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Shoelace knots
- joe5150 11y agoI really appreciate this guy's devotion to shoelace tying, and I especially appreciate that this is the website where I figured out how to tie my shoes so that the laces lay horizontally rather than heel to toe. All my life nobody had ever explained to me that there was an order to tying shoelaces that would result in one or the other.
- sp332 11y agoUgh, I was so mad when I found that out! I still have to stop and think about it because I learned it the wrong way when I was little. (Just reverse the first part of the knot left-over-right or right-over-left and you will get tight, flat laces or floppy laces that point heel-to-toe.)
- c17r 11y agoI was a Boy Scout and was (still am) a big fan of knots. But it never dawned on me until this site that the "bunny ears" method is just a square knot with ripcords.
- kbutler 11y agoWe often teach Boy Scouts that tying their shoelaces correctly (a square knot) leaves the laces across the shoes, but if they go lengthwise along the shoe, it's a granny...
- brianpan 11y agoI've been tying Ian's "world's fastest shoelace knot" for a few years now. It took me about a week or two to get comfortable with it and it really is amazingly fast. It's interesting to experience your brain relearning a habit that has become so ingrained. Reminds me of the Smarter Everyday backward bike episode [1]. In fact, I just tried to tie my old 2 loop knot and accidentally tied Ian's knot again. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0
- andrewingram 11y agoI've been using it for years too. I like deliberately boring someone by asking them if they want to see me tie my laces. Then I do it, and they're like "wait, let me see that again..."
- hudibras 11y agoI'm also a big Ian knot fan. Saves me two seconds per shoe, that's four seconds per day, 1460 seconds a year, so over the next 50 years that's 20 fewer hours tying my shoes. Boom, LIFEHACK! Seriously, it's a fun knot to tie and never comes undone.
- danielbln 11y agoIt's not just faster, it also holds all day. My old nots had to be redone at least once per day.
- tzs 11y agoInteresting video. I'm somewhat surprised no one has been hurt trying it out at his lectures, though. In some of the clips, the challengers seemed close enough to the edge of the raised stage that with a little bad luck it looked like they could have rolled off the stage or fallen sideways off it. There are a couple followups that would be interesting. 1. Try this on a tricycle. On a tricycle you steer in the turn direction and do not need to lean, as opposed to a bike where your counter-steer and lean. It would be interesting to see if that less complicated steering interaction would make it easier or quicker to adapt. 2. Try on a bicycle with training wheels, adjusted so you can still lean but aren't going to actually fall over. (This is important because if you can't lean the training wheels have essentially made the bike into a trike and so the experiment has been reduced to #1). The idea here is that in most of his videos people were failing very fast. They might not be getting a long enough ride each time to provide enough examples of control actions and responses for their brain to learn much. Perhaps the training wheels would provide longer trials, giving the brain a lot more to work with.
- dewarrn1 11y agoGreat example of catastrophic interference [0] in the brain! And I like Destin's stuff, but disregard the pop-neuroscience. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catastrophic_interference https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catastrophic_interference
- ksenzee 11y agoI taught Ian's Fast Shoelace Knot to my 91-year-old grandmother a while back, when I first ran into this site. She liked it well enough that she still ties her shoes that way. It's a nifty knot.
- minikites 11y agoThe secure shoelace knot is delightful: http://fieggen.com/shoelace/secureknot.htm http://fieggen.com/shoelace/secureknot.htm
- bhrgunatha 11y agoYes, I use this regardless now. It seems these days most shoes I've bought have shoelaces with less surface friction and come undone really easily.
- RBerenguel 11y agoYes, I learnt it for my basketball shoes and it spread to all my tying. Awesome
- baldfat 11y agoAs a teacher of 250 3-5 year old students every week I tie 25+ knots a week. This knot has saved all my fellow teachers a ton of time. Seems like they make shoe laces that are slick and won't hold a knot no matter what. Now I tie this once and that is it for the rest of the day.
- AbbasHaiderAli 11y agoThis knot is one of the top 10 things I learned online that I share with people. And they share it with their friends, teach their kids, who tell their friends, and so on. It still comes up as a random topic of conversation at every conference I go to where I see someone retying their slippery laces.
- sp332 11y agoAnd don't miss the Lacing Shoes part of the site. http://fieggen.com/shoelace/lacing.htm http://fieggen.com/shoelace/lacing.htm There's a section at the bottom of the comparison page for solving shoe problems by lacing them differently.
