Easy Lace silicone "no-tie" shoe laces

[AimlessWanderer]

Today, I decided to have a look at putting the silicone laces in a couple of pairs of walking shoes.



Padders "Lunar"



Padders "Terrain"

Tied with conventional laces, it was immediately clear that the Lunar were not going to be a compatible shoe. The eyelet span was way too small.



The Padders Terrain looked far more suitable for trying out the Easy Lace wide laces.



As I have done on other shoes, I put the shortest lace in the uppermost eyelets, where the bow would normally sit, and each eyelet down took the next lace length up.

For casual use, about the house, or if I was travelling around by car, these would be fine. However, these are one of my pairs of "mile clockers", and I might be needing to walk anywhere between two and six miles in them on any given day. They don't feel quite secure enough on thw foot for that.

Don't get me wrong, the heel isn't lifting out like on the black brogues discussed above, and nor are they at risk of coming adrift it I have to trot a bit to cross a road between traffic flows. I can however feel a little more wiggle than I am comfortable with. There could be an increased chance of blisters over any distance, particularly in this rather hilly part of the world.

I popped the shoes back off, crossed the laces, and tried them back on again (thankfully, the eyelets on these are large enough to get the laces back out without cutting them). This does feel like it might just have made the necessary difference, and coaxed out that little bit of surplus wiggle room.



This is a wide fitting shoe, and so there is plenty of room for the feet to spread in conventional laces. Now that I have the silicone laces in, it feels there might actually be enough room for an additional insole. Maybe a gel insole might make these shoes even better over a several mile day. If I decide to give that a try, I may need to uncross those laces again, or even go up a size, but I have the spares here already, so there's plenty of scope for a little more fine tuning.

I probably need to put a few miles on these as they stand first though, to see whether or not they do need that little bit of extra padding/filling.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

mmm a great inspiration to go order some nice leather laces thanks gents

Leather laces have never worked well for me. Two of the pairs I have converted to the Easy Lace originally had leather. If the silicone hadn't worked out, I was going to track down some regular cord laces for them. Thankfully the Easy Lace wide laces worked in both, and are more comfortable than rigid laces.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

The easy lace system has been working well for me overall. Easy on, easy off, snug fitting, yet plenty of give as the hours and miles roll by. No, they're not always the most stylish solution for every shoe, but I'll accept that sacrifice for the additional ease and comfort they bring.

They aren't entirely foolproof though.
(Not for this fool, anyway)

Both the Padder Terrain, and the Hotter Harbour deck shoes, can suffer the occasional escapee, as the eyelet size is just a smidgen too wide to be secure at full stretch. As such, I'll be using a little scrap leather to make some simple washers to sit beneath the ... whatever the part of the shoe is called, that has the eyelets in.

Bob @johnniegold tuition please

I haven't decided yet, whether to go for individual washes per eyelet, or a continual strip with four holes in. I might try both.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

I made a couple of strips with holes punched at the correct intervals, for just one shoe as proof of concept. Before I potentially waste time making them for the others, I want to be sure they fix the escapee problem, but without affecting comfort.

Aside from ease of getting shoes on and off with chronic health challenges, the biggest benefit from this system is how they allow for expansion of the foot throughout the day. These shoes particularly seemed to get quite restrictive as the hours and miles pass, and having mobility and balance issues, can make it quite challenging to stop and retie the shoes at a different tension when out and about. As such, I'm quite eager for this system to work reliably over a long busy day.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Well, that ^^^ has worked like a charm. Laces are secure, and no deterioration in comfort whatsoever. In fact, they are now more comfortable than they ever were with standard inflexible laces. I have done the other shoe to this pair now, and now that I know it works, I will look at doing the other pairs of shoes as needed.

That said, I probably won't be doing it on any pairs that need polishing i.e. dressy shoes. Casual pairs only, that will likely only get a brush or wipe, which won't need me to remove the laces.