Shoes: shoelaces vs velcros

I prefer laces. For little kids? Velcro. It makes it easy for them to do it, although I'm thinking it's about time for my oldest to step it up a notch and move onto to tying laces (she's almost five).

As others mentioned, laces look a bit more professional, but that's a subjective standard. Still, some subjective standards might help someone land an interview or not, so keep that in mind.

Velcro has some things going for it - you can adjust it easily, it dons and doffs quickly (good for young, old, or people with disabilities), and it will hold even if it's wet. I find that wet laces try to come undone more often than not, but that might be cheap laces being the culprit.

If the laces won't hold, you might need to buy a different set of laces. They're not expensive - cheaper than buying another pair of shoes, anyway - and there's always double-knotting them for the extra insurance.

If the velcro won't hold, you might be out of luck as the velcro is more or less sewn securely to the shoe itself. Unless you're willing to try to take a seam-ripper to it, remove the old velcro and attempt to sew in new velcro yourself, you will likely have to cave in and buy a new pair of shoes altogether.

Plus, with laces, you can tie a few knots in one end, dip them in oil and run the lace through the bore of your AK-47 to clean out the bore. Have fun trying to do that with the non-removable velcro.

DG: You can freshen up velcro with a small stiff bristle brush on the hook side to clean out the junk that gets caught in the hooks.

edited 19th Aug '11 3:02:04 PM by pvtnum11

Happiness is zero-gee with a sinus cold.

I use old laced shoes when I go into water and I don't really get problems with them getting untied. You just have to tie them more secure and you should be fine.

If any question why we died/ Tell them, because our fathers lied -Rudyard Kipling

Yeah, just might have been bad laces or user error.

Happiness is zero-gee with a sinus cold.

Double knotting. Always. If you're a 'my laces always come untied' person, a double knot is the way to go.

Plus, you can sneak laced shoes off quietly. Velcro is never quiet.

It ain't over 'till the ring hits the lava.

drunkgirlfriend@ How common are these kind of problems in the general population?

I insist that never in my life has the straps failed me before the shoe did.I'm trying to understand if laces do.

No minor advantage laces have can justify their complexity compared to velcros, They're just so annoying.

@pvt: That doesn't really help when it's the loop side that's getting munged up from undoing it too many times.

@ssamredrum: Probably quite common, considering that there's not much of a market for them.

edited 19th Aug '11 3:22:56 PM by DrunkGirlfriend

"I don't know how I do it. I'm like the Mr. Bean of sex." -Drunkscriblerian

I far prefer laces. They're easy to swap out, can be used for other shit like pvt there mentioned, they come undone quietly, double knotting makes them secure as all get out, and I really like that I can tie them and just sort of leave my sneakers like this for years.

AONDEUG DOES NOT UNTIE HER SHOES MOST OF THE TIME.

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

Neither. Zippers and belt-style straps FTW!

Then again, I'm a fan of tanker boots.

Zipper down. Put foot in. Zipper up. Fasten strap. You're done! Compare and contrast with your standard 20-holed combat boots with shoelaces, which are a total pain in the butt to put on or off.

edited 19th Aug '11 3:35:33 PM by SavageHeathen

You exist because we allow it and you will end because we demand it.

The laces are likely to outlast the shoe, on the whole. I have had laces break on me, but it was a six year old pair of Doc Martins and they'd had a pretty tough time.

You're not dyspraxic, are you? Just askin' - because I am and I had terrible trouble learning to tie laces. What, you want me to construct a bow loop knot in three dimensional space looking at it from above? My four-year-old opinion was that my mother was clearly insanely ambitious

It ain't over 'till the ring hits the lava.

My experience has been that on cheap velcro shoes, the velcro is likely to get unfixably crapped up (either the hook side is too gunked to clean or the loop side gets too ratty to hold) before the shoe wears out. That's because they use cheap-shit velcro. On relatively expensive velcro shoes, the velcro will probably still be good when the shoe is worn out.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

I use slip-on shoes with neither.

*

Oooo, Tanker Boots. I'd like to get a pair of those, but I'm having trouble justifying the cost. Plus they'd have to be ANSI-rated steel toed for work.

Happiness is zero-gee with a sinus cold.

I actually wear Western boots for everything but formal events (which require oxfords) and athletics. I've never even seen good athletic shoes with velcro, and if I did I'd still prefer Converse All-Stars for their canvas instead of leather uppers and unchanged-since-the-1930s-ness.

“Love is the eternal law whereby the universe was created and is ruled.” — St. Bernard

Savage Heathen got to it before I could, but YEAH, zippered and belted shoes for the win!

(/owns this◊ sweet-looking pair of Radikal-G's, as well as these◊ hot-looking thigh-highs in black patent with impractically spiky 5-inch heels)

It's better to be right than liked. Really. I Just Want to Be Loved

Whenever I get a new pair of shoes, I tie them, then tie them again, and again and again and again, 'til the knot's so tight it'll never come untied. Then I just slip my foot in and out without bothering with the laces ever again.

edited 22nd Aug '11 6:22:09 PM by RavenWilder

I think it depends on the wear you put them through - I tend to go through a pair of laces a year on my uniform boots, but the boots themselves will last 2-3 years before they're too worn out or beat up to wear. Compared to the last pair of sneakers I had, where the sole ended up with a crack in it after only a year or so, but the laces were still perfectly fine.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw