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Ian's Shoelace Site
- aidos 3y agoIt’s somewhat buried in there but I’ve been using the Ianknot for near on 20 years now. It’s just a regular knot but it’s faster to tie than anything else. The key detail is to not end up with a granny knot. The way you tie your initial overhand knot needs to match so that it sits correctly and doesn’t come untied. https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/ianknot.htm https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/ianknot.htm https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/grannyknot.htm https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/grannyknot.htm
- jjice 3y agoAgreed. I'm not sure about time ROI vs me learning it but I do get a little kick when people notice how fast I tied my shoes.
- toasteros 3y agoDespite years in the Scouts, both as a participant and a Leader, I am embarrassingly bad at knots. I've always had a terrible time following visual directions given to me by someone trying to teach me a knot, and even worse at following picture guides, videos, gifs etc. I can reliably teach an 8 year old Cub Scout how to do a reef knot and a clovehitch and that's about it. For my shoelaces, I was making two buddy ears and just tying them together. I'd seen the Ian knot in a TED video as well as on this site and just couldn't get it. I tried over and over again only for the laces to flaccidly flop out of my hands, or for me to end up with a simple overhand knot. It struck me one day, like a bolt of lightning, all of a sudden I was able to tie it. And boy am I glad I did. I think I was able to piece together how I needed to avoid a granny knot, but otherwise the inspiration was completely inexplicable. Tying my laces with the Ian knot is such a small thing, but if you piece together enough of those little things your life will change drastically - for the better. If you can only do one thing for yourself this week, learn the Ian knot.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ramidarigaz 3y agoI switched to the secure knot after finding this site a few years ago https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/secureknot.htm https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/secureknot.htm It's really excellent, my shoes never come untied and I don't have to double-knot
- bcjordan 3y agoBeen on the secure knot for nearly two decades. Looks great, perfect amount of grip (never unties) and easy pull to open. Make sure you tie it balanced!
- felixr 3y agoSame here. I always had problems with laces getting undone. Not with this knot.
- jccalhoun 3y agoMe too. It is easy to tie and untie but never comes undone.
- philamonster 3y agoHoly shit. This is what I have been looking for. Have some MTB high-top shoes that have impossible-to-remain-tied laces. This is perfect, thank you.
- mikestew 3y agoI'm more of a Surgeon's Knot[0] guy, myself. Just like a "regular" shoelace knot, with one easy-to-remember twist. I don't recall that knot having ever come loose without my intentional untying. Great for ultramarathons when the last thing I want to do after 40 miles is bend over to tie a shoelace. (Especially if I'm wearing Altra shoes, whose laces I'd swear are coated in Teflon and come undone if I look at them too hard.) [0] https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/surgeonknot.htm https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/surgeonknot.htm
- nicwolff 3y agoI tie it that way too, but as that page points out, it's the same knot: > The whole twisted mess of the previous drawing will rearrange itself into exactly the same finished knot as my Ian's Secure Shoelace Knot.
- supportengineer 3y agoI am impressed. For any human endeavor, there is a passionate community for it.
- fady 3y agoThis guy is super cool. I reached out to him a while back to provide feedback and we ended up chatting back n forth for a few weeks. Hope you're well my friend!
- starshadowx2 3y agoI had the photo of the week here once, back in 2016. I used to love doing different shoelace patterns back when I wore Converse, and this website was the best resource for that. Just checked and another of my photos is one of the Best Of ones, that's neat.
- howinteresting 3y agoI found this site and switched to the secure knot many years ago, and my shoelaces have literally never come undone since. One of those quality of life improvements that I now take for granted.
- lampiaio 3y agoOne of the timeless treasures of the internet for sure. It's a pity that, nowadays, that kind of content is customarily hidden inside the noisy mazes of some unnecessary Discord server or social platform. It's time we stopped calling those aberrations "walled gardens" but rather damp dungeons.
- mesarvagya 3y agoFor people who want to give different knots a try, Ian also has a practical book [1] [1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1402752016 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1402752016
- mcdonje 3y agoI use the Ian Knot. It didn't take too long to get used to and it's nice and quick. Feels like a hack. I recommend it if you have enough extra focus-energy left in your day to put some thought into shoelaces.
