I have two pairs of Dr. Scholl's oxfords for work that are quite comfy now with the new orthotic inserts but good Lord the doggone laces will NOT stay tight or tied!

Do they make laces that won't come loose so easily? I'm tightening and retying my shoes like 3-4 times a day it seems like.

Double knot them (loose 2nd knot), I do it on all my shoes.

Tie them using the bows like a square knot. Easy to undo, will not come undone.

On some of my shoes I use Lace-Locks from Amazon; elastic laces, pull the locking thingy tight. On the shoes I don’t have those on, I have to re-tie multiple times a day.

Seem to recall a thread here a few years back that discussed different ways to tie your laces from the old standby we all seem to have been taught. Advantages of one in particular which escapes me was that they didn't get loose.
Maybe someone with a better memory or a user of that method will chime in to help here.

I had some Keen shoes that came with "variegated" laces, those things would not slip at all. I think you can get their laces by themselves.

Just tuck them into the sides of your shoes after you tie them. Problem solved.

There's some cheap knobby ones on amazon that work great.

quote:

Originally posted by Pyker:
Ian's Shoelace Site

Ian's knot! That's the one I couldn't remember. Thanks. Hope it helps the OP.

quote:

Originally posted by Pyker:
Ian's Shoelace Site

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
There is nothing worse (IMO) for a distance runner than to have to stop to re-tie a shoe. I found "Ian's Secure Knot" and have never had to re-tie a shoe since!

Most people tie their shoelaces incorrectly. What you're trying to create is a square knot (aka: reef knot). Most people tie a granny knot. Granny knots are unstable.

There are videos on-line for how to do it correctly.

One quick way to tell whether or not you're doing it correctly is look at the tails of the knots. They should point in line with the knot. If you've tied a granny, they'll want to point up and down.

Then there's Ian's Secure Knot. I've been using that one on some shoelaces that won't hold even with a proper square knot, and they've never loosened in the least. There are videos on-line for that one, too.

Wax your laces - Bee's wax works well and smells nice too! The wax helps keep them slipping. I use paracord in my hunting boots and due to it's slippery sheath they wouldn't stay tied either until I started waxing them.

What ensigmatic is embarrassingly true in my case. About 15 years ago I figured out I wasn't tying a square knot. I haven't had trouble since I started tying a square knot. What's really sad is I had been tying reef knots when reefing the main on my sailboat for 10 years.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
What ensigmatic is embarrassingly true in my case. About 15 years ago I figured out I wasn't tying a square knot. I haven't had trouble since I started tying a square knot. What's really sad is I had been tying reef knots when reefing the main on my sailboat for 10 years.

Don't feel bad, trapper189. I was sailing, too, at the time enlightenment came to me. Funny thing was: The guy I saw demo the correct way to do it never mentioned reef, square or granny knots in his video. It was only a couple days later the dime dropped

And a small correction to my earlier post: This knot is more correctly a slipped reef or square knot. Even more correctly, in the way shoelaces are property tied: A double-slipped reef or square knot.

 
Ever since I bought my first pair of Danners, many years ago, I have purchased Danner laces for my other boots as well. They keep a knot better than any other laces I've used. And yes, a square knot.

This thread puzzles me. In my whole life, I’ve never had shoelaces that wouldn’t stay tight. Cotton or Dacron.

Maybe I’m just a lucky bloke – my Duracell batteries don’t leak either…

An employee at a New Balance store taught me a good way to tie your shoes. I hope I can explain this.

You start out as you normally would. After you loop the string around the first bow, loop it a second time before finishing the knot. It doesn't have the bulky look of a double knot and you can still untie it as your normally would, but the extra friction of the second loop really reduces the likelihood that it will come loose.

right over left - left over right = square knot

quote:

Originally posted by USMCE4retired:
Just tuck them into the sides of your shoes after you tie them. Problem solved.

This is my old standby, but the thicker laces that tend to come with more professional or dressy looking shoes are never that long or flexible. I’ve owned a number of pairs where you could only tie a tiny bow, and forget about double knotting them.