Shoelace Acknowledgements

I don't propose to reference every piece of information used to construct this shoelace project, but it is worth mentioning the main sources that have had a significant influence. I also won't give an extensive list of links; just enough to allow some further exploration if you're so minded.

Numerous searches made of material on human evolution, dates of key inventions etc. Nothing worthy of a note here, other than there appears to be no clear scientific consensus on the process and timing of early human life.

If you want to look at shoe history, then try the department of podiatry at the Curtin University of Technology, or read a book such as 'A history of Shoe Fashion' by Eunice Wilson. For a general introduction to the current world of shoes try Shoetrades, or do a search on shoes or footwear at Amazon.

The best place for an insight into the world of knotting is Peter Suber's page of links. For the original references to some of the shoelace knots visit the Freedom Knot website, or look at the Ian Knot (where you can watch videos of shoelace tying), or David Siegel's Better Bow or Howard Cheng's knot or a note by Greg Smith on getting the basic knot right.

John H. Halton takes the credit for proving that american lacing is the shortest, and Ivars Peterson provided the names of the lacing patterns and saved me some algebra on the length calculations.

I'm also grateful to Dan Silva of San Rafael for the suggested modification to the Freedom Knot - now used by him to tie leather moccasin laces. This is what I've called the Ultra Freedom Knot.