{"id":14660,"date":"2014-05-28T11:00:56","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T10:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/?p=14660"},"modified":"2025-06-04T17:46:36","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T16:46:36","slug":"the-mystery-of-sneakers-dangling-on-the-power-lines-of-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/the-mystery-of-sneakers-dangling-on-the-power-lines-of-new-york\/","title":{"rendered":"The mystery of sneakers dangling on the power lines of New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sneakers<\/p>\n

They’re a common sight in\u00a0many cities around the world, but when it comes to big displays of sneakers\/trainers hanging off power lines, New York does it better than most.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Sneakers<\/p>\n

Quite why people choose to do this remains a mystery as Wikipedia reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Shoe flinging or “shoefiti” is the practice of throwing shoes whose shoelaces have been tied together so that they hang from overhead wires such as power lines or telephone cables.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The shoes are tied together by their laces, and the pair is then thrown at the wires as a sort of bolas. The practice, despite its wide spread use throughout the United States has been one of curiosity over the years as a number possible explanations for the act have cropped up without any general consensus on its origins.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Sneakers<\/p>\n

Various theories have been posited: one was the shoes mark\u00a0a local crack cocaine house, or that they are a\u00a0sign of nearby nefarious gang activity.<\/p>\n

Others have suggested that they’re generally the work of a bully who has flung his victim’s footwear in the air as punishment, \u00a0while some suggest that they’re often the result of \u00a0a drunken jape.<\/p>\n

\"Sneakers<\/p>\n

Writing for Straight Dope in 1996, Cecil Adams catalogued\u00a0over a dozen more theories<\/a>, none of them\u00a0conclusive.<\/p>\n

It seems that they’re usually flung aloft for a multitude of reasons – or perhaps no reason at all –\u00a0and trying to extract any kind of cultural significance\u00a0from the custom is a waste of time.<\/p>\n

So here’s a few more photos to look at.<\/p>\n

\"Sneakers<\/p>\n

A\u00a0particularly splendid pair of high heeled studded boots hang down from a Bushwick power line.<\/p>\n

\"Sneakers<\/p>\n

What appears to be a unicorn in a chequered hat, Bushwick.<\/p>\n

\"Sneakers<\/p>\n

A fine tight cluster of three pairs of shoes are contrasted against a Williamsburg sky.<\/p>\n

Click here for a\u00a0BBC video feature from 2009<\/a>\u00a0or \u00a0check out the well crafted and entertaining documentary below:<\/p>\n