Lace Tying Hacks & Other Good Tips

We all know how to tie our shoes, but today’s post is going a little more into detail on different techniques that aren’t taught growing up that can make your shoe tying experience a little better. I personally like being able to slip on shoes without spending a lot of time tying them up. Two pieces of footwear that I’ve “turned into” slip-on’s are my slippers and boots from L.L. Bean. You can use this advice on any version similar to what I own.

Let’s start with boots: I love wearing my Bean Boots but found sitting down to tie them a little tedious when I wear them so often. I’ve seen other people tying their boots this way (eastland knot) and decided to try it out, and 2 years later they’re still tied exactly how I did them and they’ve made a huge different in how I wear them. It’s SO easy to just slip them on and off, so I reach for them even more now. No more sitting down and spending time lacing them! I also like the way they look this way better than when I did a traditional shoelace knot on them. Here are helpful instructions on how to do the eastland knot on your boots.

Tips for tying boots:

• Loosen up the laces to the point where you find them easy to slip on and off. They won’t be as tight as if you laced them up each time, but you will hardly notice a difference.
• Start on notch lower than you normally would (see photo) to keep them at that loose point.
• Know that if you keep this tying arrangement for any period of time your laces will probably be bent that way if you undo it. Laces are fairly inexpensive and I found the trade off for this slip on option to outweigh having straight laces later on. So far I haven’t undone them and don’t plan on it!

 

I also own and love the Wicked Good Moccasin slippers, but like most slippers that you tie, they used to come untied constantly and it became annoying. L.L. Bean came out with a how-to video on how to tie them using the seaman’s knot to ensure they don’t come untied too often. It’s pretty easy, and although they do still come untied, it only happens once in awhile and not everyday. You can tell in this photo it’s slightly different than a regular shoelace knot.

 

I tie a regular shoelace knot for my workout shoes, and then “double knot” them so they don’t come undone during my workout. I do, however, sometimes get in the bad habit of just slipping off my workout shoes when I get home instead of untying them. Make sure you always untie your shoes completely to help the laces last longer. The pair above replaced a different pair I had where I kept it tied all the time, and the laces had worn down and the shoes were not very snug when I did use them. I learned my lesson and now take the time to untie everything.

Do you have any shoe tying woes that you’ve solved?

January 16, 2018 by thedressdecoded | 2 Comments