Post #494

Comments (40)

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1. Jon:

   Looks nice. Typical sight where I come from, along with probably every part of the world, yet has a nice artistic view. Not that it matters, but did you happen to touch it up?

   Posted 34 minutes after the fact

   Inspired: ↓ Yannick L., ↓ Dunstan

2. Jeff:

   My school has some of those on mysterious wires out to the track. Nice photo!

   I love the colors, and the shoes remind me of the ones in "Back to the Future."

   Posted 35 minutes after the fact

3. MGSeeley:

   Whenever I see this (shoes on wire), which is more often then I would have ever guessed, I always wonder what occurrence led to them getting there? Did someone do this with their own shoes accidentally or on purpose? Or were they the victim of a cruel joke?

   Posted 45 minutes after the fact

   Inspired: ↓ HiMY Syed, ↓ Ryan MacLeod

4. Yannick L.:

   Yup I agree with Jon, its also a typical thing where I am from and it does have a very nice artistic view.

   Posted 1 hour, 4 minutes after the fact

   Inspired by: ↑ Jon

5. Dunstan:

   There are tons of the damn things here in San Francisco: from where I stood to take that photo I could see three other pairs, including one pair of infant's shoes.

   As for retouching: no I didn't do a thing, it's straight from the RAW file :o)

   Posted 1 hour, 11 minutes after the fact

   Inspired by: ↑ Jon

6. Harry:

   As I understand it, they're meant to signify a loss of virginity. Most of the instances I've seen appear close to the local university.

   Posted 1 hour, 30 minutes after the fact

   Inspired: ↓ Benjamin, ↓ HiMY Syed

7. Benjamin:

   Plausible, but I've seen bullies and whatnot throw them up there. Rather stupid of them; I can't see the fun in throwing shoes, but maybe that's just me.

   Nice shot, by the way.

   Posted 1 hour, 52 minutes after the fact

   Inspired by: ↑ Harry

   Inspired: ↓ HiMY Syed

8. Eric:

   Actually it means there is a drug dealer nearby. Jeez, I'm straight edge and I'm the one pointing this out...

   Posted 2 hours, 5 minutes after the fact

   Inspired: ↓ Dunstan, ↓ HiMY Syed, ↓ David

9. Dunstan:

   The GF suggested the same thing.

   You and she must hang with the same bad crowd, Eric ;o)

   Posted 2 hours, 11 minutes after the fact

   Inspired by: ↑ Eric

   Inspired: ↓ David, ↓ Juliana Fuqua

10. HiMY Syed:

    Reminded me of the movie Wag the Dog.

    The spin doctors in the flick concocted a tale connecting shoes hanging off wires just like the photo above with the fake war hero they also concocted up to back up the fake war they were having.

    I like the virginity angle better.

    Any day now...and I'll be throwing up a pair of pumas...

    ;-O

    Posted 3 hours, 47 minutes after the fact

    Inspired by: ↑ MGSeeley, ↑ Harry, ↑ Benjamin, ↑ Eric

11. Rob Mientjes:

    Funny. asics has a commercial with shoes hanging on an electricity wire. But those shoes talk :/

    So they are actually mAd ripperZ!

    Posted 4 hours, 29 minutes after the fact

12. David:

    Aww, and I thought Dunstan had found the wonderful town of Spectre [as featured in the movie Big Fish http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319061/ ]. ;)

    Posted 5 hours, 5 minutes after the fact

    Inspired by: ↑ Eric, ↑ Dunstan

13. Ms. Jen:

    Shoes on the telephone wire means a drug dealer is at that house. Lots of shoes means don't move into that neighborhood unless you like lots of traffic, lots of folk coming and going, and the loss of your favorite personal stuff to folks who need $ fast.

    smiles, ms. jen who works in a neighborhood with lots of shoes overhead...

    Posted 6 hours, 30 minutes after the fact

14. David:

    Nice shot.

    Great anti-commercial for Nike. I can just hear the voice over.

    "Buy our shoes, throw them and athletics away. Go sell drugs. Just do it!"

    Oh and your "preview" button changing to "preview again" is pure class.

    Posted 7 hours, 21 minutes after the fact

15. Benedikt:

    I live in Austria and some months ago there was a TV-commercial with one pair of shoes hanging on such a wire. They were actually talking to each other why they ended up there. Pretty funny. (The brand was "Asics")

    Posted 7 hours, 34 minutes after the fact

16. Tim:

    Funny, I keep noticing shoes-on-wires more and more. But I just don't buy the drug angle, at least not where I live (I suppose it could be a region-specific thing). At any rate, the shoes I see most aren't actually in front of a house - one pair is in front of a church. Unless....

    And this virginity/drug thing seems sooo complicated. When we was kids we just did it as a prank.... What happened to simple fun? *sigh* I must be getting old...

    Posted 10 hours, 49 minutes after the fact

17. Juque:

    Nike Air ;)

    Posted 12 hours, 26 minutes after the fact

18. Sean:

    I'v heard it was something to do with drugs. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. ;-)

    Posted 12 hours, 42 minutes after the fact

19. Derek:

    At a previous job, we would have cops hanging out in our office building. They saw the shoes on the wire and would watch down from our floor for a bust. Kind of a dumb way to advertise.

    Posted 12 hours, 47 minutes after the fact

20. Mike:

    The shoes over the electrical/telephone wire thing is a very common drug dealer's mark in the US, has been for many years. You'll see it everywhere, from large cities (New York, Chicago, LA, Miami) to mid-sized cities (Cincinnati, Knoxville, etc.) to even very small cities and suburban/rural areas.

