Shoe Flinging. Where did it come from?

 

This morning as I walked out to my car I looked up and noticed two pairs of shoes dangling from the telephone wire which crosses our street. I hadn’t noticed them before, and somehow they stood out quite starkly against the bright blue sky.

I ask myself, ‘Where does this tradition come from?’

Does anyone know?

According to good ole Wikipedia, the act of shoe tossing, or shoe flinging or shoefiti—whatever you want to call it—is labeled a ‘folk sport’. 

In Arab countries, shoe flinging is considered extremely disrespectful. In 2003 when the infamous statue of Saddam was being pulled down in Baghdad, many local Iraqis threw their shoes at the statue. I have heard that showing the bottom of your feet is also disrespectful in Arab countries. For instance, if you were sitting cross-legged and your elevated foot was facing someone, this would be very rude.

In America, one theory about shoefiti is that it marks a crack house or a place where drug dealing or even gang-related activity goes on. I certainly hope this isn’t the case on my street, though I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if it was. This can’t be the only explanation however, because we can see shoes dangling from power lines all over the place, including in rural neighborhoods and in the country.

I have a theory. Maybe some people just like the sport of trying to get their old shoes stuck up there once they’ve finished using them. Hey, it’s certainly more entertaining than throwing them out with the garbage. Perhaps some do it just because they’ve seen it done before and they want to try.

But…this still begs the ultimate question. Where did it come from?

Here are some more interesting tidbits from the Wiki article:

“Some claim that shoes are flung to commemorate the end of a school year, or a forthcoming marriage as part of a rite of passage.

In Scotland, it has been said that when a young man has lost his virginity he tosses his shoes over telephone wires to announce this to his peers.

It has been suggested that the custom may have originated with members of the military, who are said to have thrown military boots, often painted orange or some other conspicuous color, at overhead wires as a part of a rite of passage upon completing basic training or on leaving the service.

Others claim that the shoes are stolen from other people and tossed over the wires as a sort of bullying tactic, or as a practical joke played on drunkards.”

And later it says…

“In some neighborhoods, shoes tied together and hanging from power lines or tree branches signify that someone has died. The shoes belong to the dead person. The reason they are hanging, legend has it, is that when the dead person’s spirit returns, it will walk that high above the ground, that much closer to heaven.

Another superstition holds that the tossing of shoes over the power lines outside of a house is a way to keep the property safe from ghosts.

Yet another legend involves that shoes hanging from telephone wires signals someone leaving the neighborhood onto bigger and better things.”

I like what Snopes had to say as well:

“There’s no definitive answer as to why those shoes hang from telephone wires. Perhaps the answer lies within each of us, shoe-slinger and non-shoe-slinger alike. We are a determinedly decorative society. At Christmas and Halloween, on Easter and the 4^th of July, many of us feel compelled to doll up houses, windows, and lawns with all manner of objects and lights. Some call this folk art. Others will tell you it has to do with the human need for self-expression.”

Well, all of the theories out there are intriguing. I suppose we’ll never really know the answer.

If you have any thoughts, I’d like to hear them.