Ian's Shoelace Site

Shoelace Site (icon)

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 – this is the place!

Welcome!

Professor Shoelace (pic)

G'day everyone, Ian Fieggen here, also known as “Professor Shoelace”. I'm a real human living in Melbourne, Australia. This website has no AI content – it's all built with “HI” (Human Intelligence) plus “HE” (Human Effort) over more than two decades.

Welcome to “Ian's Shoelace Site” – made by one human, for all humans.

Table of Contents

Lacing (icon) Lacing Shoes

Contains over 100 × step-by-step shoe lacing tutorials, over 2,800 × shoe lacing photos, plus the interactive “Create-a-Lace” for designing your own lacing.

Tying (icon) Tying Shoes

Contains 25 × shoelace knots (including my world's fastest “Ian Knot”), plus info on tying correctly so that they sit straight and stay securely tied – yet can be untied without jamming.

Learn (icon) 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, Q&As and more.

About (icon) 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 ways that you, too, can support Ian.

Connect (icon) Connect With Professor Shoelace

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

Search (icon) 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

05-Sep-2026

Today's shoe lacing photo was contributed by Serega L. in Sep-2026.

Tan Ecco sneakers with orange & black trim laced with black & white Spider Web Lacing.

Second of three new lacing photos from Serega on various different sneakers.

Shoe lacing photo

More Shoe Lacing Photos

What's New?

Lacing (icon) Updated “Over Under Lacing”

18-Jul-2026 – Slight tweak to add separate instructions for shoes with even or odd numbers of eyelet pairs.

In the news (icon) Updated “Shoelaces As Seen In The News”

18-Jun-2026 – Added another 15 × shoelace news stories from 2025, featuring an airplane crash, a car burglar, a lawsuit, murders, celebrities, sportsmen, surgery – even a robot!

Google (icon) Removed Google ads

18-Jun-2026 – After 20 years of using Google ads to help pay the bills, these have finally been removed – thanks to an increase in visitors supporting me with donations.

In the news (icon) Updated “Shoelaces As Seen In The News”

25-Apr-2026 – Added 17 × shoelace news stories from 2025, featuring accidents, airline passengers, an angry bird, goats, performance art, spaghetti, sportsmen – even a president.

Patterned shoelace (icon) Updated “Shoelace Construction”

17-Apr-2026 – Added gallery of shoelaces braided with different braid patterns that are available via my website's sponsors.

Create-a-Braid (icon) Updated “Create-a-Braid”

28-Mar-2026 – Changed to more accessible braid pattern icons, plus added separate spools to visualise braiding machine setup.

Create-a-Braid (icon) Updated “Shoelace Construction”

28-Feb-2026 – Updated the interactive shoelace braiding simulator to incorporate the more complex “Regular Braiding”.

Recent Visitor Feedback

The secure shoelace knot is life changing. It hasn’t come undone a single time since I started using it, and it is barely any harder to untie than a regular shoelace knot.

– Samuel M., USA, Sep-2026

I’ve been really frustrated with my laces coming loose and wanted a knot to secure them. My search returned the berluti knot.

So I watched several videos on Youtube and couldn’t follow any of them. On all of them the lace was obscured at some point and my hands and brain had too much fine motor action to deal with. So I searched for “diagrammatic explanation of the berluti knot” and you came top.

Your flip book is so easy to follow especially with the lace having a yellow and blue end. I can’t believe how easy it was to follow your instructions with immediate success.

Thank you so much for this. What a beautifully simple and elegant solution presented in such an easy to follow style.

– Chris P., UK, Sep-2026

Ian! I've been using your secure knot for close to 10 years now and have informed others of its superiority. Not once has this knot come undone, keep on keeping on brother.

– Andrew B., Pennsylvania, USA, Sep-2026

Your instructions helped my daughter solve her impossible to tie shoelaces problem!! Would never have figured it out without you. Thanks for sharing this!

– Rolland H., USA, Sep-2026

I found this website via the Vintage Website (a website that sends you to long-standing random websites) and I was like “Wow! What perfect timing!” because in a week or so I'll be receiving some nice new shoes!

I am very excited to try out these different ways to tie the laces. Honestly, I have never even considered that there would be so many ways to do so. As an artist, this has really opened my eyes on as to how I can view the world and what I'm able to do with it. I will make a piece dedicated to shoelaces just for this – I feel very inspired! I haven't finished reading everything yet, but I'm learning a lot already; things can be so much more efficient with the right technique it seems.

Thank you for your website, it is so wonderfully made and I wish only great things for it's maintenance and longevity!

– Aurae, The Philippines, Aug-2026

Dear Ian, your website was recommended to me and I wanted to let you know what a joy it is in this overcomplicated world. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

– Rose, Bristol, UK, Aug-2026

I had a pair of docs and got silver fat laces for them, but normal criss cross lacing made them tighter than I liked and left the ends short, while looking at lacings I found that the Starburst lengthens the ends and decided to try it. Wow this lacing not only looks great with my solar flare docs design, but functions great as well. The lace ends are much longer and usable, and the pressure on my foot is relieved quite a bit, on top of that I dont need to loosen the lace to get the boot on, just simply slip it on and tie a knot. When im done, I untie, and it slips right off. Perfect.

– Lenny JG, Nevada, USA, Aug-2026

Your wonderful website was one of the places I discovered while exploring the world of the internet beyond the noise of social media and the brain rot. To be honest, I found your website completely by chance, and I ended up staying up the previous night reading through it until 3 a.m. my time.

– Dena, KSA, Aug-2026

If you'd also like to send feedback, please Contact Ian.

Support Ian

Sponsors

Ironlace (ad)
Big Laces (ad)
Kicks Display Cases (ad)
Kicks Shoelaces (ad)
Mad Dog Laces (ad)

Page supporter: Thanks to the generosity of Will F. from USA, this page is currently free of Google Ads.

This page last updated: 06-Sep-2026. Copyright © 2003-2026 by Ian W. Fieggen. All rights reserved.

Website created by Ian Fieggen (aka. “Professor Shoelace”), inventor of the Ian Knot.

Ian's Other Websites:
Software Site (icon)SoftwareGraphics Site (icon)GraphicsIan's Site (icon)IanChris' site (icon)ChrisFamily tree (icon)Tree