What's All This Brouhaha? » Attire

New shoes

Eric — Wed, 20 Apr 2005 21:55:50 +0000

I’m not sure that the Superfeet insoles are going to work out for me. I’ve always used cheaper arch support insoles in the past, and they’ve never caused me any trouble, but the new shoes with the Superfeet insoles are making my feet hurt. Maybe it’s the shoes rather than the Superfeet, though I doubt it. Tonight I’ll put the original insoles back in and try that for a while.

My feet definitely have an unusual shape, and I’m never surprised when mass-market foot products don’t work so well for me. I have flat, wide feet, with a really high instep. I hope I don’t have to start getting custom orthotics.

New shoes

Eric — Tue, 19 Apr 2005 18:52:08 +0000

I’ve liked New Balance shoes for several years. Most recently I had their 805 running shoes, which were comfortable. I don’t do any running, so I decided to try some of their walking shoes. And even though I learned last year that the reason my shoelaces were always coming untied was that I was tying them incorrectly, and now to tie them properly so that they don’t come untied, I decided that I’d try shoes with velcro closures.

I ended up buying the MW574VK, and some Superfeet Synergizer Blue support insoles.

Shoelaces

Eric — Sat, 24 Jan 2004 20:52:34 +0000

I recently learned that the reason I’ve had trouble all my life with keeping my shoelaces tied is that I was taught to do it incorrectly. There are two major steps to tying a standard shoelace bow, and each step can be done in two mirror-image manners. If you pair the steps incorrectly, you wind up with a slip knot, and that’s what I’ve been doing.

You can tell visually whether this is happening because a correct bow is horizontal (across the width of the shoe), but a slip knot will tend to orient itself in the direction along the length of the shoe.

The fix is to do one or the other major step in the opposite manner. For instance, if you start by passing the left lace over the right one, instead pass it under.

I’ve tried explaining this to various people and met a lot of skepticisim. I just did a Google search hoping that someone had documented it, and sure enough, found Slipping Shoelace Knots by Ian W. Fieggen. In addition to the well-illustrated explanation of the slip knot problem, he also presents several other improved shoelace bows, including his own “Ian Knot”.