Does a pair of trainers hanging from a telephone wire denote poverty?

And if it does, why?

No… Dealer in the neighbourhood

used to be a capri on bricks

yeah I thought it meant dealer?

Well it did when I lived in San francisco anyway.

Same as when dudes wear one trouser leg roled up, supposedf to mean they are packin heat!! 😯

Still not figured out the jeans round the arse thing though?

http://www.snopes.com/crime/gangs/sneakers.asp

Not the most conclusive snopes entry ever.

Whenever I see them, I think "students", not "gangs".

Might just be the place the kids wait for the school bus.

Still not figured out the jeans round the arse thing though?

This is to do with the slave trade , years ago plantation owners made all their negro slaves wear really big ill fitting pants with the idea that if they decided to run away they wouldnt get far because their pants would keep on falling down, Its all to do with the "****" culture many black African American youths adhere to , a sort of two fingered salute to society

and as I understand a pair of trainers hanging from the telephone lines denotes where a gang member was killed

I always thought the jeans hanging down thing was a nod to prison life, where they take your belt away?

i thought the big jeans was to show you had a big brother who'd look after you (who'd hand-me-downed the jeans)

…but then again – the jeans hanging down thing could just mean that the wearer is a tw*t fo' sho'

I thought the loose jeans thing was because if you're a bad mofo gangsta packing heat in tight jeans then you might get nasty chafing from the gun metal?

No trainers on a wire marks the turf boundary for a gang – originates from the US Nike Reebok thang..

How do those ragamuffins keep their jeans from falling down? is there some kind of trouser suspender in use?

it denotes that some kids have been trying to piss off their mate off by slinging his trainers over a telephone wire….

I thought the shoe thing was because of pub quiz losses

Shoe throw

plantation owners made all their negro slaves wear really big ill fitting pants with the idea that if …….

I thought they needed baggy pants with lots of room 'cos there knee grows ?

I thought the jeans thing was from prison and was to denote that you're up for a bit of rumpy pumpy with another man.

I thought the jeans thing was from prison and was to denote that you're up for a bit of rumpy pumpy with another man.

Go tell them that, we'll stand back and watch. 🙂

It was always 'clackers' over the wire where I lived.

I thought the jeans thing was from prison and was to denote that you're up for a bit of rumpy pumpy with another man.

Go tell them that, we'll stand back and watch.

You'll stand back and watch the rumpy pumpy??? 😯 😯 😯

Are those Ben Wah balls 😯

I thought it meant a dealer was nearby.

having yr clackers thrown over a phone line now that is a rough area

thought it was a gang / drug related boundary thing as don't mean freemasons / pharmacists then does denote the area might be a little challenged

as to jeans below crotch – assumed it some sort of evolutionary thing – the generation that has it all done for them has logically decided to make walking or doing a manual task easily impossible

old man wanders off scratching head

the low jeans thing is definitely from prison. It's to show solidarity with your fellow gang members who are behind bars and have had their belts taken away.

What does a bike tyre thrown over a lamp-post mean then?
Very popular round our way when I was a kid.

Has nobody else noticed the complete irony of all these 'signs to show' but noboby has a clue what they're signifying?
There's some crap talked on here.

Still not figured out the jeans round the arse thing though?

Can't work out how to use a belt.

barca – they're not signs to show anything, thats why, it's just kids lob trainers about and everyone jumps to conclusions and wives tales!

When I was younger and more "individual" I went out in a pair of combats with more tassles and dangly bits than I currently think possible. I got approached 5 times in one night by people asking if I had "anything to sell". That was the first time I found myself at the receiving end of unknown "signs" lol.

the low slung pants trend is related to one of two things.
1/belts removed from prisoners to stop them hanging themselves
2/police pull down crimbs trousers to stop them running away
the idea re slave traders is nonsense.

Should I be worried that on our street there is a pair of trainers on the phone wire and a bike tyre round a lamp post.

Oh, and also a renault espace on bricks!

plantation owners not slave traders Kaiser

plantation owners dealt in slaves if you wish to be pedantic

also if you think about it …
a piece of string would have curtailed the plantation owners idea to limit escape or else run in your undies.(no big deal for freedom )

Does a pair of trainers hanging from a telephone wire denote poverty?

Gola, yes. Y3, no.

On the subject of sportswear brands, whatever happened to Patrick?

I had some haalf decent rugby boots from them as a teenager.

I mus be getting old as I've never heard of Y3 😳

I read or heard somewhere that the trainer over the wire thing indicated a gang boundary, and the low-slung jeans was a nod to poor beginnings, where younger kids wore hand-me-down jeans that were way too big, but they were expected to grow into them 'cos there was no money for new jeans. Makes as much sense as any other here.

I always thought that the 'trainers over the phone wire' thing meant that someone had thrown a pair of trainers over a phone wire. I'm damn sure there were no turf wars between different gangs in my village in the early 70s, but I regularly saw trainers (well 'pumps' actually, the word 'trainers' hadn't been invented round here back then) on phone wires round and about the bit where all the council houses are. So, perhaps not 'poverty', but maybe deprivation then?

Doesn't it mean that someone has got some new sneakers?

Surely affluence, not poverty….