Abandoned footwear

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An abandoned high-heeled sandal near Beijing Capital International Airport Derelict female shoes@Ershilipu (20140607123142).JPG
An abandoned high-heeled sandal near Beijing Capital International Airport

Abandoned footwear, such as a lone boot or shoe, has often been noted in out-of-the-way places like ponds or by the side of roads. [1] [2] Sometimes the shoes may even be new and fashionable. [3]

Contents

There are many hypotheses about why this phenomenon seems to more often involve footwear than other types of clothing. [4] [5] Shoes, being more sturdily constructed than most other types of clothing, will last longer after being abandoned outdoors. Leather shoes, for instance, are estimated to last for 25–40 years outside. [6] Some shoe abandonment is intentional, as in shoe tossing, in which shoes are tied together by their laces and thrown in great numbers into trees, over power lines, or over fences.

Artistic use

Abandoned footwear is a feature in a number of artistic works, including:

In sport

Leaving behind shoes can be a symbol of retirement in sport. For example, as ESPN's Sherry Skalko describes about Rulon Gardner's last wrestling bout in Athens, Greece: [10]

An emotional Rulon Gardner prepares to leave his shoes on the mat -- a symbol of retirement.

After the referee raised Gardner's hand in victory -- first to one side of the arena, then to the other -- Gardner grabbed an American flag, wiped away tears and parked himself in the middle of Mat B like "a 33-year-old kid" and took off his size 13 shoes. First the right one, the one that contains the constant reminder of the snowmobiling accident that almost took his life two years ago, then the left.

Then the super heavyweight bronze medalist stood up, bowed his head at each side of the mat and walked off, leaving his shoes behind, a wrestler's signal that he had fought his final bout.

Incidents

An unusual abundance of abandoned shoes was found on Miami's Palmetto Expressway on Friday, 2 January 2009. Thousands of assorted shoes of all kinds and conditions were scattered across the highway, disrupting traffic for many hours. The shoes were collected for the charity Soles4Souls which redistributes shoes to needy people. This unusually large batch of shoes was expected to go to Haiti. [11] [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slipper</span> Informal footwear

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sneakers</span> Sport and casual shoes

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zori</span> Flat Japanese sandals similar to flip-flops

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Espadrille</span> Casual shoe with a rope sole

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thigh-high boots</span> Boots extending above the knee

Thigh-high boots, known also as thigh-length boots or simply thigh boots, are boots that extend above the knees to at least mid-thigh. Other terms for this footwear include over-the-knee boots, a name originally used for 15th century riding boots for men. These are sometimes called pirate boots, especially when cuffed. Over-the-knee boots are sometimes abbreviated to OTK boots. Lengths vary from reaching just over the knee to reaching almost to the crotch.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rulon Gardner</span> American wrestler (born 1971)

Rulon Ellis Gardner is an American retired Greco-Roman wrestler. He won the gold medal at the 2000 Olympic Games, defeating Russia's three-time reigning Olympic gold medalist Aleksandr Karelin in the final; Karelin was previously unbeaten for 13 years in international competition. Gardner won a bronze medal at the 2004 Games. In 2010, he was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame as a Distinguished Member.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shoemaking</span> Process of making footwear

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mukluk</span> Soft boot worn by Arctic peoples

Mukluks or kamik are soft boots, traditionally made of reindeer (caribou) skin or sealskin, and worn by Indigenous Arctic peoples, including Inuit, Iñupiat, and Yup'ik.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">This Tuesday in Texas</span> 1991 World Wrestling Federation pay-per-view event

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poulaine</span> Shoe with long pointed toe from Poland, popular in 15th century Europe

Poulaines, also known by other names, were a style of unisex footwear with extremely long toes that were fashionable in Europe at various times in the Middle Ages. The poulaine proper was a shoe or boot of soft material whose elongated toe frequently required filling to maintain its shape. The chief vogue for poulaines spread across Europe from medieval Poland in the mid-14th century and spread across Europe, reaching upper-class England with the 1382 marriage of Richard II to Anne of Bohemia and remaining popular through most of the 15th century. Sturdier forms were used as overshoes and the sabatons of the era's armor were often done in poulaine style. Poulaines were periodically condemned by Christian writers of the time as demonic or vain. Kings of the era variously taxed them as luxuries, restricted their use to the nobility, or outright banned them. After becoming more common as women's footwear and expanding to awkward lengths, poulaines fell from fashion in the 1480s and were seldom revived, although they are considered an influence on some later trends such as the 1950s British winklepicker boots.

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Shoe-tossing is the throwing of footwear, the reasons for which differ based on cultural context.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fashion boot</span> Boot worn for style rather for utilitarian purposes

A fashion boot is a boot worn for reasons of style or fashion. The term is usually applied to women's boots. Fashion boots come in a wide variety of styles, from ankle to thigh-length, and are used for casual, formal, and business attire. Although boots were a popular style of women's footwear in the 19th century, they were not recognized as a high fashion item until the 1960s. They became widely popular in the 1970s and have remained a staple of women's winter wardrobes since then.

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References

  1. Shoe-icide - and other mysteries, Wichita Eagle, August 7, 2005, pp. 1E
  2. Dave Barnett (13 August 2007), Shoewatch update, Bradford Telegraph & Argus
  3. Steve Harvey (Dec 14, 1995), "The Case of the Sidewalk with Two Red Shoes", Los Angeles Times, p. 4, archived from the original on October 21, 2012, retrieved July 5, 2017
  4. Sole Survivor So That's Why Those Shoes Lie Alongside the Road, Rocky Mountain News, April 9, 1992
  5. "That's Shoe-Biz", San Jose Mercury News, p. 1E, January 29, 1993
  6. Litter Reduction Program, archived from the original on 2007-07-14
  7. Mervyn Rothstein (November 9, 1990), "Seeing New York With a Poet's Eye", New York Times
  8. 1 2 Paul Gifford (2005). Love, desire and transcendence in French literature. p. 184. ISBN   978-0-7546-5269-4.
  9. Gary Warth (January 29, 2008), One shoe at a time, North County Times
  10. Skalko, Sherry (August 25, 2004). "Gardner leaves shoes, legacy behind". ESPN.
  11. "Thousands of Shoes Appear on Miami Freeway", The Washington Post , January 3, 2009
  12. Brantley Hargrove (Jan 6, 2009), "Nashville Charity Corrals Thousands of Abandoned Shoes on South Florida Highway", Nashville Scene, archived from the original on April 4, 2012, retrieved September 28, 2010