Shoe Tossing (shoefiti) illustrated

Receive a warm greeting dear readers, I hope you are excellent at this time!

Today I come to talk to you about something we have all seen at least once in our lives, even if it is through movies, but in general it is quite common and many people do not know what this means, like I did at the time, Because the truth is that most people are not thinking about "why are those shoes hanging from electric cables?", it is not very common to think, but in particular it has been something that has caused me a lot of curiosity and therefore I have researched and made a series of illustrations related to the subject.

Are you walking through your urbanization or neighborhood and observe a pair or many shoes guindados a high voltage wiring ?, I think it is quite common. One day while walking with a friend near my house, we went to a place not very "good", where there were shoes hanging from the wiring to what I asked my friend: do you know why they will do that? and he answered me: yes, they usually do it because there is someone who sells drugs near these sites, a comment that was quite accurate but which for me at the time was confusing, since, I have seen scuffed cable shoes in movies, series and cartoons for children, so that seemed impossible ... would it be some subliminal message of the cartoons ?, that was one of the first questions that came to my mind, so I decided to investigate on my own and it turns out that my Friend was right, but to my surprise there was not only one meaning, this practice had many meanings, positive and negative, obviously the one I already knew was one of the negatives.

And today in this post I come to talk a little about the origin of this trend and its meanings.

Although there is not a specific year where the year of origin of this practice in Spain is recorded, it is indicated that fashion started at the gates of the barracks of this country in the mid-90s, although you can find records of this practice in the decade of the 80's and the end of the 70's around the world. Hanging the shoes of the cables in the street is already a trend of universal character. It is called 'Shoefiti', giving rise to the play on words between the English word "shoe" and graffiti, or also called Shoe Tossing, today and for very time has spread through large cities around the world.

At present, the origin of this practice is attributed in the United States as a way to "mark" territories of gang members or sale of drugs. and over the years, this practice of throwing shoes has spread around the world (assuming that this practice is native to the United States) later, with the proliferation of the Internet, to European countries such as Germany, Great Britain or Spain. There are different interpretations about the meaning of this trend. As you may have noticed, the origin is not very clear, but what we do agree on is that it is a totally street-level practice.

Currently it is very "common" to see that people throw shoes for no apparent reason to a wiring, just because they have seen that it is done without knowing what this means, simply had a pair of old shoes. It is very funny because this practice can also be interpreted as "hang the shoes" or "colgar los tennis", referring to when a person dies, a phrase that is used too much in that sense and that despite the coincidence does not have much to do, but yes, You may be one of those people who interpreted the trend that way.

Now, let's go to the good, the meanings that this "mode" or street trend has, which upon investigating I realized that they were many and very varied, that just as it was believed before that it was only used by gang members and dealers ( drug dealers), currently has many meanings more than anything have to do with drugs, theft or antisocial behavior, rather it has more than one connotation or symbolism.

Some negative meanings:

Let's start with those we already know as marking and delimiting the territory over which a gang or group exercises dominion.
Indicate that drugs are sold nearby.

Indicate a home that is the object of theft or with valuable belongings.
It is given to understand that it is present in a dangerous neighborhood.
Warn that there has been a police shooting.
Indicate that there is an occupied dwelling in which there are expensive goods.

Some positive meanings:

Indicates the control of a study, whether school or higher.
Remembrance of some good and outstanding athlete whose footwear was already quite worn (almost useless).
The beginning of a new life.
End of military service, in which military boots were hung in front of the barracks. (The origin of this practice is attributed to Spain where at the end of the 80's people who did military service and ended it used to throw their boots to the wiring as a sign of achievement and completion).
Some ex-convicts did it as a sign of having finished their sentence.
Celebration of a wedding.

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I hope you liked the topic of today and have learned a little more about one of the most common street practices; At the same time I hope you have liked the illustrations I made for this article. Take care a lot and see you next time!