Shoes | Dartmouth Folklore Archive

Title: Entering the field with left foot and untied shoelaces

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

T.C. is a male student-athlete from the class of 2024 who plays soccer at Dartmouth. He was born and raised in Willingdon, England. T.C. has been playing soccer since before he could walk and is a fan of the West Ham United FC.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: Soccer (or football, as it is referred to in England) is a major part of English culture, especially for boys. Kids at a young age often look up to professional footballers and try to emulate them (dress code, hairstyle, style of play, and so on).
Social Context: T.C. explained his superstitions to me right before a game, which is when he performs them. At first, he did not seem to remember where he picked up his superstitions from, but after further questioning he agreed that he was attempting to emulate professional player’s rituals.

Item:

Before a game, T.C. will enter the field with the laces in his soccer boots untied and will take two steps on his left foot before taking one on his right.

Associated files/pictures:

Transcript:

“I don’t tie the laces on my boots until I’m out in the field. And also, when I get on the field I take two steps on my left foot before I take a step on my right. I might have picked up my superstitions when I was 13 at my club back in England.”

Informants Comments:

He later remembered that the shoelace superstition was based on a ritual performed by former England national team left back Leighton Baines.

Collector’s Comments:

As a 13-year-old, T.C. was obviously emulating professional footballers and their superstitions, as an attempt of being a more integral member of the footballers folk group. Walking into the pitch on foot is a very common superstition among soccer players.

Collector’s Name:

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Title: Shoe Superstition

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

Ethan Joseph Cook was born in Fort Wayne Indiana on April 23, 1998. Ethan is a freshman at Dartmouth College. It is his first year on the Dartmouth Varsity swim team, but he has been swimming competitively since he was nine years old. Ethan decided to swim in college because he really enjoyed his experiences swimming on his high school swim team and he wanted to be involved in something that has equally as great traditions and team bonding.

Contextual Data:

Social/Cultural Context: Ethan describes a superstition that is based on the clothing that he wears before a competition. Ethan preforms this superstition before major competitions. The socks are worn on the pool deck before he puts on his racing suit and prepares to dive into the water.

Item:

Ethan describes that he wears the same pair of shoes before every competition because he believes that wearing them brings him good luck. This follows the “If A then B” superstition.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Transcript of Associated File:

“On deck before my races and after as well, I wear my lucky shoes. They’re brown with yellow stripes on them. I really like the look of them and I’m pretty sure they make me go faster.”

Clothing based superstitions were extremely common among informants; especially swimmers. Since swimming is such a mentally taxing sport, it extremes to help competitors to find an article of clothing that he or she believes will increase chances of doing well.

Collector’s Name: Molly Brickman

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Dartmouth Folklore Archive