Welcome to Ian's Shoelace Site
Fun, fashion & science in the Internet's #1 website about shoelaces – and home of the Ian Knot, the world's fastest shoelace knot. If you want to lace shoes, tie shoes or learn about shoelaces, “Ian's Shoelace Site” is the place!
Table of Contents
Lacing Shoes
The most extensive section of this website, including over 100 × step-by-step shoe lacing tutorials, 2,500 × shoe lacing photos, plus the interactive “Create-a-Lace” for designing your own lacing.
Tying Shoes
Contains 25 × shoelace knots, including my world's fastest “Ian Knot”, plus important info on preventing the “Granny Knot”, which causes shoelaces to sit crooked and come undone.
Learn About Shoelaces
Heaps of knowledge about shoelaces, including their construction, length calculations – even what the tips are called, as well as Ian's interviews, articles, reviews, Q&As and more.
About
Information about this website and the site's author, Ian Fieggen – including Ian's contact details. Also info on this site's sponsors plus various ways that you, too, can support Ian.
Connect With Professor Shoelace
Contact Ian Fieggen via e-mail or connect with “Professor Shoelace” via YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Gfycat or RSS feed.
Search This Site
Looking for something? This website has more than 300 pages – which can be daunting to wade through! Search the whole of Ian's Shoelace Site using Google Custom Search.
Latest Photo
28-Sep-2022
Shoe lacing photo high-res repost (originally posted in low-res on 21-Feb-2014).
Black & white Airwalk sneakers laced with red Spider Web Lacing (from an anonymous contributor).
Tied off with Celtic button knots for a neat look.
Latest Video
27-Aug-2021 – Untying shoes without jamming
This is my first video for some time, showing why shoelace knots sometimes jam when untying, plus giving some tips for preventing such jams.
What's New?
Updated “Shoelaces As Seen In The News”
15-Sep-2022 – Added news story about a rugby player player's 90-metre run to score a try – despite a broken shoelace.
Updated “Shoelaces As Seen In The News”
11-Sep-2022 – Added news story about a homemade scooter seized by police thanks partly to the use of shoelaces in its construction.
Updated “Interviews & Articles”
09-Sep-2022 – Added transcripts of a couple of interviews from 2008, one for Cleveland.com (USA), the other for Round Table (India).
Added “Ian's Starting Knot”
15-Aug-2022 – Added a step-by-step tutorial for tying Ian's Starting Knot, which is a fast way to tie the foundation of most shoelace knots.
Updated “Shoelaces As Seen In The News”
11-Aug-2022 – Added two news stories – one about a police officer's selfless act of kindness using a shoelace, the second about a shoelace-themed sculpture erected in a former “shoe mecca”.
Updated “Shoelaces As Seen In The News”
05-Aug-2022 – Added a news story about an escalator accident caused by a shoelace. Also, in a Q&A with Harper's BAZAAR, actress Winona Ryder explains why she was called a “shoelace baby”.
Updated “Double Starting Knot”
16-Jul-2022 – Updated all diagrams and photos of the Double Starting Knot to high-resolution, plus added a separate page with feedback from several visitors.
Updated “Starting Knot”
06-Jul-2022 – Updated all diagrams and photos of the Starting Knot to high-resolution, plus added a separate page with feedback from several visitors.
Updated “Crossed Ian Knot”
01-Jul-2022 – Updated all diagrams and photos of the Crossed Ian Knot to high-resolution, plus added feedback from a couple of visitors.
Recent Visitor Feedback
Created the PERFECT jump boot combination!
I recently acquired a pair of Corcoran 1500s, timeless to style, but time-consuming to lace with 12 eyelet pairs! Using an under-over from the bottom to the 5th eyelet for keeping my foot secure, adding the gap/army lacing “jump” to skip over the 6th eyelet that cut into my leg when moving and put undue tension on the leather, finishing with 4 rows of bar lacing to provide even and comfortable support, then using the 11th and 12th eyelets to form a lace lock, I made my already perfect jump boots even better!
This combination:
-Made it easy to tighten around the foot by simply pulling the gap loops, easy to loosen by pulling apart
-Removed discomfort around the ankle
-Helped keep the laces at desired tightness with friction created by the bar pattern
-Made the leg of the boot feel more like a sock without typical cross-lacing pressure points
Plus, it looks really unique in a way that is still somewhat clean!
Thank you for the variety of methods and inspiration!
- James D., Aug-2022
I've used your website to relace every pair of shoes I've bought since I was 15 - I'm 32 now!
The donation isn't much but I wanted to show a bit of appreciation for the only website I've had bookmarked for most of my life!
– Nathan D., UK, Jul-2022
I see you've been maintaining your site for a long time. It reminds me a lot of the fun, helpful content that was available on the Internet when the World Wide Web was just getting started and it was more about people working on their passion projects.
– Olaf A., May-2022
You are good at what you do, you provide good things for what you do, and I can't find a better resource for catalogued ways to tie shoelaces anywhere on the internet. I didnt even know about the NASA space boot knot until your website, and it's quickly become my favorite to use.
– Damien, Georgia, USA, Apr-2022
Oh my God I found your site again! I thought I lost it forever when my computer fried six years ago. I'm glad you're still around! I have a bunch of nieces and nephews to send this site to now lol.
– Robert W., Mar-2022
If you'd also like to send feedback, please Contact Ian.
“Must See” Links
Ian Knot
Learn to tie my “Ian Knot”, the World's Fastest Shoelace Knot.
Granny Knot
Check you're not tying a “Granny Knot”, which sits crooked and comes loose.
Shoelace
Software
Graphics
Ian
Tree