need advice on boot lace color..

i got into an argument with some kids last night on what the color of the laces in your boots and the braces (suspenders) you wear "mean". i was wearing black boots with one red and one white lace, and red braces as far as i always knew, it didn't mean shit. i know neo nazi factions say there are meaning to it, but if your not racist, it doesn't mean anything. i was also told a while ago, that in europe's gay skin scene, lace color, and the way you lace your boots, show off your sexual preferences, as with the " hanky color code".
to me, i like the way the colors contrast. so i don't really care what the meaning behind it is supposed to be, i know what's in my heart. but, this seems to be the place to ask this question. what, as you perseve it, does a skin's or punk's lace or brace color mean?

well..i was wearing white laces in my docs several years ago, and a skinhead stopped me on my walk across my college quad, said "White Power" with a kind of knowing wink and then tried to slap me five. this was alarming. how many people on my college campus were walking around thinking i was racist? i don't know...but i decided to avoid risking confusion.

i went home and changed my laces to black, which they have been ever since.

my take on it is, since people can't look at you and see what's in your heart, they can only see what you are wearing and take their best guess....they might assume you are racist and never give you the chance to show them that you are not.

to a lot of people appearance is reality...

you'd think my mohawk and anti-swastika patch on my jacket would take care of that...... but i guess not. i learned the bluring of the lines of the skin scene in highschool. and in no way am i racist. if someone said "white power" to me like that, i'd probably kick the shit out of them....but this is what i mean, it's perception, influenced by the media. they show all skins as being bonehead nazi thugs, and the majority are not. that is why i ask this question of yinz politicaly aware folks in this board. some that might "really know" what they mean, with in the punk-skin-underground type scene. i'm not concerned with what the everday passerby on the street thinks. i wouldn't dress the way i do, or wear my hair the way i do if i cared about the abercrombie zombies veiw of me.
i like the way i look. it's my comfort zone, but i haven't been really involved or cared about the scene that deep, out side of the local kids, for the last few years, and just thought i missed something..

Well, I grew up in Boston and I was always told that the red laces and braces were a neo-nazi thing, and white was white power. I've known plenty of kids who wear them that aren't into that, but you know, I wouldn't want to get racists slapping me high-five, or conversely, get my ass kicked by someone who thinks I am racist.

I stopped a local kid at a show here because he was wearing all of the above, and a "Smash racism" butt flap, and casually told him that to some people, what he's wearing can be perceived as a sign of racism. He said the same thing you're saying, that it's just a color. I said "That's fine, but you should be aware that to some people, it's more than just a color." That's pretty much how I feel about it. Wear what you want, but be aware that you might be inviting the wrong attention. Which I'm sure you know, if you rock the mohawk.

Goddamnit.

Laces tie up shoes! What the hell is wrong with people today?!?

This world is fucking ridiculous. Humans are morons.

well, now that you mention it, the anti-swastika patch would probably clue most people in i imagine.

Destro said:

abercrombie zombies

i can't believe i've never heard that term before!

and i know jack shit about what lace color signifies (although i too have heard the same shit about white laces) can't we all just wear velcro?

my laces are black with red stripes....what does that mean?

The stripes run the length of the laces and not the width if that makes any difference

in this part of the world, the red laces and braces were a sign you were a "red skin" , or a supporter of communism. i think that's what it meant anyhow...

non racist nazis? did you mean anti racist skins, my dear?
SHARP= skin heads against racial prejuduce. not nazis by any means, but not much better in others eyes either..

*i can't spell for shit...*

[Edited on Nov 25, 2003 by Destro]

black is the new black. just wear black and avoid confusions.

People seem to think everything odd has to mean something. What if you just think it's purdy?
I wear 2 different sets of laces in my boots (yes, thats 2 strings per boot.),, and a sometimes purple bandana on my right ankle. This means simply that I like the 80's and the movie, The Breakfast Club. I get the gay thing alot, cuz it's a purple bandana. That's cool too, cuz I'm bi, so....yah, sure, that works if ya want, but it really means nothing except that I'm an 80's baby.

"People ask me. 'What's that earring mean?' I go, 'It means I killed a man in prison for asking too many fucking questions!'" -George Carlin

How about "prostitots"? kinda crude, i know, it's those lil kids that run around at the pool (or anywhere else, really) in bikinis or skirts, skimpier than many judges in the bible belt would deem legal.

i feel special now....

How can you be a Nazi, but not a racist kind? Unless, you're a true National Socialist...but even still, that makes my brain hurt.

Well i heard that black is the new post-Labor Day White and that the new black is white, while the old black is mauve with a plaid twist...But that's only after Memorial Day on odd numbered years. There's a whole new set of rules girlfriend mhmm mhmm.

I am sick of hearing all the views on laces.. "red is for the blood to be shed"..."white is for the ww/wp"

it's freakin laces...I like the way white ones look in my doc's...

this isn't directed at people on here, I just encounter it a lot because of my area which has a decent skinhead scene and have talked to many people about this. The only ones who really think it means something is boneheads. It means nothing...

Lace color is one of those ridiculous urban legends thats always supposed to "mean" something and as a result ultimately they do come to mean whatever that local clique seems to decide on. There are no rules and nazis use much more subtle means of expressing themselves for the most part. In a nutshell, if you wear anything other than black or green some halfwit is going to try and dazzle you with their subcultural knowledge and/or start a fight.

Black or Green eh? I'm onto you Reprobrate...don't think for a second i haven't guessed your game! Black and green indeed...zounds!

but i can't find the spongebob laces long enough to fit my boots....

In the A-Z of skinwear of George Marshall's incredible book, Spirit of '69, a skinhead bible, he defines laces as:

Laces the colour of boot laces causes more arguments than a blind referee. The problem is that different colours mean different things in different ares. White might be NF(National Front) in one town and anarchy in the next. In Montreal, yellow's meant to mean cop killer. What makes it worse is that there is always some know-all who claims to know the lot. Not exactly Earth-shattering stuff.

Not strictly a lace-color issue, but I noticed the reference to the anti-swastika patch... and I've had a similar problem over that. Visiting a friend in Germany, I picked up a patch that says "Gegen Nazis" (i.e., "Against Nazis") with a fist smashing a swastika. I figured that, even though most folks here wouldn't speak German (I only speak a smattering myself), the logo on the patch (plus, you know, my Amnesty International, Ska Against Racism, and UN flag patches) would give the general idea. Nope.

I like to ally myself with the "if you misunderstand it, that's not my fucking problem" camp, but I have to admit that I keep hemming and hawing about taking it off just because I'm sick of explaining it to irate people (or, what's I think worse, explaining it to folks who think it's cool that I'm pro-Nazi) (OK, actually, it was somewhat amusing to have the police once try to usher me out of the anti-Nazi protest I was at and onto "my" side)

I think pink laces with purple tips should mean SG Army rocks!!!

it's late and I'm punchy. please don't be hatin...