SHOELACES ARE VERY OLD
Many historians claim that rope came before string shoelaces, which goes back 28,000 years, but the question of who invented shoelaces is a widely debated topic. Regardless of who invented shoelaces, laces have been around for a very long time, and we think they were originally just rope shoelaces. As long as there have been shoes, there has been a need to tie the shoes to feet.
SHOELACES PROVED YOUR WEALTH
One of my favorite shoelace facts takes place in the Elizabethan era, when the shoes and shoelaces you wore told other people how wealthy you were. Strict class distinctions meant the rich wore buckled leather shoes with ribbon laces, while the working man wore rawhide laces in his shoes.
THE SHOELACE WEAVING PROCESS IS 200 YEARS OLD
Once the industrial revolution had come about, and machines could weave fibers into stronger, better laces, a process was created to mass produce these braids. That shoelace braiding process is still largely identical to how it was 200 years ago. Only materials and colors have changed since then.
TOM CRUISE DOESN’T CALL THEM AGLETS
This is one of those shoelace facts that doesn’t make much sense, but is still hilarious. If you come across someone calling an aglet a flugelbinder, it’s Tom Cruise’s fault. He popularized the made-up term in the movie “Cocktail” when talking about millionaire inventors.
SHOELACES WERE ONCE A FORM OF COMMUNICATION
Well, technically they were knotted strings that the Inca’s used to send messages from city to city – but we like to think they were shoelaces. After all, isn’t a knotted string a shoelace? This was a great way to communicate back then, because the materials could be reused and resent.
SHOELACES ARE NEARLY ALWAYS UNNECESSARILY LONG
It’s true, shoelaces are a lot longer than they once used to be, and experts say that it’s because manufacturers make laces a standard length to fit every shoe they make. These shoelace facts are a case of one standard length reduces the cost, which means you’ll always have extra.
THE GRANNY KNOT WASN’T NAMED AFTER GRANDMOTHERS
Some shoelace facts are stranger than fiction, like the story of the granny knot. If you’ve ever tied your shoelace bows vertically, then you’ve tied this knot. The granny knot is the reason shoes come untied, but it’s not named after an old woman – rather after the knot used to tie grain sacks closed.
U-LACES WERE THE FIRST MODULAR ELASTIC-BASED NO TIE LACES
In no tie shoelace history, U-Lace was the very first brand to manufacture and create patented elastic no-tie laces. Once launched, there were many, many copycats – but none that retained the classic style of the original laces. Also introduced was the idea of customizing lace design on your sneakers, something that is still popular in street culture and in high fashion.
DIFFERENT SHOES NEED DIFFERENT LACES
Not many people realize this, but different shoes work better and are more comfortable with certain kinds of laces and lacing patterns. Flat, soft laces are best for hiking for example, and will hurt you less than hard, round laces will because they push on your pressure points.