HOW TO LACE YOUR SNEAKERS!

I can't recall exactly when I turned into ‘Professor Shoelace’. It was probably some time around the year 2000, when I first added the details of my ‘Ian Knot’, the World's Fastest Shoelace Knot, to my existing hobby web site. I'd been sharing information about my knot in various ways for almost 20 years, but for the first time I was getting feedback from people all over the world. Suddenly, I found myself answering all sorts of other questions about shoelaces! How do you lace shoes straight across? Why do my shoelaces come undone? Is there a more secure shoelace knot? What do you call the tips of shoelaces?

I soon realised a couple of things. Firstly, there was a great deal more to shoelaces than I'd ever imagined. Secondly, there wasn't a whole lot of information out there, probably because most people's immediate reaction is: Shoelaces? That's kindergarten knowledge! Plus the fact that there's no money in it.

That's when I figured that this was one way that I could contribute to the internet. I'd add the few snippets of shoelace knowledge that I had to my site, thus keeping those visitors happy as well as saving me from answering quite so many questions!

And so I started ‘Ian's Shoelace Site’. That was six years ago. Since then, the internet has grown, the number of visitors has grown, and despite constantly adding to the site, the list of future additions continues to grow as well. Who would have known that there were more than a dozen different shoelace knots? Or that nearly half the population could be tying their shoes with a ‘slip knot’? Or that there are around two trillion ways to run a shoelace through six pairs of eyelets? Looks like I may be busy for a while yet.