Alternate shoe lacing techniques

You buy different shoes than your friends because your feet are different but still the dozens of shoes available can’t fit everyone’s feet perfectly. A shoe may well fit you better than others, but it’s still not exactly what you would want. That’s where alternate shoe lacing techniques come in. There are a few variations on the standard lacing methods that may be better suited for your foot. We’ve covered a few of the main lacing variations here.

[shareprints gallery_id=”20773″ gallery_type=”thumb_slider” gallery_position=”pos_center” gallery_width=”width_100″ image_size=”large” image_padding=”3″ theme=”dark” image_hover=”false” lightbox_type=”slide” titles=”true” captions=”true” descriptions=”true” comments=”true” sharing=”true”]The most popular change from the usual lacing style, looping the top eyelet on your shoes and threading the opposite lace through it allows for a tighter lock on your heel and ankle. If you find yourself sliding around in the shoes a bit but they otherwise fit fine, try this lacing. It will secure your foot in the back of the shoe without tightening around your forefoot more than it already is.

[shareprints gallery_id=”20774″ gallery_type=”thumb_slider” gallery_position=”pos_center” gallery_width=”width_100″ image_size=”large” image_padding=”3″ theme=”dark” image_hover=”false” lightbox_type=”slide” titles=”true” captions=”true” descriptions=”true” comments=”true” sharing=”true”]If you find that most of the shoe fits snug around your foot, but it chafes around your forefoot or midfoot, you can try skipping a few eyelets along the laces. This allows you to still tie the shoes tight where they need to be and miss a certain part of your foot without worrying that you’ll have to fix the laces halfway through a run. You can skip one or two eyelets wherever along the tongue works best for you. Experiment with a few different methods.

[shareprints gallery_id=”20775″ gallery_type=”thumb_slider” gallery_position=”pos_center” gallery_width=”width_100″ image_size=”large” image_padding=”3″ theme=”dark” image_hover=”false” lightbox_type=”slide” titles=”true” captions=”true” descriptions=”true” comments=”true” sharing=”true”]The opposite of the previous option, if you find a shoe fits everywhere except your midfoot, you can use this lacing to tighten it only around your midfoot. At a eyelet mid-way up the lacing, double back through the same eyelet on each side, creating small loops. Thread the opposite lace through that loop as if it were an eyelet itself. This will allow you to tighten the midfoot more than the rest of the lacing. Like the previous style, experiment looping different eyelets to see which works for you.