Standard shoe laces are all great and dandy until they become untied. Velcro shoes for adults never caught on with anyone but the military and those who lack the dexterity to tie shoes.

I propose velcro laces. They would be standard shoe laces but the ends would be covered in velcro material. with one end of the lace corresponding to each part. That way you could still tie the shoe as normal but the extra friction provided by velcro would never let them come undone accidentally.
-- metarinka, Dec 07 2011

Velcro Shoe Laces http://www.google.c...q=velcro+shoe+laces
Pretty well known to exist [csea, Dec 07 2011]

I think the idea was that these laces would be tied as normal but the aglets at the ends would be velcro'd down, so the search doesn't seem to be relevant.
-- RayfordSteele, Dec 07 2011


yah Rayford understands my... genius? The laces would have several inches at the end for velcro purposes, not the big wide band that flops over your strings.

i also thought maybe you would try to place at the part where you tied a bow since slippage is what causes shoelaces to untie.
-- metarinka, Dec 08 2011


//aglets// I challenge the notion that "the plastic things on the ends of shoelaces are called aglets", which has been doing the rounds since at least the '90s, but is about as correct as claiming that the circular thing used to steer a car is called a "handlebar".

Properly speaking, aglets are made of metal, and tend to be cone-shaped or otherwise pointed. They are used on ribbons and other forms of lacing, and are historically and presently more likely to be found on bodices etc. than on shoes. The bit of plastic that stops shoelaces from fraying would be more correctly called a binding. So there!
-- spidermother, Dec 08 2011


//I challenge the notion that "the plastic things on the ends of shoelaces are called aglets" ... Properly speaking, aglets are made of metal, and tend to be cone-shaped or otherwise pointed. They are used on ribbons and other forms of lacing, and are historically and presently more likely to be found on bodices etc. than on shoes.//

I'd have thought the name followed the function, so assuming the functions are the same it would be fine. I do see your handlebar/steering-wheel comparison, but I think this should be considered differently. Both the steering device names describe the shape, so it's not surprising they vary. According to wikipedia, however, 'aglet' derives from the French word for needle, so there's no reason to think that they should be cone-shaped rather than just long and pointy. Also apparently they were used historically instead of buttons, could be decoratively shaped and still referred to as aglets.

On the other hand, if you're a Tom Cruise fan you could call them Flugal binders.
-- Loris, Dec 08 2011


Aglets are not necessarily cone-shaped, but some of them do/did achieve their pointedness by being shaped like a slender cone; that's what I meant by //cone shaped or otherwise pointed//. The ribbon etc. is inserted into the open base.

Yes, the function is somewhat similar, but I still think "binding" more accurately describes the form of the modern plastic shoelace ends. Some 1950s and earlier shoelaces may have had aglets proper, but they are very rare now.

I mostly just object to the (at best) gross oversimplification of the implied 1 to 1 correspondence between plastic shoelace ends and aglets.
-- spidermother, Dec 08 2011


Would you not say that ‘binding’ carries the connotation of some kind of cord or thread being wrapped around the end?
-- pocmloc, Dec 08 2011


BLOODNOK Now, Ned of Wales, Bloodnock of Anywhere will get you out of this home provided you sign the contract on this boiled egg.

NED (dry) Is this contract binding?

Binding does not equal winding; in particular, the binding on a rope or cord _may_ be a thinner cord wrapped around the end (called a whipping, or whip lashing), but can equally be a tight sheath of some material, or various other methods, such as melting or glue.
-- spidermother, Dec 08 2011


Only here could we possibly find a debate about shoelace semantics and etymology.
-- RayfordSteele, Dec 08 2011


Thankyou, yes I agree now I have considered it a bit. One's shoes can bind on one's ankles.
-- pocmloc, Dec 08 2011



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