- corysama 3y agoI switched to the Ian Fast Knot maybe 15 years ago. Took a few minutes to figure out the motion, but then it's easier than a classic knot. Now I just leave my shoes tied and slip them on and off. The knots come loose once a year or two.
- janvdberg 3y agoSide-note: sites likes these are the old internet that I got to know and love and they embody the spirit of what makes the internet a wonderful place: highly niche sites run by dedicated, passionate people that could only be discovered by word of mouth. This is digital heritage in its purest form.
- Larrikin 3y ago>that could only be discovered by word of mouth This site was one of the top sites on Dogpile and then Google in its heyday. Google was the better search engine when it was new, but it wasn't impossible to find things on the early internet before that unless you knew someone.
- stronglikedan 3y agoI just reverse the starting knot (go under the right lace instead of over) and keep everything else the same. You know you got it right when the loops fall perfectly to each side. It rarely if ever comes undone because it has better physics. And it's only one step to learn differently. There's a name for it, but I forget what it's called.
- s3p 3y agoThis was so cool to see again. As a kid, I couldn't learn how to tie shoes, and it was actually this site (and the Ian knot) that helped me finally learn to tie them. I still tie them this way :)
- dang 3y agoRelated: Ian's Shoelace Site - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35377589 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35377589 - March 2023 (4 comments) Ian Knot (2003) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27728002 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27728002 - July 2021 (66 comments) The “Granny Knot” - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26867300 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26867300 - April 2021 (255 comments) C.I.A. Lacing (2014) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24091391 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24091391 - Aug 2020 (89 comments) Ian Knot - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16454796 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16454796 - Feb 2018 (47 comments) Ian's Shoelace Site - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13399095 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13399095 - Jan 2017 (116 comments) Shoelace knots - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10200917 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10200917 - Sept 2015 (43 comments) Shoe Lacing Methods - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9966073 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9966073 - July 2015 (5 comments) Shoelace Knots - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1914731 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1914731 - Nov 2010 (1 comment) Fast. Easy. Clean. Shoelace Knot. - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1063086 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1063086 - Jan 2010 (41 comments) How to tie world's fastest shoelace knot - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=111756 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=111756 - Feb 2008 (11 comments)
- oalders 3y agoHe also has an iOS app which is pretty helpful. My kid needed to tie her shoes a specific way for marching band and Ian's site + app were really valuable in getting her set up. I got in touch with him afterwards and he was really nice to chat with. Definitely reminds me of the early days of helpful stuff you might find on the web.
- jolfosh 3y agoThis just changed my life forever... I've always been flabbergasted that other people's shoelaces stay tied. Bless your soul for posting this.
- ratsmack 3y ago>My own Ian Knot (yes – I'm the inventor) is the World's Fastest Shoelace Knot. Make a loop with both ends and simultaneously pull them through each other to form an almost instant knot. I doubt he invented that, because I've been tying my shoes with that knot my entire life and I'm 70 years old. My dad showed me this because it's the way he tied his shoes and he was born in 1912.
- GuB-42 3y agoIan probably re-invented it, like many people before him, but unlike your dad, and I guess, many other dads, he made a website, and the website became successful. There are only so many ways to twist a string, and practical knots tend to be simple, knots get reinvented all the time before ending in a book. This is also why there there is no approximation in knox tying. If your knot is slightly different than what's on the book, it is probably another knot (see: square knot, granny knot, thief knot, grief knot), or just a mistake no one bothered to give it a name.
- turtledragonfly 3y agoHere's a nice short TED talk on tying your shoes right: https://www.ted.com/talks/terry_moore_how_to_tie_your_shoes https://www.ted.com/talks/terry_moore_how_to_tie_your_shoes It doesn't use the "Ian's Secure Shoelace Knot", but it shows that for the typical way of tying your shoes, there is a "strong form" and a "weak form", and shows you how to tell the difference. I got lucky and have been tying the strong form my whole life, but it's sorta 50/50 depending on how you learn.
- petree 3y agoI think I first found this site around 2007 or 2008. I've been using Ian's Secure Shoelace Knot ever since.
