Feet are weird. Like, really weird. If you feel like your feet are just a little bit special like the rest of us, check out these cool ways to change your shoes to fit you better.
Problem: Wide Forefoot
If you have a wide forefoot, chances are you refuse to wear a heel with a pointed toe, and feel most shoes are a squeeze on your pinkies. Don’t worry, my triangular foot-shaped friend, there are solutions! The lacing pictured, called cross-lacing, leaves you with much less pull on the front part of your foot. It has made my sneakers wearable for years!
Problem: Heel Slipping Out of Your Shoe
If your foot also looks like an inverted triangle, another reason could be because you have a narrow heel. When this happens, your heel constantly slips out the back of your shoes (especially those flats). The trick above makes sure your laces are pulling the shoe tight on your small heel. Never have your shoe slip off while running again!
Problem: Two Different Sized Feet
To avoid chaos, stores will NOT allow us to buy two different sizes of the same shoe. To make up for it, us un-evens have to carve out our own unique solutions! Personally, I find buying the smaller size and tying a shoe so one is longer is easiest. There are about 4 different (reasonable) ways to tie your shoe to give it length. Here are lacing techniques in order of most length giving to least: Hash lacing, Army Lacing, Bow Tie Lacing, and Straight Bar Lacing.
Problem: Shoes Are Too Small
Parallel lacing is a great trick to use if the shoes you ordered online are just one squeeze too small. It changes the shoe to what feels like half a size.
Problem: You’re Shoes Aren’t Cool Enough
Boring laces? How drab! There are dozens of cool ways to tie your shoes that look very impressive. If you’re going for a cool sneaker look, try any of these lace tricks on Ian’s Shoe Lace Site! He gives detailed, step-by-step diagrams of how to make your dream-laces a reality. Also, if I didn’t mention your foot-problem, there’s many other lacings he has to try.
Lattice Lacing
Loopback Lacing