Alright, so today I wanted to talk about this little thing I got into, this whole “laces score” business. It sounds a bit daft, I know, but sometimes you just get an itch to figure something out, you know?
How It All Kicked Off
It wasn’t like I woke up one morning and thought, “Today, I will become the world’s foremost expert on shoelace performance!” Nah, nothing like that. I was just getting fed up with laces. Constantly coming undone, snapping at the worst possible moment. You know the drill. One pair, in particular, a fancy-looking set that came with some new walking shoes, drove me nuts. Looked good, felt awful, broke within a week. So, I thought, there’s gotta be a better way to figure out what’s good and what’s just marketing fluff.
My First Go – A Bit of a Mess
So, I started messing around. Honestly, my first attempts were a joke. I tried pulling on them, seeing how much force they could take. I even tried to time how long different knots would hold on my kid’s sneakers while he was tearing around the park. That was pure chaos, let me tell you. Got some funny looks from other parents, too. My notes from that phase were just scribbles like “Blue ones – rubbish” or “Round ones – seem okay?” Not exactly scientific, was it?
Trying to Make Some Sense of It
I figured if I was going to do this, I needed some kind of system, even a daft one. So, I came up with this “laces score” idea. I broke it down into a few things I cared about:
- Knot Grip: How well does the knot actually stay put? This was a big one for me.
- Durability: How much yanking and pulling can it take before it starts to fray or, worse, snap?
- Ease of Use: Some laces are a nightmare to thread through eyelets, especially those thick, stiff ones.
- Feel: Yeah, a bit subjective, but do they feel like they’re going to last or do they feel cheap and nasty?
I even thought about adding ‘Looks’ but decided against it. We’re talking performance here, mostly. I just gave points for each, sort of 1 to 5. Rough and ready, but it was a start.
The Actual Grind
Then came the “fun” part. I actually went out and bought a bunch of different laces. Flat ones, round ones, cheap ones from the corner shop, some so-called ‘premium’ ones I found online. My house started to look like a haberdashery exploded. I spent evenings, cup of tea in hand, just lacing up different shoes, tying knots, yanking on them, making notes. My fingers were pretty sore after a few days of this, I’m not gonna lie. My wife kept asking if I was starting a new, very niche, business.
The testing for knot grip was interesting. I’d lace up a pair of old trainers, tie a standard knot, and then just go about my day – walking, doing chores, nothing too extreme. Some laces would be loose in an hour. Others held like they were superglued. The durability test was more direct. I’d just pull. Some snapped surprisingly easily. Others, you felt like you could tow a car with them.
What I Found Out
And you know what? It was actually quite revealing. Some of the expensive, fancy-branded laces? Utter garbage. They’d score low on durability or knot grip. Then you’d get some plain, unassuming laces that cost next to nothing, and they’d be brilliant. Really strong, held a knot perfectly. It just goes to show, doesn’t it? You can’t always judge a book by its cover, or a lace by its fancy packaging.
One particular type, a simple, flat cotton lace, came out top in my little “laces score” system. Cheap as chips, but it just worked. Didn’t slip, didn’t fray easily. Who knew?
So, Was It Worth It?
Now, you might be thinking, what’s the point of all this? Did I revolutionize the shoelace industry? Absolutely not. Did I discover some earth-shattering secret? Nope. But it was a bit of an eye-opener for me. It’s like a lot of things in life, innit? Sometimes the simplest, most unassuming option is the best. And sometimes, you just gotta dig into something yourself to figure it out, instead of just taking things at face value.
It’s kinda like that time I tried to build my own shed from scratch following some online guide. Looked easy. Turned out to be a right palaver, things not fitting, wood warping. But I stuck with it, learned a ton, and in the end, even though it wasn’t perfect, it was my shed. This laces score thing is a bit like that. A small, slightly odd project, but I learned something, and now my laces hardly ever come undone. And that, for me, is a win.
