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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Contact Ian Fieggen via e-mail or connect with “Professor Shoelace” via YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Gfycat or RSS feed.

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
04-Jun-2023
Today's shoe lacing photo was contributed by Manuel J. in Jul-2010.
Black Nike Air Force 1s laced with green, yellow & red Straight Bar Lacing.
Very clean rasta look on these Nikes.

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?

28-May-2023 – The new shoe lacing diagram “Flip” feature has now been rolled out to all Lacing Methods, all Lug Lacing Methods, all Bi-Color Lacing Methods and all U-Lace Methods.

26-May-2023 – Added new “Flip” feature to Criss Cross, Over Under, Gap, Lock, Straight European, Straight Bar and Hidden Knot Lacing.

25-May-2023 – Added “Flip” feature to Shoe Shop Lacing, which allows the diagram and instructions to be flipped horizontally.

04-Mar-2023 – Added three movie excerpts and screenshots: Spiderman 2 (2004), Flightplan (2005) and The Door (German: “Die Tür”) (2009).

04-Mar-2023 – Updated all TV show screenshots to high-resolution, plus added two TV show excerpts and screenshots: Full House (1989) and The Big Bang Theory (2017).

18-Feb-2023 – Updated all movie screenshots to high-resolution, plus added an excerpt and screenshot from the 1993 movie Grumpy Old Men.

15-Sep-2022 – Added news story about a rugby player player's 90-metre run to score a try – despite a broken shoelace.

11-Sep-2022 – Added news story about a homemade scooter seized by police thanks partly to the use of shoelaces in its construction.
Recent Visitor Feedback
Ian's Shoelaces site is one of the very first bookmarks ever in my Reference section on both Apple & PC devices. Thank you so very large! Originally, I needed information about lacing & tying my fancy boots; back at the turn of the century/millennium, I was getting my second associate degree in computing here in Los Angeles. Jeans, slacks, skirts.... every garment managed to untie the boots. Your methods of lacing are extraordinarily effective, providing efficacious & stylish solutions.
After running a cat rescue for a short time, my son & I kept three of the twenty cats from the CalTrans colony; seventeen cats were placed in other forever homes. All cats, of all ages and breeds love strings! A sturdy shoelace with sturdy plastic aglets is ideal! That is, until the aglet becomes compromised by chewing & gets hung on everything. A string without aglets is just not the cat’s meow.
Thank you, again, for your website with all the reference material & links to relevant sources. Knowing all about shoelaces is a gift.
– Emcee S., California, USA, Jun-2023
I wanted to thank you for the absolutely wonderful resource that is your shoelacing website. Somebody linked to it a while back on the rollerblading subreddit on Reddit and I bookmarked it. Finally got around to looking at it today and I have spent the entire morning relacing my skates and shoes. The graphics are extremely clear, the details are in depth, there's sections to help me find the most appropriate shoelacing for my needs, and it's just such a great website.
No need to reply to this, just thought you would like to know that your niche website has brought me quite a lot of joy this morning.
– Ed A., England, Jun-2023
Thanks for maintaining your site free for everyone!
– Max L., Germany, May-2023
If you'd also like to send feedback, please Contact Ian.