Ian's Shoelace Site - Shoelace Tips for Everyone

There's some shoelace tips that apply to everyone, young and old alike. This section contains general tips about shoelace comfort, security, appearance, and getting them to the right length.

Lacing for Comfort

Minimize the pressure points cased by hard, round shoelaces by replacing them with soft, flat shoelaces.
Also for comfort, Criss Cross Lacing minimizes pressure points.
To reduce the pressure of shoelaces on the upper ridge of the foot, use Straight (Bar) Lacing.
To allow the sides of boots to flex more easily, use Army Lacing.

Preventing Shoelaces Coming Undone

Check that you're not inadvertently tying an un-balanced "Granny Knot", which comes undone much more easily.
Learn a more secure knot, such as Ian's Secure Shoelace Knot.
Regardless of the knot used, finish it off by pulling the knot nice and tight.
Replace slippery synthetic shoelaces with ones made of cotton or other natural fibers.
Roughen up shoelaces with some coarse sandpaper to make them less slippery.
Apply a product to the surface of the shoelace to enhance the grip, like beeswax, rubber cement or a specialist product like Lace-Stick®.
Ensure that the shoelaces aren't too long, either by replacing them or by shortening them to the correct length. Besides the obvious fact that long loops or ends are more likely to be either snagged or stepped on, the fact that they flop aound more also tends to work the knot loose.

Excessively Long Shoelaces

To avoid stepping on excessively long loops, tuck them under the crossovers of lacing down the middle of the shoe.
Use two or more successive Ian Knots, as shown on my Double Ian Knot page. This works well, though it looks a bit ridiculous and can be fickle to un-tie.
Adopt a different lacing pattern, such as Spider Web Lacing, Ladder Lacing or Double Back Lacing, all of which use much more lace.
Artificially shorten the shoelaces as follows: Lace the shoes on your feet, then adjust the end lengths to a reasonable length (about 250mm) by pulling the excess lace back through the eyelets until all the excess is sitting at the bottom of the shoe (ie. the grey area in my lacing diagrams). Tie a knot at that point to keep the excess down there.
If the laces are way too long, you can cut out a section and re-join the two ends of lace. This can be done with a simple Reef Knot, or flat laces can be either sewn or glued together, whilst synthetic laces can even be melted together.
The ultimate solution is to shorten the shoelaces to the correct length by cutting off the ends, then replacing the aglets (the plastic tips) as per my Aglet Repair section.

Excessively Short Shoelaces

Whilst there's no substitute for replacing shoelaces that are too short with ones of the correct length, here's some great emergency measures, especially if one lace end has broken at short notice and there's no ready replacement.

Adopt a different lacing pattern such as Army Lacing or Bow Tie Lacing, which uses less lace.
Re-lace the shoes, skipping the bottom pair of eyelets, or more if the lace ends are really short.
Tie a Reef Knot, which is basically a Standard Shoelace Knot minus the loops and drawstrings. This means that it looks different to a regular "bow", and it also uses a slightly different method of untying.

Shoelaces Worn In Icy Conditions

To prevent shoelaces icing up and becoming stiff as wire, take them off and soak them in a waterproofing solution (such as "Nixwax") and wipe off the excess. Once dry they will have a slightly waxy feel but will still hold a knot properly, especially if you also adopt the Ian's Secure Shoelace Knot.
For those who wear crampons (spiked fittings for walking on snow or ice), Hiking / Biking Lacing can be worn with the loops to the outside, further away from snagging in the spikes of the adjacent foot.

Got any other great shoelace tips worth sharing? If so, I'd love to hear from you!

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