- Wistar 3y agoI discovered this site two decades or so ago. I used it to teach my then young son—whose name is, appropriately, Ian—how to tie the fast Ian Knot. My spouse, a kindergarten teacher, used it to learn how to tie student's shoes with Ian's Secure Knot which has been very helpful as kid's shoes with conventional knots tend to come untied on the playground. It is sad to see that Ian is struggling to fund the site: https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/support.htm https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/support.htm
- pg_1234 3y agoIt's a handy site, but it's worth noting that; "Ian's Secure Knot" is just a rebranding of a knot that is also known as the "Berluti knot", "Tibetan Trekking Knot", "Sherpa Knot" or the "Double slip knot". It's a great knot, the best way to tie your laces, but spin it as much as you like it's just a bow with a double twist on the second twist, and has existed since long before Ian or Berluti tried to claim it as their own.
- cycomanic 3y agoIt's worth noting that Ian is acknowledging that his not an the Tibetan Trekking Knot are the same (and also the double slit knot). He just says his is a different way of tying it. And I second that it's the best knot for tying laces. Especially if you have synthetic laces (common on some trekking shoes) that come undone easily.
- m463 3y agoI use this knot all. the. time. Wonder if there is a way to get the loops to stay sideways. With thick/stiff laces, they seem to end up orienting themselves up-and-down.
- throwaway61148 3y agoApparently you are making a "granny knot". https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/grannyknot.htm https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/grannyknot.htm
- hinkley 3y agoI used the over under on my boots and slowly converted all of my others over. And the gap lacing for shoes that were just a little too tight (since I started walking more I just went up a half size.).
- blastro 3y agoWhat a wonderful site
- wffurr 3y agoI didn't learn how to tie my shoes correctly until I read this website in my 20s. As a child, I was constantly harangued about keeping my shoes tied, but none of the adults doing the haranguing ever stopped to teach me the difference between a granny knot and a proper square knot. Thanks, Ian, for filling in that gap in my childhood education.
- kazinator 3y agoIronically, granny is the only one left in the family who cares about tying a neat knot.
- gnicholas 3y agoI find the "Ian Knot" works fine for shoelaces, but only if there's a decent amount of excess string. When tying other things (aprons for my kids, drawstrings, etc.), I find that I often have an easier time using the "bunny goes 'round the tree" method, since it requires less excess.
- kazinator 3y agoWhen I wear laced shoes, I tend to lace them like this: https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/pics22/Stb120s.jpg https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/pics22/Stb120s.jpg
- hackerdangluck 3y ago[dead]
- nunez 3y agoThis site's so good. I use the Ian knot every time I wear sneakers. It is, by far, the best knot for keeping shoes tight...but it takes some time to get right.
- arglebargle123 3y agoHey, it's the Ian knot guy! I taught myself the Ian knot like 20y ago and it's one of the best small life skills I've learned. My shoes haven't come untied since. I think I tried to tie a traditional shoelace knot a few years back and I barely remember it.
- perdomon 3y agoI saw someone tie Ian's knot at a running shoe store in Austin, TX six years ago. I assumed I'd never see it again, but here it is. Ian, you brilliant bastard. God bless you.
- xp84 3y agoThe Two Loop Shoelace Knot is something I'll always use. It's especially excellent for using on little kids shoes, which will come untied all the time. This one never comes untied by itself. I actually discovered this stuff via a real-life physical book (complete with practice laces built into the cover!) which was published sometime more than 15 years ago. Edit: Fixed the name of my favorite knot.
- Terr_ 3y agoA similar vein, a few weeks ago: "Animated Knots" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37346115 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37346115 I will also recycle a comment from there: > There's a certain kind of sci-fi premise of "what if every intelligent species has something they're particularly good at." > Naturally, most stories revolve around something impressive (or damning) for humanity like "war" or "kindness", but in the past I've wondered what kind of story one could make if the answer was "knots". > Perhaps that's a question for mathematicians, and whether some facility for topological knot-thinking might be very handy in some kind of physics or engineering.
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- mensetmanusman 3y agoThese will be the missing websites in 50 years if the internet archive dies.
- fussylogic 3y agothey have a cool shoe lacing simulator https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/create-a-lace.htm?p=ONKHCB https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/create-a-lace.htm?p=ONKHCB
- bjackman 3y agoI love that the Ian know exists. But after I learned it I tried it for a while and it didn't stick, I went back to the classic knot I learned as a kid after a week or so. IIRC the reason was "yield" - I found my Ian knots were often wonky. So you save 2-3 seconds but the tradeoff is mental energy for doing "QA" on your shoelace knot! But that was many years ago, I should try again. Maybe you just need more practice.