]

Saw these the other day hanging outside a pub in Tallinn called Hell Hunt.