61–70 of 239 posts
I use Ian's (Fast) Knot and that's good enough for me. https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/ianknot.htm
It's also just so simple to learn.
I only realized in my 30s that I had been tying my shoelaces wrong my whole life and a super minor change in my method has changed them from coming undone multiple times per day (unless double knotted), to instead staying tied the whole day with just a standard shoelace knot [0] (also on Ian's site). This article's web page actually has the essential note: > NOTE: If your finished knot comes out crooked (eg. loops po…
You have bad laces. I thought this too before I tried different laces. Turns out different tensions and elasticities give different strengths of knots.
For example I have some military boots which came with slightly stretchy laces. They NEVER come undone, ever. They were the first pair that switched me on to this, and since then I have always bought laces with slight stretch to them, and the knots always stay done up.
In contrast when you buy a pair of fashion trainers, the laces in them are usually terrible and come undone several times per day as you have noted.
Switched to this knot a few years back for any day when we're walking/hiking a lot. I also tie my children's shoes this way if they're having a struggling day. If anyone's playing with this you may find that after you tie the loops together they're sitting funny; you basically have to swap the sides the loops sit on!
https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/secureknottech.htm#observat...
On a related note, I have taken to replacing standard shoelaces on all my shoes as soon as I buy them with these elastic shoelaces with buckles[2]. You don't even have to unbuckle them, basically all your shoes become slip-ons. Probably not applicable if you're playing basketball or running track, but they work fine, look clean, and completely remove the need to ever tie laces. Highly recommend and you can buy them for like $1 each from sites like aliexpress or temu, I'm sure Amazon has them for $7 or so too.
[1] https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/grannyknot.htm
[2] https://www.aliexpress.us/w/wholesale-elastic-shoelaces.html...
I use Ian's (Fast) Knot and that's good enough for me. https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/ianknot.htm
I never taught my children anything but the '(Fast) Ian knot', so they know no other way. They are older now, but when they were younger, they were often the friends of 'first resort' when it came to getting their shoelaces tied when they came undone.
They've also taught many other children 'their way' of tying their shoes.
I should probably donate. It's a small thing, but definitely something that has made our lives (and those around us) better.
I always use this site as a canonical example of The Good Internet. The kind of site that is rare today but used to be most of the internet, and we're all worse off for the change. Lightweight handmade HTML and CSS. Very little JavaScript. The site is fast as hell, instant transition between pages, it'd make a React SPA blush. The URLs don't change. The navigation is familiar and unchanging. Back button works as expe…
I always use this site as a canonical example of The Good Internet. The kind of site that is rare today but used to be most of the internet, and we're all worse off for the change. Lightweight handmade HTML and CSS. Very little JavaScript. The site is fast as hell, instant transition between pages, it'd make a React SPA blush. The URLs don't change. The navigation is familiar and unchanging. Back button works as expe…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Right-over-left, left-over-right, >Makes a knot both tidy and tight. I think I'd find this harder to remember than the principle.
Before your muscle memory is updated, all you need to remember is how to “quality check” the knot when you’re done. If the loops are perpendicular, it’s wrong, they should be aligned with the laces. If it landed up perpendicular, start over (i.e. the part before you make the loops) with doing the opposite of what you did before e.g. right-over-left rather than left-over-right. For me it was very easy to fix the pre-l…
It’s both functional and a great party trick.