Laces, what would we do without laces?
Actually that's one possibility - for a while there, the fashion was to wear Keds Champions without laces. What is your preference?
The other thing about laces is how you lace them up.
I remember as a child, that my sister and her friends had an elaborate ritual for lacing their sneakers. The way the laces and bow was tied indicated some sort of a "code" perhaps not unlike the "hankie code" used in the BDSM community, only much more vanilla. For example, a certain lacing pattern might indicate that the girl had a boyfriend. I don't know how widespread this practice was or if it extended beyond our neighborhood, or even my sister's circle of friends.
There are as many ways to lace a sneaker as there are combinations of the eyelets with which to lace. There is an interesting lesson in topography here, and I even saw an illustrated letter in Scientific American addressing the topic. However, I'll leave the math lesson to those inclined.
There are three basic lacing techniques that I have commonly seen:
A. Full crisscross.
B. Full Parallel
C. Part Parallel
To do full crisscross, you insert the laces in the bottom eyelets between the tongue and the outside of the sneaker. The laces come out of the holes, and the part that goes across the instep is hidden by the flaps. Then you take the laces and go under the flap to the next open eyelet under opposite side.
To do the full parallel, you insert the laces into the bottom eyelets from the outside. The part of the laces that goes over the instep shows. Then you take one of the laces and keep it under the flap to the next open eyelet on the same side, go through the eyelet so the lace is now outside, and bring it over to the opposite eyelet. The full parallel method is sometimes used to display sneakers in displays and ads. It seems cumbersome to do, but I have seen women wear their sneakers this way.
To do the part parallel, make the first lace like the full parallel, and then switch to crisscross.
Phew! This would have been a lot easier with pictures. Maybe I'll have to do a pictorial on it on my web page.
Mrs. Mule insists on the part parallel method and will have me relace her sneakers if they come any other way. From what I've seen, this is the most common method of lacing that women use on their sneakers, and the one I like the most. Second most common is the full crisscross, however I think that's less "feminine."
Mule
Actually that's one possibility - for a while there, the fashion was to wear Keds Champions without laces. What is your preference?
The other thing about laces is how you lace them up.
I remember as a child, that my sister and her friends had an elaborate ritual for lacing their sneakers. The way the laces and bow was tied indicated some sort of a "code" perhaps not unlike the "hankie code" used in the BDSM community, only much more vanilla. For example, a certain lacing pattern might indicate that the girl had a boyfriend. I don't know how widespread this practice was or if it extended beyond our neighborhood, or even my sister's circle of friends.
There are as many ways to lace a sneaker as there are combinations of the eyelets with which to lace. There is an interesting lesson in topography here, and I even saw an illustrated letter in Scientific American addressing the topic. However, I'll leave the math lesson to those inclined.
There are three basic lacing techniques that I have commonly seen:
A. Full crisscross.
B. Full Parallel
C. Part Parallel
To do full crisscross, you insert the laces in the bottom eyelets between the tongue and the outside of the sneaker. The laces come out of the holes, and the part that goes across the instep is hidden by the flaps. Then you take the laces and go under the flap to the next open eyelet under opposite side.
To do the full parallel, you insert the laces into the bottom eyelets from the outside. The part of the laces that goes over the instep shows. Then you take one of the laces and keep it under the flap to the next open eyelet on the same side, go through the eyelet so the lace is now outside, and bring it over to the opposite eyelet. The full parallel method is sometimes used to display sneakers in displays and ads. It seems cumbersome to do, but I have seen women wear their sneakers this way.
To do the part parallel, make the first lace like the full parallel, and then switch to crisscross.
Phew! This would have been a lot easier with pictures. Maybe I'll have to do a pictorial on it on my web page.
Mrs. Mule insists on the part parallel method and will have me relace her sneakers if they come any other way. From what I've seen, this is the most common method of lacing that women use on their sneakers, and the one I like the most. Second most common is the full crisscross, however I think that's less "feminine."
Mule