Have you ever noticed sneakers hanging from high above on telephone wires? When I was a child, I always walked pass them and I always wondered why people hang their fine pair of sneakers on the wires. Sometimes I also wondered whether those sneakers ever fell down because the shoelaces become worn out from the seasonal changes throughout the years. Hopefully no one was injured due to fallen sneakers from above.
According to the NY Times article, “Shoes-on-wires are a tradition as old as the notion of hanging utility lines on poles. No one knows who did it first or why.†I also heard that where sneakers are hung on wires it symbolizes that drug dealing occurs there, but there has been no fact to prove if this was true or not. Check out the NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/15/nyregion/15ink.html?ex=1171947600&en=c1e9d6135c2bbfb1&ei=5070 **
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Photos taken by Sandy
I always believe that the reason why they do that was because someone died. When a person in the neighborhood died they hung their sneakers over the electric wires. I don’t know where exactly I got that from but that was what I believed. But that could be a myth.
I’ve always heard that people hung the senakers of children who were hit by cars on that particular corner. I’m not sure where I heard this from either, but who knows?
As VH1’s “The White Rapper Show” believes, it’s just another thing people in the hood do. It probably had some significance in the past, but now I think it’s just something people see and emulate.
People are always looking for a way to make a statement or to be remembered. Whether it’s by carving a message on a tree or leaving a foot print on wet cement. I believe that young people hang their shoes as a way to express themseleves.
I never understood the reason behind putting a sneaker on the wire. I also saw that on Vh1’s White Rapper Show. I think that is to signify a loss in the neighborhood. Everytime someone was eliminated they had to give back the sneakers that were thrown to hang on the wire.
I think that when sneakers die they don’t go to Heaven, but on top of light poles or train stations in this case.
This is common in my area too. But, people do it to show respect for the dead or if the person got hit by a car in the neighborhood too. I guess it is some sort of decreation for the area. LOL!
i have never actually seen this in real life but im sure i have on television. Does this only happen in New York or is it a national thing?
Jonelle I know that is common thing throught the city mostly in the more urban areas, but I strongly doubt if they do this in other states.