Shoe throwing

In some cultures, shoes are flung as part of a rite of passage, e.g. to commemorate the end of a school year or a forthcoming marriage.

William Schumann, played by Woody Harrelson, who has purportedly been shot down behind enemy lines in Albania.

The shoes are also rumored to mark a spot for drug deals or to indicate a nearby crack-house, in which case they can be called "crack tennies".

[5] A 2003 newsletter from former Los Angeles, California, mayor James Hahn cited fears of many L.A. residents that "these shoes indicate sites at which drugs are sold or worse yet, gang turf," and that city and utility employees had launched a program to remove the shoes.

[3][6] However, it is difficult to determine whether shoes were placed by gang members for gang-related purposes, and police officers in several jurisdictions believe it to be a myth.

[2] More conclusively, a 2015 study of shoe-tossing data in Chicago failed to establish a causal connection between drug dealing and shoefiti.

"[9] In Charles Dickens' novel David Copperfield (1850), the custom is recorded by the narrator following his marriage to Dora Spenlow:[10]When we were all in a bustle outside the door, I found that Mr. Peggotty was prepared with an old shoe, which was to be thrown after us for luck, and which he offered to Mrs. Gummidge for that purpose.In 1887, an article in The New York Times observed that: "[The] custom of throwing one or more old shoes after the bride and groom either when they go to church to be married or when they start on their wedding journey, is so old that the memory of man stretches not back to its beginning.

"[11] Peter Ditchfield, writing in Old English Customs Extant at the Present Time (1896), expands: "We also throw old shoes after young married folk in order to express our wishes for their good fortune.

In many Arab cultures, showing the sole of one's shoe is considered insulting, as it is regarded as unclean for its contact with the ground.

[17][18] The sport appears to have originated in the West Country of England in the 1970s, and rapidly became a popular activity at village fêtes and fundraising events across Britain.

[19][20][21][22][23] The sport is now played in many different countries, including Australia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand and Russia.

[25] Another example of a shoe-based game is a smaller group activity that requires two pairs of shoes, two chairs, two plastic bottles, and two participants.