The Flying Shoes

When an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at George W. Bush in 2008, western journalists were quick to ask about the ethnographic explanation of shoe-throwing in the Arab culture. The western gestural vocabulary for public displeasure appears to be limited to rotten eggs, soft fruits, custard pie and more recently, green slime. But throwing shoes? Western media sought anthropologists for answers to the unfamiliar gesture. Although with all honesty, does one really need an ethnographic reference to understand why an Iraqi journalist would launch his shoes to the unpopular US president? Bush could only thank his lucky stars there is no chair-throwing tradition in Baghdad.

Model 271 aka 'Bye Bye Bush'

Muntazar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who lobbed his shoes at Bush, was unfortunately sentenced to three years in prison despite missing his target. The recorded incident was played in YouTube millions of times around the world and it became a modern symbol of the Arab world’s disrespect and defiance to the US. Bush may have dodged Zaidi’s shoes but one can only imagine that he was shaken despite appearing casual and unperturbed after the incident. There is no doubt he will always remember Zaidi’s clear message to him on that fateful day in Baghdad: “This is a gift from the Iraqis. This is the farewell kiss, you dog!”

It also comes in brown, camel and sand

Overwhelming interests in Zaidi’s pair of shoes reached far and wide too. In fact they were treated more heroically than the thrower. An Iranian Ayatollah even demanded that the shoes be preserved and placed in a museum. There was also a wealthy Saudi businessman who offered to buy the shoes for $10 million for its “high moral value”. Unfortunately, the shoes were dismantled and destroyed when police inspected it for hidden explosives. The Arab world was dismayed over the loss of the iconic shoes. But only until the enterprising shoe manufacturer of the famous footwear came to the public and re-produced thousands for posterity.

Proud shoemaker Ramazan Baydan

Ramazan Baydan is a shoemaker from Istanbul and the owner of Baydan Shoes, the manufacturer of Zaidi’s pair. His factory shoe designer personally identified the shoes as Model 271 after repeated viewing of the footage. The designer was so convinced; he left no room for doubt, "How could I mistake my own model? It's like my child".  Riding the bandwagon of Model 271, Baydan renamed the model as the 'Bye Bye Bush' shoes. In an interview a year after the shoe-throwing incident, Baydan have hired 25 extra workers and have produced half a million pairs to cope with the demand for the iconic shoes.  His online website has been receiving orders from Europe, Asia, Australia and America. By the way it is going, there is no stopping in seeing 'Bye Bye Bush' from the streets of Baghdad to Bristol to Baltimore or even in Brisbane.  Despite its success, Bayden  innocently insisted that he was not aware of the Arab shoe-throwing tradition. There is no such culture in Turkey, apparently. However,  Bayden attributed another reason for the popularity of Zaidi's shoes: “It is a good shoe. It was not designed for aerodynamics but if you throw it well, it will fly well.”