Ever had a look at your trainers and noticed that there’s an extra eyelet at the top? I always thought it was there just for the aesthetic, or maybe if your feet were slim you could use it to make the shoe fit better… that’s partially correct. It’s actually there so that you can create a heel lock which makes the shoe a lot more comfortable to wear, gives it a snugger fit and decreases the likelihood of blisters – whether or not you have slim feet. I stumbled across an article explaining what a heel lock is and when I tried it out, I realised it actually works and in this post I’ll explain how to tie your shoes like this.
First things first, not all shoes have an extra eyelet but you can still use this method to tie your shoes, you’ll just need to remove the lace from the top eyelet and use that instead (which is what I’ve done with my Adidas Superstars). Now that you have one eyelet empty you need to make sure the laces come out of the next eyelet down – sometimes laces are tied going from the outside in, just thread the lace from the inside out.
Now take the lace and thread it through the top eyelet on the same side, this time from the outside in; keep the loop you’ve created loose to make the next step easier.
Next, pull the end of the lace through the loop on the opposite side of the shoe and vise versa. For continuity’s sake check whether the lace goes right over left or left over right and duplicate this, then pull the laces so that the loops tighten.
Just tie your shoes like you normally would and you’ve created a heel lock. Depending on the shoe, you may notice more or less of a difference but I found that this method eliminated any rubbing I had and prevented my foot from moving around in the shoe. Another problem I had was tightening my shoelaces evenly without them biting into the bridge of my foot. The heel lock has eliminated this problem as it spreads out any pressure, increasing comfort and allowing me to take full advantage of my running shoes.
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Patrick Kyak 