Perry’s Shoelace Lacing

First we have a quick look at general shoelace design, then explore some of the standard lacing patterns, then summarise some modifications to help with fitting problems. Finally there is the Perry Products Predictor - a quick and accurate way of determining the ideal length of laces for pretty much any pair of shoes or boots.

Shoelace Design

The dominant material for shoelaces these days seems to be a polyester/cotton mix. Some types of footwear still use flat cotton laces (e.g. tennis shoes) and some use completely synthetic (usually polyester and sometimes nylon) such as on trainers. On smarter shoes it is common to have laces that have been waxed (which often means slippery and liable to knot problems). See the knots page for solutions.

Lace construction can be woven, braided or knitted, but I confess I don't understand the details of the different types. I know that it is possible to get Kevlar reinforced shoelaces at vast expense, which seems a little excessive.

Apart from leather laces which are square in cross-section, most laces are either circular or flat. Circular cross-section seems to be the norm for smart footwear and flat for sports, but with plenty of variations and exceptions. Whilst for smarter shoes, the dominant factor in lace design is the aesthetics, for activity footwear the main issue is performance. There is a view that flat laces generate more friction in the knot than circular laces due to the greater area of lace in contact. This is more an issue for knotting than lacing though.

The band at the end of the lace (nearly always plastic, but occasionally a non-ferrous metal) is called an aglet. This comes from the Latin 'acus', meaning needle, which lead to the French 'aiguille' and then 'aiguillette' in the 15th century (zero points for guessing this means 'small needle') then 'aglet'.

Standard Lacing

There are three main lacing patterns in common use. I've used a naming convention here from a mathematical web site in the USA, bur I've really no idea how common these names are. Happy to hear from others if you know better.

First there is the type of lacing frequently used in shoe shops. I have seen alternatives to this that I shan't give here, mainly to retain the same appearance of horizontal outside pattern - but with no real attempt to provide practicality. This 'Shop' pattern has the advantage of easy threading and looks ok providing little of the underlying threading is visible. For shoes without many eyelets it works well, but becomes clumsy when the number of eyelets reaches five or so. The main problem with this pattern is that all of the work is done by one side of the lace. Ending up with even lengths for tying can require a series of time-consuming adjustments to the overall position of the lace. Nevertheless, if you only have the use of one hand, this lacing pattern is just what you need (although I don't explain here how to tie them).

The second pattern, known as 'European', retains the horizontal outside pattern but adopts a slightly more complicated threading to also use the same amount of lace on each side. When the underlying lacing is not very visible, European is better than Shop because of easier use and more even wear. If a lot of the under-lacing is visible, the fact that not all the diagonals are parallel can give a sense that something is not quite right. Nevertheless, this is what I tend to use on smart shoes.

The third pattern, 'American', is probably the most often used, particularly in activity footwear. Threading is symmetrical which makes this an easy pattern to learn and do.

As with all patterns, variations in the details of which lace is on top are possible though of little consequence.

Advanced Lacing

Here we shall look at three useful techniques to help overcome common problems. All of these are designed mainly with activities that place greater demands on the feet in mind, particularly walking and running.

The first suggestion is to help maintain tension in the shoelace as they are tightened up gradually, moving from one pair of eyelets to the next, to allow boots to be tied tightly more easily. The diagram shows a variation on the American threading, with laces being fed downwards through each eyelet. The difference can be seen by comparing this diagram with the one above.

Whilst this lacing pattern is a simple change from normal threading, the behaviour is very different. The key is that as the lace is pulled through, at each eyelet the lace pulls the eyelet down onto itself, trapping the lace and helping it stop slipping back through.

The only downside to this arrangement is that it is more difficult to release the laces once the knot has been undone.

A frequent problem is needing to tighten laces in one place without doing so in another. Probably the most common situation is where the top of the laces need to be more secure - for example to prevent rubbing of the heel or Achilles tendon by holding the foot down.

The diagram shows how to change the threading at the top of the boot to help achieve this. When the laces are tied they pull the loops threaded through together, without passing extra tension down.

This technique can also be used in other positions if useful, with lacing continuing as normal beyond the lace lock, although this is not quite as effective as at the top of the boot.

The opposite problem can also occur, where laces are too tight at some point, but where slacker laces overall allows too much foot lift or results in toe crunching when going downhill.

The technique shown here can help overcome these problems by effectively creating areas where no, or reduced, force pulling the eyelets together is applied.

Again, the location can be adjusted to suit.