How To Keep Round Laces Tied

How long take you been tying your own shoelaces? I'grand willing to bet that it'south been for well-nigh as long every bit yous tin remember. Me too. As well a scary few hours in my second grade classroom when I legitimately forgot how to wrangle those darn noodles, I've been tying a bow at the base of my ankles for essentially my whole life.

If this is a shoelace emergency, skip to step 5 below to larn the secret to a superior shoelace knot.

Permit's do some math

How many knots is that? Allow's estimate: 2 knots per day (a wildly conservative estimate) multiplied by roughly 27 years of tying shoes, minus viii years (2 years of wearing slip-ons in high school, 2 years of cumulative Croc time, and 4 years of flip-bomb living in San Diego). That math shakes out to an about certainly inaccurate 13,870 knots. Right or incorrect, that is a big number, and even if information technology is wrong, I retrieve that the right number is also a big number.

Who cares about shoelaces?

Why does this matter? Well, permit me tell you that it almost certainly doesn't matter. We tie our shoes a lot, that'southward all I'one thousand trying to say.

The Kendall Katwalk on the Percentage in Washington would be a bad place to trip over a shoelace.

What does thing is that many of us tie our shoes more than we accept to. When shoelaces piece of work themselves loose, at best, retying them is a mild inconvenience. At worst, they go unsafe tripping hazards. When hiking or backpacking, the annoyance and/or danger of loose shoelaces is inflated past uneven, and potentially consequential terrain similar cliffs, streams, pits of toxicant oak, and skull-cracking rocks.

Shoelaces are difficult: A lifetime of learning

For most of my life, I tied my shoes all wrong. Passed down in my family through generations, the technique I was taught resulted in the weak and unreliable 'granny knot'. It has the look and feel of the standard 'bunny rabbit knot', just it sits twisted on the shoe and works itself untied with regularity. Shoelace good, Ian Fieggen, estimates that upwards to l% of shoelace users unknowingly default to this inferior knot. (If you are unsure of whether or not you tie a granny knot, try Ian's knot analyzer for an authentic diagnosis)

The lowly granny knot. Run across how the bow sits vertically. It'due south a certain sign of a weak and unreliable knot.

Considering of my poor training, I suffered from chronically untied shoes for years before discovering the 'double knot', which kept my shoes tied tightly, but fabricated untying them a hated chore. Still, I idea that I was on the cutting edge, using the best bachelor technology of the times. This was the '90s after all. Nosotros had Gameboy Color, Dippin' Dots, and Razor scooters. Humanity had peaked.

One-time in college I learned the truth — in that location was a better mode. Flabbergasted and emboldened, I eagerly adopted the modest tweak in technique needed to transform my weak granny into a strong bunny. An unrecognized source of discontent within me dissolved overnight. Aside from anomalous encounters with football game cleats while playing ultimate frisbee, my shoelaces remained securely knotted all 24-hour interval. When I needed to air out my tootsies, all it took was a single tug on the loose end and I was free. I was finally living the dream. I lived in a globe with the Nintendo Wii, cronuts, and Taylor Swift later all. And then, in 2022, I hiked the Percentage…

The archetype bunny rabbit knot. Good for just about everything except for hiking.

A knot worthy of the PCT

What I discovered between Mexico and Canada was that for people who walk far — hikers, backpackers, thru-hikers — even the bunny rabbit isn't enough. Plants pry, shrubbery scratches, rocks rub. My mighty bunny rabbit couldn't keep my shoes tied between breaks.

Afterwards lamenting about this issue during a telephone conversation with my brother, he mentioned a solution, which I promptly forgot (a phone conversation is no fourth dimension to draw different knots). Nevertheless, when my good friend joined me to hike the section north of Crater Lake, he brought with him the well-nigh ultralight piece of gear available: wisdom. The same wisdom my blood brother tried to impart 1,000 miles earlier.

Like the transition from granny to bunny, this knot tweak was a minor reworking rather than a total teardown. And information technology worked. An extra wrap was all information technology took to brand my shoelace knot thru-hike proof, all while preserving the easy, pull-to-untie release of the classic bunny rabbit knot.

This surgeon's shoelace knot is prepare to go the altitude.

I have since hiked many thousands of miles, and this knot, which I have discovered is named the 'surgeon'due south shoelace knot', has never failed me in dry conditions. Simply when my shoelaces are totally soaked has the reduced friction occasionally caused them to piece of work loose. It has been a game changer, and I humbly nowadays information technology hither.

How To Tie The Surgeon'southward Shoelace Knot

Steps 1-4 describe my method for tying the standard bunny rabbit knot. There are many ways to practise this, and so use whichever works for you.

1.  Start by twisting the laces into a starter knot past wrapping the right-side lace (A, orangish) over and effectually the left (B, scarlet).

2.  Create a loop with the lace that is now on the left side (A).

3.  Wrap the other lace (B) behind the loop.

iv.  Push lace B through the center hole, creating another loop that mirrors the loop made with lace A.  Exercise not tighten! (Pull loops A and B tight to consummate the bunny rabbit knot)

5.  Earlier tightening, wrap loop B over and through the center pigsty 1 more than time.

half dozen.  Pull on both loops to tighten your awesome, bombproof surgeon's shoelace knot. Nice work!

These shoelaces are ready to hike. Photo cred: SpiceRack

7.  Hike for days.

Putting a bow on it

A surgeon's shoelace knot holds my foot secure and ready to run. Knot confidence is essential in wolf country.

There are probably other knots that volition reliably hold shoes tight. Yet, this variation on the classic, and widely expert, bunny rabbit knot is both reliable and easy to implement with little professional training. So if loose shoelaces have plagued y'all for your unabridged life or just while you lot hike, rejoice. Next time you head out to the trail, give the surgeon's shoelace knot a try. All it takes is an extra wrap.

Culling solutions

Speed laces: Pop with trail runners, these aftermarket elastic laces require no knots whatever.
Gaiters: Increasingly common on trails worldwide, even the lightest gaiter covers the shoelace knot, protecting information technology from yanks and pulls. A secure knot is still recommended.
Velcro: Velcro footwear does exist, but it is mostly independent within the sandal category.
Crocs: If you've completely given upwardly (read: I wearable Crocs).
Barefoot: Who said that nosotros need shoes anyway?

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