Crash Restraint Blog Archives (2010-2016)

How to Tie Your Shoelaces

Topologist

I've oft heard the adage repeated by bondage instructors that if you can tie your shoelaces, you can do rope bondage.

Now, personally, I've always preferred shoes with velcro. But it did get me thinking -- shouldn't the inverse also be true, that if you can do rope bondage, you should be able to tie your shoelaces?

Because I've been tying my shoelaces poorly for years. In fact, I bet most of us have. The only two methods I was taught as a kid were:

  • The bow. Easy to tie and untie, compact and attractive. But in all but the stickiest of shoelaces, it inevitably falls apart before you get halfway down the block, leaving your laces trailing.
  • The double-knotted bow. Taking the loops of the bow and tying an additional overhand makes it nice and secure. But now you've got a huge-ass knot that is difficult to undo one-handed; worse, sometimes when you undo the final overhand, one of the ends pulls out the wrong way through the bow, resulting in an even harder-to-get-out knot.

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