Tying shoelaces is so overrated. Ask any child who scrambles out of the house and–to the horror of their parents– neglects to even grab their shoes. I know I have never enjoyed stopping everything on my way out of the house to tie my shoelaces.
When I discovered the Original Stretchlace, I was quite excited to try out this unique spin on the ordinary shoelace. Stretchlace is a brand of shoelaces that are (as described in the name) very stretchy. These laces reduce the struggle of tying and untying your shoes every time you wear them. Or prevent damage to shoes when you refuse to tie them and untie them and instead just shove your foot in and jam down the back of your poor shoe. I am guilty of doing that far too often.
These laces come in many colors, sizes, and some different shapes too. There are round laces and flat laces. Personally, I got some plain black flat laces.
My first impression of the Stretchlace was that I loved the fun packaging, but most importantly, I quickly realized they weren’t kidding when they called them the Stretchlace! They are incredibly flexible. Yet, I can vouch for them being durable as well.
When I wove these into my tennis shoes (as a matter of fact, my Asics that I have previously reviewed), I noticed many unique details about these laces. I had to be as loose as possible with these laces because they will squeeze tightly if you leave tension in them due to their elastic nature. It took some time to really get the correct feel in these laces because of that tightness, but ultimately I just had to make a few adjustments, and all was well.
Tying stretchy laces like these is interesting. Once again, I had to be gentle as I tied them; otherwise, they tended to disagree with the knot and just not work. Altogether, it took some practice, and I had some nicely tied shoes.
On a side note (sort of), I was quite happy when I discovered my favorite technique of tying shoes was the best way to work with these laces. Unfortunately, how I tie my laces seems to be a pet peeve to a lot of people. It involves making both loops at once and tying them through each other.
The Stretchlace takes some adjusting, but I am happy with my laces. Not only do I get to leave my laces tied all the time, but I also get a shoe that is more fluid to my feet. For example, if I am running, my foot may expand, and in the past, my laces could restrict that expansion, but these laces can expand and contract with my feet. This helps reduce irritation (such as blisters) by keeping my shoe securely on my foot.
I certainly recommend you try out these laces. Especially for kids, this makes a great solution for shoe-lace-tying negligence.
