Comment by AndrewHampton
22 days ago
Back in 2004, while bored in my college dorm, I learned the Ian Knot from this site. I've used it ever since. A few weeks ago, my 10 year old decided it was time to learn how to tie his shoes "dad's way". I was pleasantly surprised to see the site was still up, so I used it to help teach him how to do it.
Also been exclusively Ian Knot every since. Lightening fast and consistent.
Funny anecdote: In college when I learned it, the woman I was with was leaving my place and when she was putting on her shoes I said "wait I gotta show you something" and dropped to one knee to tie my shoes. She looked terrified until I clarified it was my tying my shoes quickly and not a proposal.
Same. I also use Ian's Secure Knot in places where you'd use a double-knot https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/secureknot.htm
This is the one I use, too. Learned this and the near-instant one, but this is actually really practical and produces a nice and even knot. Winner!
I also use this one everyday. I learned the quick one back in the day, but I value never ever having to stop and re-tie my laces.
There's an awesome book Ian put out with laces on the cover and illustrations of all his lacing and knot suggestions. Potential future gift!
I also learned it back in 2004 and it was one of the single most useful skills I have ever acquired. My shoes never come untied anymore. Coaching baseball, when a kid's shoe comes untied, I re-tie it for them with the Ian knot. Life changing skill.
The Ian knot is just as likely to come untied the knot formed by the regular method or the bunny ear method. Because all result in the same knot.
If you noticed a change after you switched knots, you might have been inadvertently creating granny knots:
https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/grannyknot.htm
Amongst all of the technological advances available to us, tying my shoes using the Ian Knot is the one thing that will get people to accuse me of witchcraft.
I've tried a couple of these "better" shoe tying knots and have never had the patience to learn them to the point they become habitual. So I can spend 2 seconds tying a shoelace the way I learned when I was 5 years old, or I can spend 5 minutes fumbling with some other knot. I go with what works for me. Optimizing the time I spend tying my shoes just isn't anywhere on the radar of things that would have a worthwhile ROI.
I've been 100% slip-ons for years.
There are laces designed to convert a shoe meant for regular laces into a slip-on, such as https://www.locklaces.com/
I've used them and they worked pretty well.