7 ms·
> 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.
by phaemon 10y ago
> 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 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 10y agoThe 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 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.
- chrisseaton 10y agoI don't get it - both of these knots seem to be identical to the standard shoelace knot, just illustrated differently.
- wccrawford 10y agoFrom 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 10y agoDo people's laces wear out? That's not a problem I've ever experienced.
- greenshackle2 10y agoLaces on my boots wear out.
- to3m 10y agoI'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__ 10y agoI 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!
- pkolaczk 10y agoYes, this! And this happens particularly often, when you use standard cotton laces which make knots harder to accidentally undo. The synthetic ones last much longer, but are slippery and easy to untie.
- mark-r 10y agoIf 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.
- EvilTerran 10y agoHeat-shrink tubing is perfect for replacing shoelace ends, if you happen to have some lying around (or have a friend who tinkers with electronics you can blag a bit off).
- mark-r 10y agoNice idea, if the color works for you. Edit: I see it comes in clear, which would be perfect. I'll have to pick me up some of that.
- cardiffspaceman 10y agoAs 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.
- dllthomas 10y agoAdd me to the pile of people who have experienced this problem more than once.
- coldtea 10y agoYes. I've had lots of laces wear out, especially the plasticky end parts.
- cardigan 10y agoFun fact: those plasticky end parts are called aglets Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evcsj1gx1CE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evcsj1gx1CE (I didn't forget it)
- astrodust 10y agoIt 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.
- lacampbell 10y agoYeap - 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 10y agoYeah, 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.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- SamBam 10y agoNo, 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 http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/ianknot.htm 2. Secure: http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/secureknot.htm 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 10y agoIf 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.
- tmaly 10y agoThese 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.
- fbonetti 10y agoThat looks very similar to the handcuff knot
- hangonhn 10y agoI 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 10y agoYoung children have poor finger dexterity making this knot untenable. You can go even further with this knot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm5ItoIJ4sg 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.
- tbirdz 10y agoI've been using this knot for 8 years, and it hasn't come untied on me once! I'd highly recommend it.
- cema 10y agoThis 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 10y agoYep, sure is. He addresses that on the knot's Technical Info page: http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/secureknottech.htm http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/secureknottech.htm
- barrkel 10y agoHow do you take your shoes off without untying the knot?
- dahart 10y agoI 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 10y agoIt 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?
- flnz 10y agothank 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.
- spatulon 10y agoI 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 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.
- RBerenguel 10y agoI 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".
- snerbles 10y agoI don't have to practice wearing loafers.
- torrent-of-ions 10y agoMore 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 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 10y agoWow, 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!
- vaughngh 10y agoBeen using this for years, symmetric knots ftw!
- DonHopkins 10y agoI guess you're not a Perl programmer, otherwise you'd be using duct tape instead of shoe laces.