Shoe Tying Techniques, Part 1

Shoe tying may seem like elementary stuff. (Remember the story about the little bunny who hops around a tree and finds a hole?) But you can actually put your shoe tying skills to serious work. Often times the fit of athletic shoes can be modified by simply adjusting the way you tie your laces. This is great news for people who have found a pair of shoes they love but can’t quite achieve a comfortable fit.

If your heel is slipping….
Try tying your laces in a “lace lock”. This will allow you to tighten the laces around the ankle without having to tighten the laces at the front of your foot. Lace up your shoe normally, leaving the eyelets closest to the ankle open. Instead of making a final “X”, thread each lace through the open eyelets. This will create a loop on the outside of the shoe. (To make this very clear, imagine you’ve just finished the “X”. You should have two tails. Take the right tail and thread it through the right eyelet so that the lace moves from the outside of the shoe to the inside. Don’t pull the lace all the way through! You want to create a loop just big enough for your little finger.) Once you have your two loops, take the laces and cross them. Now thread the tails through the two loops you created. (The left tail will now be threaded through the right loop, and the right tail will be threaded through the left loop.) You’re now ready to tie your shoe like normal. The extra loops allow you to tighten the shoe around the ankle, which will keep your heel in place, without tightening the rest of the shoe.

If your foot is narrow…
You can use the lace lock to tighten the toe box of your athletic shoe if your foot is narrow. Start by lacing your shoes normally (i.e., begin with the eyelets furthest from the tongue and work forward). Once you reach the second eyelet, stop lacing. You are going to use the lace lock between the second and third eyelet. Take the tail of the lace that extends from the second eyelet on the right side of the shoe and thread it through the third eyelet on the right side of the shoe. (The lace should enter the third eyelet from the outside, and the new tail of the lace should end up inside the shoe.) Don’t pull the lace all the way through; make a loop. Do the same thing on the left side of the shoe. (The lace should move from the second eyelet on the left side to the third eyelet on the left side.) Once you have your two loops, cross the laces. Thread the left tail through the right loop and the right tail through the left loop. You’ve now created a lace lock which will enable you to cinch your shoe tightly at the forefront of your foot without the laces loosening. Continue lacing as normal. If your feet are extremely narrow, you may want to use another lace lock around the ankle.