[phaemon]

> Join me next week for the exciting sequel to this post, "I've been tying my shoelaces wrong all these years".

Probably. Use the Ian Knot: http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/ianknot.htm

Seriously, spend 20 mins practising this, and you'll never go back to the clumsy old way again.

[Bognar]

The Ian Knot is quick, but as someone who never ties their shoes and just slips them on and off, I much prefer Ian's Secure Knot: http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/secureknot.htm

I usually tie this knot twice over the lifetime of a pair of shoes. Once when I get them, and once more when they're worn in and need to be tightened.

[hangonhn]

I preach this knot to everyone I can. I'm a runner and a running coach. I've run literally thousands of miles (approaching 10,000 at this point) with this knot and it has NEVER come undone.

The really nice thing about this knot is that it looks really nice too so you can use them on both running shoes and dress shoes.

It makes no sense to teach the more common shoe tying knots.

[Retric]

Young children have poor finger dexterity making this knot untenable.

You can go even further with this knot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm5ItoIJ4sg Which is a slow and poor knot but you can do it with even one finger on each hand.

[chrisseaton]

I don't get it - both of these knots seem to be identical to the standard shoelace knot, just illustrated differently.

[wccrawford]

From the site:

"The finished "Ian Knot" is identical to either the Standard Shoelace Knot or the Two Loop Shoelace Knot. Because it was tied much more quickly and symmetrically, the laces suffer less wear and tear and thus last longer."

[chrisseaton]

Do people's laces wear out? That's not a problem I've ever experienced.

[to3m]

I've had a shoelaces break maybe 3-4 times on shoes I wore regularly for more than 2-3 years. It's annoying out of all proportion to the expense involved.

(The plastic bits at the end can also get frayed and fall off, which happens more quickly, but I'm not sure knot style has much to do with that.)

[__david__]

I think it's so annoying because of the timing. I've never had one break when untying the knot or when just walking around. It's always while tying it which means I was just about to leave and now life has thrown a monkey wrench into my plans. Depending on how close I am cutting things, this may be an event that makes me late. Grrrrrr. Stupid shoelace!

[mark-r]

If the plastic bit at the end falls off, just cut off the frayed part and dip the end into molten wax from a candle. I can't say I've tried it yet though, even that's so much trouble that I just live with the frayed end.

[astrodust]

It depends on the type of eyelets you have, your shoelaces, and how tightly you lace your shoes.

Some eyelets are basically razor blades, they have very sharp edges, and tight tugging can cause wear in a very narrow spot.

[cardiffspaceman]

As a kid I wore canvas sneakers most of the time. I laced them every day. The shoes would outlast the laces even though eventually I would outgrow the shoes. Since I didn't have a personal assistant to get me new laces, I often had to tie the shoes differently so that the laces would still work in some fashion. On high top sneakers, sometimes I'd lace them approximately as low top sneakers, but with a really economical knot. The main point of wear was the point where the lace went through the top eyelets.

[lacampbell]

Yeap - a bit of my shoe lace broke just after tying them once on a work morning. I had to run to catch a bus, but instead I stood on my shoe lace mid stride, fell and slid across a petrol station driveway. Spent the bus ride trying not to bleed on the seats and had to apply disinfectant and remove stones from the flesh wound at work.

Anyway it was embarrassing but it taught me a valuable lesson - shoe laces can wear out and break.

[wccrawford]

Yeah, it happens to shoes that are kept a long time.

However, I remain unconvinced that the wear pattern matters this much. It seems to me that an alternative would be to re-lace your shoes every year, flipping sides. Then the pattern would be more even, too. And probably still a waste of time and effort.

[coldtea]

Yes. I've had lots of laces wear out, especially the plasticky end parts.

[cardigan]

Fun fact: those plasticky end parts are called aglets

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evcsj1gx1CE (I didn't forget it)

[dllthomas]

Add me to the pile of people who have experienced this problem more than once.

[greenshackle2]

Laces on my boots wear out.

