At first, I thought it was just me. Maybe I wasn’t tying them tight enough. Maybe I was losing the ability to tie my shoes. They just would not stay tied. I would tie them and within minutes, they would come untied. What was going on?
This started in the late summer when I bought a new pair of walking shoes. I like the shoes. Very comfortable. Very sturdy. But they came with round laces. At the time, I did not recognize this as a problem. But apparently round shoelaces have a problem with staying tied.
For the first few weeks, I thought it was just because they were new. Once they get used and scuffed up a bit, they’ll stay tied. But the laces had other ideas. The laces, it seems, were quite happy to flap freely around my feet. In fact, they seemed to think it was their right. And if I should happen to trip and fall flat on my face in the process, well, that wasn’t their fault.
I should probably have replaced them, but they came with the shoes. So there is a bit of a colour match going on with the laces and the shoes and they look good together. And I have this thing about replacing things that have not lived through their useful life. I don’t want to be wasteful and just throw perfectly good things away. And my junk drawers are already at capacity, so I shouldn’t just replace them and toss them in there, never to be seen again.
So I continue to try to use them. And the laces continue to come untied. It’s a battle I’m not sure I can win.
I have not delved into the physics of this. There is probably an answer in the roundness and density of the lace and the fact that the normal knot somehow manages to work itself loose. It probably needs a higher density to the lace or a rougher texture to the surface or maybe even a dab of super glue to make it hold.
That last one would also likely result in making it far more difficult to remove my shoes, so I’m trying to avoid it. But it remains an option.
I am hopeful of finding the secret of tying the round lace. So far, I’m failing. But it’s never too late to learn something new.
