Why do we sometimes see sneakers hanging on wires? It is a picture that is repeated in neighborhoods of many cities in different countries: a pair of sneakers linked together by laces and suspended in the middle of the street. It is said that this phenomenon was born in the United States, but it did not take long for it to spread to Latin America and later reached Europe. It has different meanings, as you can discover below.
One of the most popular theories explains that the shoes hung on cables were born as a sign of illegal businesses. They indicate that the area in which they are located is a point of sale of drugs.
The hanging shoes would be a way of delimiting territories of street gangs. Depending on the type of footwear, it could also indicate that these are places where it is easy to steal and commit crimes, or also a way to honor the memory of a murdered person.
There are also those who explain that the slippers that can be seen on cables are a code to inform that it is a neighborhood in which there are houses with squatters.
The hanging shoes are used as urban art to decorate the streets, playing with their colors and making different compositions. It is what is known as shoefiti, a term that comes from joining the word "shoe" in English with "graffiti".
Apparently, many young people used to paint their boots in colors when the end of their military service was approaching and later threw them onto power lines, commemorating the end of this stage. Another interpretation states that this phenomenon may also be related to students who graduate and undo their shoes to celebrate having finished their studies.
Another possible reason suggests that the hanging shoes are a sign that the owner of the shoe has passed away. In addition, a different explanation suggests that the residents of a street place them on the wiring in important events, such as a wedding or the birth of a baby.
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