    Posted 13 hours, 4 minutes after the fact

21. Pete:

    You Americans and your Urban Legends... It hasn't to do with drugs or virginity. It's the Illuminati who rip your phone calls and send them by shoes to their secret bases on Mars.

    Posted 13 hours, 18 minutes after the fact

    Inspired: ↓ Dave

22. Dave:

    Don't say that... Now they'll be after you.

    Posted 14 hours, 46 minutes after the fact

    Inspired by: ↑ Pete

23. MaThIbUs:

    Not one cloud...

    Posted 15 hours, 35 minutes after the fact

24. Peter:

    There are four pairs on the wire between the old folks home and the church near me. You can't trust anyone these days!

    Posted 15 hours, 56 minutes after the fact

25. CEB:

    This was on ITV news the other night!

    Yes it means there's a drug dealer around, or so I'm told.

    Posted 20 hours, 37 minutes after the fact

26. Betsy Dillon:

    I heard that when you see shoes like this in LA it is a signal that there is a crack dealer it the neighborhood.

    Posted 22 hours, 47 minutes after the fact

27. Dave L:

    They look lonely to me; perhaps their owner lost his socks.
    http://1976design.com/blog/archive/2004/02/25/missing-socks/

    Posted 1 day, 12 hours after the fact

28. Darryl Millar:

    I wonder if shoes on a wire is probable cause for a search warrant...

    Posted 2 days, 1 hour after the fact

29. Brian:

    http://www.kansan.com/GetStory.aspx?id=b97853dfaec8417293b3f7fdd71dca61
    Fine Art of Shoe Tossing. Someone had to do it.

    Posted 2 days, 1 hour after the fact

30. Ryan MacLeod:

    I live near a "not-so-good" neighborhood, and this is also a common sight here.

    I think the reason this photo is so good is the actual signifigance o the subject matter, not the exposure, or composition, or anything.

    It just makes you think: why are they there? a cruel prank on a helpless child? something else? you dont know, and thats what I think makes this photo so great.

    Beautiful, Dunstan!

    Posted 1 week after the fact

    Inspired by: ↑ MGSeeley

31. Juliet:

    Hey those are some nice shoes, and the picture is very detailed and you can see the nice mud stains on them, wow! I need a pair of those, anyway, Im glad we have people in America taking such beautiful and important pictures of things like that. Nice photograph, and keep up the nice work! Way to go Dunstan, bravo bravo bravo!!!

    Posted 3 weeks, 5 days after the fact

32. Bicket:

    About three days ago I was driving to work and saw a pair hanging outside an apartment complex, the next day there were more and now there are about ten pair hanging up there. Over dinner tonight we all decided to come online and hunt down the meaning and found this site....THANKS!!!!

    Posted 6 months, 1 week after the fact

33. Nikolai:

    As far as I know shoes on a wire in gang terms,means that there is a place for dealing drugs or a murder was committed

    Posted 8 months, 2 weeks after the fact

34. Uj:

    it means drugs are sold there

    Posted 9 months, 3 weeks after the fact

35. Juliana Fuqua:

    Nice photo! :)

    Posted 10 months, 1 week after the fact

    Inspired by: ↑ Dunstan

36. Clunt Lip:

    Shoes on a telephone wire began in August of 1998 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. A 23 year old man named Mark McAuliff gave the directions to his home over a cellular line to a cohort for a drug deal connection. He said to look for the apartment just below where the shoes were hanging from the phone wire. Appearantly, the neighborhood kids had thrown the shoes found in a dumpster onto the wire out of boredom; something to do.

    The drug buyer spread the word to other acquaintences who were looking for drugs to go to the complex and look for the shoes on the phone wire. As these people moved around and moved into and out of dealing this habit become part of the underground culture of drug dealing.

    Mark McAuliff was finally busted, due in part to all the traffic who was easily led to his house by the tell-tale signal, and his cellular phone call which were picked up by law enforcement with a warrant. Unfortunately, though the drug flow halted from that residence, the ugly shoe scene hanging from the sky continues today.

    Posted 10 months, 2 weeks after the fact

37. Brittany:

    I heard that the shoes signified that somebody died there, but it's interesting to know that there are other meanings. It's a very good picture in it's simplicity and symbolism.

    Posted 11 months after the fact

38. Dan:

    It doesn't mean anything. It means kids like to throw shoes. It means that many decades ago someone had the idea to throw their shoes up on a wire, as a whim, and then other kids did it to copycat. Does anyone deny that kids have irresistible urges to copycat things that they see? When I was 13, in 1983, I saw my first "shoes on a wire" and immediately found an old pair of shoes to throw up on a wire. That's it...mystery solved. Kids are copycats.

    Posted 1 year after the fact

39. Izzo:

    dude people throw shoes up there jsut to leave there mark on society my neighbor friend did it before he went to college and few otheres did it before they left for iraq . plus i mean what are u supposed to do witha pair of old crappy shoes? whay not decorate?

    p.s. fuck bush

    Posted 1 year, 5 months after the fact

40. Anon:

    it was done during the 50's and up for marking a memory. in jewish and italian comunities it was very common after a death of a young person. everytime u walked by it was a visual reminder of the person or time of life.

    like everthinhg else tho the dealers and jerks stole it and turned it into something bad.

    Posted 1 year, 5 months after the fact

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