- filoeleven 11y agoReminds me of the TED talk on how to tie your shoes. I was surprised to learn I've been doing it wrong for a quarter century. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAFcV7zuUDA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAFcV7zuUDA
- deathanatos 11y agoI never managed to learn that method. My father tried to teach me, and I just never could memorize it. He's also left-handed, which I think complicated it. The square knot is basic knot tied between two rope ends; the first half of it is much like the first half of the shoe's knot. You then repeat the first half, but swapping which end is on top. Like the shoelace knot, if you do it right, it stays inline (and remains symmetrical and pretty); if you do it wrong, it gets ugly. Really (at least to me) this is because the shoelaces knot is a square knot; the "bunny ears" are simply added slipknots to make it easier to untie your shoe. But I've never seen the "standard" method taught to tie a square knot, likely because I've never seen the square knot taught with slip knots; those just being something you add if you want them. Which is how I tie my shoes; I use what the article calls the "two loop knot"[1]. Two methods, same knot, though I always thought my way was the standard, not my dad's. Oh well. [1]http://fieggen.com/shoelace/twoloopknot.htm http://fieggen.com/shoelace/twoloopknot.htm
- johal2 11y agoBut he should have told people to change the initial knot and not the "bow" - same result but way easier to learn.
- mc808 11y agoI'm still waiting for the patent to expire so I can try this knot: http://www.google.com/patents/US5997051 http://www.google.com/patents/US5997051 (I just noticed it says the fee has lapsed. Does that imply it's free to use?)
- yitchelle 11y agoWhy would anyone patent a shoe tying knot? a serious question.
- slaxman 11y agoIan's Secureknot (http://fieggen.com/shoelace/secureknot.htm http://fieggen.com/shoelace/secureknot.htm) is my favourite. I never again had to stop running during a marathon to re-tie my laces.
- xwintermutex 11y agoI think that learning of (and avoiding) the Granny Knot [1] is the best I ever learned about shoelace knots. If your shoelaces occasionally get loose while walking, check it. [1] http://fieggen.com/shoelace/grannyknot.htm http://fieggen.com/shoelace/grannyknot.htm
- pmarin 11y agoA month ago I had to use the Spider Web Lacing[1] because my new Reeboks had ridiculously long laces[2]. [1] http://fieggen.com/shoelace/spiderweblacing.htm http://fieggen.com/shoelace/spiderweblacing.htm [2] http://fieggen.com/shoelace/excesslength.htm http://fieggen.com/shoelace/excesslength.htm
- micheljansen 11y agoIt took me until my mid twenties to discover that the reason my shoelaces would sometimes come undone, is because there is a "right" and "wrong" way to do the Standard Shoelace Knot. Doing it wrong results in the "Granny Knot": http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/grannyknot.htm http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/grannyknot.htm
- Intermernet 11y agoAs it hasn't been mentioned yet, I thought I'd point out Ian's book "Laces"[1]. I bought it for a friend of mine who collects sneakers and ended up re-lacing most of my shoes before giving the book to him. >"Laces" comes with color-coded laces that match the lacing diagrams, and has an "interactive" front cover that can be used as a practice shoe. The pages are filled with trendy looking shoes laced in amazing patterns. Out of print, but worth it if you can get hold of a copy![2] [1]: http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/iansbook.htm http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/iansbook.htm [2]: http://www.amazon.com/Laces-100s-Ways-Pimp-Kicks/dp/1402752016 http://www.amazon.com/Laces-100s-Ways-Pimp-Kicks/dp/14027520...
- JulianMorrison 11y agohttp://fieggen.com/shoelace/secureknot.htm http://fieggen.com/shoelace/secureknot.htm will hold your laces ties where a standard knot will work itself undone. This is particularly useful for round, synthetic laces. Takes longer, though.
- FroshKiller 11y agoI use this knot. My wife makes fun of me for taking so long to tie it.
- Bognar 11y agoI use this knot once every few years - when I get new shoes or new laces. This knot is so amazingly strong that I only ever tie it once, then I just slip my shoes on and off.
- GnarfGnarf 11y agoI love this knot! I learned it a few years ago, and my shoelaces never, ever get untied accidentally. It has improved my life.
- wspeirs 11y agoI'm honestly not trying to take anything away from Ian, but he didn't "invent" the "Ian knot", just renamed the handcuff knot: http://www.animatedknots.com/handcuff/ http://www.animatedknots.com/handcuff/
- andrewla 11y agoYou should take a closer look. The so-called "Ian knot" is not a distinct knot; it is just a different way of tying the standard bowknot. It is definitely not the handcuff knot.
- toolslive 11y agoI've been using the 'ninja' for years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt3dHE6-dYg&gl=BE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt3dHE6-dYg&gl=BE
- kak9 11y agoWish he would also put how easy they are to untie. I've realized that the ideal knot is optimizing not just how secure the knot is and how fast to tie it. But also how fast to untie it, which is often anti-correlated with how secure it is.
- fho 11y agoLate to the party ... but this is really one of the things that makes the little things in life a little easier. Found Ians site about a year ago and spend some time after that convincing people that they have been tying their shoes wrong their whole lifes. Was met with much skepticism, but ultimately most of them tried and never looked back. There is still one guy who "praises" me for showing him how to tie his shoes because before he had to retie his shoes several times a day. I followed Ians suggestions and use the "fastest knot" on a daily basis. For hiking and sometimes also for running I use the secure knot, mostly because the fast one actually can become undone on very slippy laces. TL;DR: Knots are great, rethink your habits from time to time