EVS Stories: On Shoefiti (IV)

Kiryl is working as a volunteer in Baia Mare, until the end of February! He shared some of his  thoughts with us, as impressions of his stay in our town.

Many, many years ago, when I watched various Hip-Hop movies from New York and, in particular, from Brooklyn, I paid attention to hanging sneakers on the power\telephone lines. Then I became very interested in this topic.

After that, I met the sneakers in various European countries. Now, I know that it’s nicknamed ‘Shoefiti’ or ‘Shoe Tossing’ and it’s a worldwide phenomenon!

There are many theories why people do it. For instance, it’s said that this way people mark drug spots or gang districts. Some say that by the sneakers people mark a death place. The rest say that it’s just a drunken jape.

Once I even heard a speech of some American professor in which he compared Shoefiti with graffiti. His point was that people do it with the same intention as graffiti writers put tags on the walls, because they want to leave something behind.

Personally, I think that in fact, Shoefiti previously had criminal roots, but now it’s just a regular part of a modern urban environment.

And if earlier I met Shoefiti primarily in creative districts of busy European capitals, whereas now I met it in a small Romanian town Baia Mare, in particular, in one of illegal Roma communities, but more on that later…

The volunteer is hosted by Team for Youth Association in a joint project with Office of Initiatives Promotions  from Minsk, Belarus, on a two-month European Voluntary Service project. The content of this testimonial does not reflect the official opinion of the European Union. The responsibility for the information and views expressed in the article rests entirely with the author.