Opinion
19 October 2015
Opinion: A lifehack for tying shoes
Say goodbye to loose ends with these tricks.
I never thought I’d say changing how I lace my shoes would significantly improve my life … but it has! Earlier this year, I bought a new pair of Nikes, but the cable-style laces kept coming undone. My new shoes became annoying to wear and stayed beside the front door more than they stayed on my feet.
Then I happened upon a solution: Ukrainian Lacing and the Ian Knot.
Most people tie their shoes the way they were taught as children. But knots vary and, depending on the shoe and the laces, the knot you usually tie might not always be the best option. Choosing the wrong knot can cause laces to untie themselves and bows to lie vertically along the shoe rather than across it.
Ukrainian Lacing is a partial solution, without even needing to create a knot. There’s a great Instructables post on how to do this. Essentially, where you’d normally lace your shoes from the bottom (closest to the toe) to the top (closest to the tongue), with Ukrainian Lacing you start at the top and end at the bottom. Then, instead of tying a knot with loose ends, you knot each lace separately and hide them under the upper.
The biggest “trick” to this method is putting a half knot at the top, between the first and second eyelets. This gives you two loops with which to create a full knot.
This is where you use the Ian Knot, the “world’s fastest shoelace knot”. Named after its creator, Ian “Professor Shoelace” Fieggen, the Ian Knot basically takes both loops and passes them through each other.
Once mastered, it can be done in half the time of a regular knot. And it really holds!
My shoelaces, which previously lasted two to three hours before coming undone, now stay tight all day. But the beauty of combining it with Ukrainian Lacing is should the knot come undone, the shoes stay on and there are no loose lace ends flapping about.
About the author:
Hadyn Green is a geek. He loves shiny new tech and the chance to try to break it. Because it’s the kind of thing people ask, here is the tech Hadyn currently uses. Phone: iPhone 6. Tablet: iPad Air 2. Streaming Music: Spotify. Headphones: Beats Powerbeats Wireless 2 (for the gym) and Beats Studio noise-cancelling (for sitting at my desk and tuning out the world). E-Reader: Kindle Touch. Gaming: PS4, PS3, Xbox One and Xbox 360. Internet Service Provider: Snap.
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