The Perfect Knot

How many times have you had to bend down in the most inopportune of times and places to retie your shoelaces? If you do a lot of walking and you own any other shoes besides Crocs and/or sandals (although I do hope that having come across my blog means you are not among that kind of people), the answer should be many, many annoying times. 

I used to be very annoyed with having to tie and retie my shoelaces (especially those of my boat shoes) over and over again each day, until I mustered enough angst and googled my way out of this problem. I was lucky enough to stumble upon Ian's Shoelace Site which I also referenced in my previous shoelace post, Spiraling Shoelaces.

Ian features many shoelace knots on his website, however when it comes to simplicity and reliability, his own creation, Ian's Knot stands out the most. While it took a little while to get used to tying my shoelaces this way, it definitely paid off and I now only have to tie them one time only, when I put my shoes on in the morning.

Ladies and gents, I give you Ian's Knot. Use it if you are also encumbered by your slipper shoelaces and let me know by means of comments if you know of any other good shoelace knots!

Spiraling Shoelaces

Make a tepee. Come inside.
 Pull down tight so we can hide.
Around the mountain... here we go!
 Here's my arrow. Here's my bow.

We seldom think of what ties everything together in our daily tribulations yet it is what unifies almost all shoes on this earth. While there are almost 2 trillion ( that's 2,000,000,000,000) possible mathematical combinations of lacing a shoelace, practically there are only around 43,200 ways of tying the lace for he average 12 inlet shoe.


For some, tying their laces has become a form of expressing themselves while for others it's nothing more than a hassle. Here's a couple of the most interesting patterns around:

In practicality, most of us desire a more traditional pattern that channels sobriety and not the childish stereotype that funky shoelaces and shoelace patterns bring. To that end, Ian from Ian's Shoelace Site (yep, there's a website for everything nowadays) catalogues the different patterns on his website depending on simplicity, comfort, neatness and whether or not one pattern wears the shoe out more than others.


These are of few favourites of Ian and myself:



1. The Over-and-Under Lace

The alternating over and under pattern looks great on a pair of Converse although you shouldn't be afraid of straying away from the white shoelace. You can find the pattern and how to tie it here.


2. The Criss-Cross


The Criss-cross is the most common of patterns and is also one of the most comfortable as the crossover of laces takes place in the gap between the sides of the shoe. You can find the pattern and how to tie it here. 






3. The Ladder-Lacing


This pattern goes very well with boots and is often used by ceremonial guards, ice-skaters and paratroopers. The higher the boot the better this pattern looks. The pattern and how to tie it can be found here.





4. The Footbag Lacing


To end this post on shoelaces, I've chosen the Footbag Lace, designed to facilitate the catching of the ball in Footbag games. I personally think it works great on ankle-high Suede boots as well. Try it out and shoot me with a comment or a picture.