I only tend to pay attention to my shoe laces when they break or they are uneven. I’ve never even questioned how I lace my shoes, let alone why I do it that way. But it turns out there’s more than one way to lace a shoe. More importantly, there’s more than one why to lace a shoe as well.
The best resource for lacing shoes online is Ian’s Shoelace Site. Using his tutorials and explanations I’m going to give the shoes I wear most often a lacing makeover.
Even though my brown brogues have an open throat, the eyelet flaps come completely together over the tongue. I went with a lacing that looks minimal and also hides the laces at the top. The only drawback to this lacing is that it can be difficult to tighten.
The eyelet flaps on my black brogues don’t close all the way so I went with a lacing that had a tidy appearance on each side of the eyelets. This lacing is easy to tighten and loosen and it has minimal stress on the laces, extending their life.
I don’t use these sneakers for sports or athletics so I gave them a very casual and comfortable bar lacing. Since none of the laces cross over the tongue, this lacing produces less pressure on the top of your foot.
For my gray running/athletic shoes I went with a spiral or double helix lacing. This method laces up easily and tightly for running. I also think the symmetry coupled with the diagonal lines looks cool.
There is no right way to lace a shoe. Which lacing pattern we choose should be based upon our stylistic and functional needs. I strongly encourage any reader to browse through Ian’s Shoelace Site to get way more information than I can share here. You won’t be disappointed.
Here are my resources for this article:
http://www.gq.com/video/gq-rules/2007/how-to-tie-shoes-gentlemans-way-best-way-to-tie-laces
http://icanstyleu.com/blog/how-to-properly-lace-a-mens-dress-shoe/