Rock the streets

June 27, 2008 11:47 PM

Whether you want to learn to lace shoes, tie shoelaces, stop shoelaces from coming undone, calculate shoelace lengths or even repair aglets, Ian's Shoelace Site has the answer!
posted by Blazecock Pileon (22 comments total)

Oh, very cool. I've been wanting to re-create the stylized lacing techniques of my youth, just for shits and giggles, and that site has almost everything. Thanks, Blazecock Pileon!
posted by amyms at 11:55 PM on June 27, 2008

Ooooo!
Aaaah!
** thinking about buying a pair of chuck taylors just to try some out **
posted by not_on_display at 11:55 PM on June 27, 2008

This site is epic. Ever since I learned to tie my shoes, I'd always have to retie them over and over and over again whenever I wore shoes for any significant period of time, no matter how hard I pulled on the loops. And then one day I read this site, saw the page on slipping knots, and thought, "no way, that can't possibly be it."

In the years since that fateful day, I've had to tie my shoe while walking on the street maybe once. That one page has saved me countless cries of "hey guys, wait up, I gotta tie my shoes!"
posted by chrominance at 12:01 AM on June 28, 2008

This rocks. From now on, I'm only reading shoelace related news.
posted by pompomtom at 12:06 AM on June 28, 2008 [2 favorites]

If you live in Japan, you'll find that the instances of taking off and putting on your shoes increase to hithertofore unimaginable numbers. As a 13 year resident, I've all but given up on lace shoes: slip-ons of one sort or another are really the way to go.

Nonetheless, I'll bookmark this site for such a time as I ever move away from here.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:26 AM on June 28, 2008

Aglets! That's what I was trying to remember.
posted by stavrogin at 1:30 AM on June 28, 2008

This post is missing the aglet and eyelet tabs.
posted by grouse at 2:40 AM on June 28, 2008

That comment is missing the correct spelling of "tag."
posted by grouse at 2:40 AM on June 28, 2008

Previously. Looks like a new URL.
posted by Eideteker at 4:05 AM on June 28, 2008

I love this site, been using it for years.
posted by bwg at 6:05 AM on June 28, 2008

I echo chrominance. It was Ian's site, and specifically this page, that taught me the invaluable ditty:

Right over left, left over right,
Makes a knot both tidy and tight.

If I had learned that rhyme, oh, maybe twenty-five years ago, my childhood shoe-wearing career would have been much different.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:51 AM on June 28, 2008

Ian certainly knows his laces.
posted by fire&wings at 8:10 AM on June 28, 2008

I have made a wonderful discovery, along the lines of vulcanized rubber. Concentrated cherry juice added to shoelaces and agitated for 3,000 miles in a sealed suitcase results in laces that, once tied, hold their bows neatly, and will never come untied without just the right amount of firm tugging.
posted by StickyCarpet at 8:23 AM on June 28, 2008

Huh, it seems that at 31 I enjoy relacing my shoes in a (slightly) fancy way as much as I did when I was ten. Why did I ever give up the lace experimentation? Two decades of wasted lacing opportunities!
posted by jack_mo at 9:55 AM on June 28, 2008

The key to fashion these days is to see how unlaced you can get your shoes.
posted by netbros at 10:26 AM on June 28, 2008

A+++ would re-lace again
posted by 0xFCAF at 10:33 AM on June 28, 2008

I ♥ this post! Thank you, BP!
posted by Lynsey at 11:32 AM on June 28, 2008

I get SO pissed when my cheap ass dealer does this.
posted by gman at 4:19 PM on June 28, 2008

Previously previously.
posted by mecran01 at 11:02 PM on June 28, 2008

The "Ian knot" really is kind of magical; every time I tie my shoes with it I feel a combination of smug and hopelessly nerdy.
posted by ook at 10:09 AM on June 29, 2008

This guy is really concerned about helping us out--he even has a flipbook to make things easier for us non-mechanically minded.
posted by leftcoastbob at 6:46 AM on June 30, 2008

I just learned the Ian Knot! I feel both smug and hopelessly nerdy. Thanks, ook (and BP).

I only wish he had a necktie-tying guide. These instructions are so much clearer than any necktie-tying instructions I have tried.
posted by grouse at 4:16 AM on July 10, 2008