Lace Up Your Shoes Comfort Your Feet

I've known for ages that people lace up shoes in different ways, but always figured they were laced up by the most convenient way, or the way that looks most attractive, but the way you lace up your shoes can actually have a significant impact on the comfort of your shoes, and if you have certain foot features or are running into a particular problem with your shoes, it can sometimes be fixed by simply tying your shoes differently.

While you are walking or running, the foot cannot push as deep into the laces allowing room for the heels to slip. As you know, the body uses counter forces to cause movement. When we walk, we push against the ground to create the force necessary for walking. When we are walking forward, our foot pushes against the ground with the ball of our foot and toes and our heel wants to lift to create motion. As it wants to lift, the top of the foot pushes into the lace area. The purpose of the laces is to resist against this push so that the shoe and by foot become effectively one object. As your laces loosen, your shoe and foot become separated. Consequently, instead of your foot and shoe pushing against the ground together (energy of your foot being transferred through the shoe to the ground), your foot pushes against the shoe, and pushes itself away from the shoe, thus causing your heel to slip out.

Think of your laces as the web that holds your shoes to your foot. You get maximum comfort out of a shoe that conforms to your natural foot as much as possible. The fewer spaces between your foot and your shoe, the easier energy is transferred through your shoes to the ground. A person with a high than average arch is going to have a gap between the sole of their foot and the bottom of the shoe, and their instep is going to protrude further into the lace area. We account for the gap between foot sole and bottom of shoe with an insole, and we account for the protruding instep by changing the shape of the web. Instead of a perfectly straight web like you get with traditional lacing strategy, this strategy provides a contoured web that in terms of force exerted on the foot by the shoe when walking, better forms to the foot with a high arch.

Whether you are wearing a pair of walking shoes or running shoes, when you account for your high arch, you will be able to go farther and experience less pain in the process.