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!

Lacing Shoes

The most extensive section of this website, including over 100 × step-by-step shoe lacing tutorials, 2,000 × shoe lacing photos, plus the interactive “Create-a-Lace” for designing your own lacing.

Tying Shoes

Contains 20 × 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 250 pages – which can be daunting to wade through! Search the whole of Ian's Shoelace Site using Google Custom Search.

Latest Photo

30-May-2020 – Shoe Lacing Photo of the Week

Black Vans sneakers with white trim and white combination of Angled Checker Lacing and Spider Web Lacing (from Ryan P).

Two distinctly different methods on Ryan's Vans – one bi-color, one single-color.

More Shoe Lacing Photos

Latest Animation

28-May-2020 – Optimized 69 × Shoe Lacing Methods

During the past month I've been staying indoors – in more ways than one. I've literally been indoors working on the website. I've also figuratively been indoors toiling away at the website's inner workings.

In particular, I've optimized the step-by-step diagrams of all of the Shoe Lacing Methods, compositing the separate images for each step. Most methods now only need to download half as many images, which is much faster & more efficient.

Optimization of step-by-step lacing diagrams

Download & share

NOTE: This animation may be downloaded (eg. by long-press or right-click) and shared freely. Be quick and get it while you can!

Latest Video

16-Mar-2020 – Quick Release Ladder Lacing

Added YouTube video of Quick Release Ladder Lacing, which looks similar to regular Ladder Lacing but which allows much faster loosening of tall boots with many eyelets:

Watch video: Quick Release Ladder Lacing

Watch video here

Watch on YouTube

What's New?

Optimized 69 × Shoe Lacing Methods

28-May-2020 – I've spent most of May optimizing the step-by-step shoe lacing diagrams, building a library of 700+ composite images (see animation). Each lacing method now loads much faster & more efficiently.

Updated “Shoelace Construction”

11-May-2020 – First additions to this new section of the website, including details of the types of materials used in shoelaces plus the most common construction method.

Updated “Ukrainian Lacing”

05-May-2020 – Added a novel variation of “Ukrainian Lacing” that allows the whole of the lacing to be tightened, including the previously loose top eyelets.

Updated “Interviews & Articles”

25-Mar-2020 – Uploaded the first additions to my new “Interviews & Articles” section, including my interviews for The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and Sneaker Freaker Magazine.

Added “Quick Release Ladder Lacing”

25-Mar-2020 – To speed up the removal of tall boots with many eyelets, this lacing only needs a couple of simple steps to release the top row, then the rest of the lacing loosens instantly.