[SamBam]

No, the Ian's Secure Shoelace Knot is different. If you look at the very final photographs of both, you'll see that on the regular knot (tied either the standard way or the fast way) there's only a single vertical piece of lace right at the very front, but in the secure knot there are two.

1. Regular (tied in the fast way): http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/ianknot.htm

2. Secure: http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/secureknot.htm

Try the secure knot. It's basically like the bunny-ears way of tying a regular knot (where you hold both bunny-ears and slip one under the other), but you leave the hole open and slip the second back under the first as well.

It's much more secure than a double-knot, in my experience, and looks a lot nicer. But I still can't instinctually do it -- it takes me an extra couple of seconds each time.

[Pinckney]

If you pull the loops of a standard shoelace knot, you wind up with a square knot. Do the same with Ian's secure shoelace knot and you wind up with a surgeon's knot.

[cema]

This is the double slip knot, I think. I have recently started using it (the standard knot is going loose too fast the way I wear my shoes) and will never go back to the standard knot. Just so good.

[Bognar]

Yep, sure is. He addresses that on the knot's Technical Info page: http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/secureknottech.htm

[tmaly]

These look like variations on the square knot. How is he the inventor? I was looking at a field scout manual dated 1948 the other night where they have this same knot.

[tbirdz]

I've been using this knot for 8 years, and it hasn't come untied on me once! I'd highly recommend it.

[barrkel]

How do you take your shoes off without untying the knot?

[fbonetti]

That looks very similar to the handcuff knot

[torrent-of-ions]

More importantly, make sure your starting knot and main knot are correct with respect to each other. When I learnt the Ian knot, I later learnt that I'd been tying my shoes using a "granny knot": http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/grannyknot.htm If you are doing this, the easiest thing to do is reverse your starting knot; relearning the main knot is going to be much harder.

Since learning the Ian knot (and correct starting knot) I can honestly say I enjoy tying my shoes every day and relish the opportunity to tie a bow at any other time.

[schoen]

Wow, after reading that page I realized that I did this all throughout elementary school and middle school, which explains why my shoelaces would come undone all the time.

I use the "Two Loop Shoelace Knot Bad Technique 1" from that page.

In recent years I've been wearing shoes with a different fastening mechanism, but I have to tie some dress shoes for a wedding tomorrow, so this is very timely knowledge!

[dahart]

I wasn't given the attribution when I heard about this, it's nice to see the face behind it. Not sure I can even tie my shoes the old way anymore, I've never done it once since learning Ian's knot. Every once in a while someone observant will see me doing it and say, "whoa, WHAT?" I do get a kick out of telling people I re-learned how to tie my shoes on the internet.

[kutkloon7]

It seems to be almost the same as the traditional method to me, since the crossing of the laces seems to cost about 50% of the time. It gets a lot better when you leave the crossing in. Edit: Apparently, there also is a routine to get the crossing in a nice, fast way, it just wasn't included in the pictures :)

More importantly, I can't seem to get a Ian's knot very tight. Does this get better over time?

[RBerenguel]

I prefer the double slipknot (mentioned below as Ian's Secure Knot). I started doing it for basketball, but it not only looks better (more even) on normal, dress shoes, but it neves come off on its own (but is easy to pull apart voluntarily). Also, it's not more complicated than a normal knot, it's more or less doing it "twice, in reverse".

[spatulon]

I love that method, and have used it exclusively for years, but the best thing about Ian's site is the explanation of the Granny Knot: http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/grannyknot.htm

So many people walk around assuming they need to do complicated double knots to stop their shoelaces untying themselves. If only they knew they were doing Granny Knots, and that a standard knot is perfectly secure if tied properly.

[flnz]

thank you for this link. I didn't know about this website and I find it amazing. I just upgraded my shoes to a Secure Knot.

[DonHopkins]

I guess you're not a Perl programmer, otherwise you'd be using duct tape instead of shoe laces.

[vaughngh]

Been using this for years, symmetric knots ftw!

[snerbles]

I don't have to practice wearing loafers.