Indestructible Shoe Laces
My shoes are about a year old now and my laces have been at the end of their life for a few weeks. Laces always fray. I knew there were synthetic materials out there that have to last longer than the shoelaces that come with your shoes. So, a quick search online revealed someone’s suggestion for the use of paracord.
My shoe laces are now made from 550 Paracord, Coyote Brown. It’s a type of narrow cord made for the military which purportedly has a tensile strength of 550 pounds. Seems pretty impressive. I ordered a 100 foot length from ebay, cut the appropriate length to replace my old worn out shoe laces and then burned the ends down so those wouldnt fray. The seem to hold very well, but it’s important to note 2 things.
One. When melting the ends of the cut cord, the black melted plastic terminus of the lace was too big to fit through the grommets on my shoes, it had to be trimmed with a knife.
Two. This material is much more slippery than cotton laces, you have to tie your shoes tighter or with a more secure knot in order to keep them tied all day.
Other than that, the experiment with replacing my shoelaces has been successful. And, with about 93 feet left I’ll be able to replace the laces on a lot of shoes.