Shapers

Pawwed Rig

When I was younger you often heard of people described as Shapers.

Witty Deco could be heard shouting down the bar "Hey buddy, I think you dropped a triangle there ya bleedin shaper" to much mirth and guffawing from Anto and Dano.

I don't think I ever really knew what one was. Can anyone enlighten me?

Princess Calla

A poser.

Walking with a strut.... dropping shapes

Poor Uncle Tom

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058241267/shapers

Can someone point me to the Boards translator......

Pawwed Rig

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118913138#Comment_118913138

Dropping shapes 🤣

What does that even mean?? Do people strut? Other than Liam Gallagher obviously

EmmetSpiceland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118913258#Comment_118913258

Yeah, shapers would be swinging their arms. Throwing “shapes”. You really needed a Scanda jacket with a Ben Sherman shirt to go with the walk.

Mad_maxx

Person with notions

One of the biggest insults when I was a kid was " they think their great "

Princess Calla

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118913258#Comment_118913258

Walking around like a pigeon 🤣🤣

Burt Renaults

Corben Dallas

See also Connor McGregor... :D

Mellor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118913258#Comment_118913258

Well you've just picked a pretty classic example of the 90s shaper strutt. That's exactly what it referred to.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118914211#Comment_118914211

Hmm, I that's quite clearly done as ironic thing, the billi-strutt (see also Vince MacMahon). The 90s shaper was entirely serious.

easygoing39

McGregor walking out of court the other day reminded me of shaper's when I was a kid.He was throwing so many shape's he looked like a game of Tetris!

Crocodile Booze

Look at the dome on yer man throwin shapes. StateOfHim. Wrote-off.

That's what I remember from Finglas in the 80s anyway..

Pawwed Rig

Dome on your man 🤣🤣

I assume that is head?

Any kind of good dancer in a dishco or club was automatically branded a shaper. Only males funnily enough. Girls don't seem to be shapers at all.

Riesen_Meal

Your man over there dropping triangle's to beat the band... 😅

Haven't heard that in a while...

Jim_Hodge

It's a new one in me. Never heard the term before today. It must be a Dub thing that never gained traction.

Pawwed Rig

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118914437#Comment_118914437

Probably. It was common in the working class areas of Dublin in the 90s. I hadn't heard it for years until I heard a junkie in his 40s use it on Talbot Street recently.

Different areas use different words. For example in parts of Ireland sledging is used instead of slagging. I never heard this word outside of boards 😉

Gregor Samsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118913258#Comment_118913258

“RTE are makin' tapes, takin' breaks and throwin' shapes.

This is heaven, this is hell.

Who cares? Who can tell?

(Anyone for the last few Choc Ices, now?)

Oh, Lisdoonvarna (etc., etc.)”

spurious

McGregor would be an example.

Pawwed Rig

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118914460#Comment_118914460

That's right. Never even twigged that it was in that song. Not just a Dublin thing then

HildaOgdenx

Long time since I heard it, but yes, definitely used to use the word shapers, back in the day, in the West.

Very descriptive.

Ash.J.Williams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058241267/shapers

A lad wearing fancy gear that is not in sync with his peers , like the first lad in town with a leather jacket

or a member of a new music or fashion trend that hasn’t caught on in the town yet

a man who can dance

a member of a band playing in the local pub who not only plays the songs but also has the moves

fatherted1969

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118913258#Comment_118913258

Think McGregor and you get the drift

fatherted1969

Think if you looked shaper up in the dictionary you'd find a pic of Conor Mcgregor beside it

Riesen_Meal

Yeah McGregor and his ilk are a good example of "modern shapers"...

Balenciaga shoes and Canada goose jackets to beat the band

EmmetSpiceland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118914457#Comment_118914457

Only ever heard “sledging” used in relation to players winding up, or abusing, opposition players in GAA.

NedsNotDead

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118915229#Comment_118915229

"Sledging" is a fairly common term in Cricket

EmmetSpiceland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118915309#Comment_118915309

It happens in soccer as well. Just trying to get into the head of, or put off, the opposition. Recently enough, Chris Wood of Newcastle kept meowing at West Ham’s Kurt Zouma.

Think there were complaints that it had gone too far a few times in Gaelic football and that’s why it was being discussed on Newstalk’s ‘Off the Ball’ etc. Had never heard the term before that.

SEPT 23 1989

I believe its the Dublin version of the Jamaican Hotstepper

Dial Hard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118914422#Comment_118914422

Incorrect. I was voted "An Shaper is Mó" in the Gaeltacht one year. My prize was a bag of Meanies, which my sister ate on me when I got home.

In my part of Dublin (Templeogue) a shaper wasn't a skanger thing, it was more someone who was confident and not afraid of people looking at them. Someone who considered themselves a good dancer would definitely have fallen into the category, as mentioned above!

corner of hells

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118914675#Comment_118914675

No , if you look up orangutan in a suit , Mc Gregor comes up.

HildaOgdenx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118915756#Comment_118915756

a shaper wasn't a skanger thing, it was more someone who was confident and not afraid of people looking at them. Someone who considered themselves a good dancer would definitely have fallen into the category, as mentioned above!

That would have been the context in the West as well.

BrianD3

Definition might differ somewhat depending on location. Where I'm from, a shape/shaper is a poser. Back in the 1980s when I was a kid, a Shape would have gel in their hair, a tan, designer labels, a confident walk, a BMX with Mag wheels etc.

thefallingman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058241267/shapers

it was always throwing shapes, like posers or charmers if you like, the pigeon pics above are perfect !!

Strumms

It’s was an early to mid ‘90’s thing…a classmate of mine whose aunt became a flight attendant was able to get certain labels on her travels that were not easily attainable here… he’d come to school in a pair of dayglo Reebok pumps, nafnaf jacket, stonewash wrangler jeans two sizes too big and whatever top… the jeans were way too big yet he still had them arranged that the tongue of the pumps would be hanging out.

His ‘supposed’ address was Castleknock but a fella in the class lived near him… “ahhh no he lives beside me, in Blanchardstown”.

He had the look, and that walk….

Sunny Dayz

It was a term I heard in my teens in the midlands late 90's / early 00's. The phrase "King Shaper / Heart Breaker" or "throwing a few shapes". I think it was used to describe a guy who was good looking but he knew it,, a guy who was (over) confident in himself, a guy who knew some moves - dancing or otherwise! It wasn't really a negative comment IMO.

seamus

The term "shaper" came from "shaping up", as in when a fight is brewing and two lads are squaring up to eachother. If either one of them was bouncing around the place, fists up and such, he was "throwin' shapes".

When you had one gobshite going around doing a McGregor/Gallagher-style walk in an attempt to look cool or intimidating, he was shaping up to everyone, and thus he was "throwin' shapes everywhere", making it look like he wanted someone to start on him.

This then evolved into "shaper" to describe anyone doing one of these stupid walks anywhere. A couple of times I'd heard this used to describe posers in general, but in general it was mostly the Liam Gallagher-style gobsh1tes.

iamstop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118913138#Comment_118913138

'Throwin' shapes' is what is was out our way.