When I was a kid, my parents had one argument for why I should keep my shoes tied: If I didn’t, I would trip and hurt myself. In the five decades since getting that warning, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone trip on an untied shoe lace.

But I’ve come close to crashing my bike when my laces got caught in the chain. And just last year, my son’s team lost a soccer game when a defender paused to tie his shoe, allowing an attacker to slip past him and score. I’ve also seen players lose their cleats in the middle of a match.

So there are lots of reasons to keep your shoes tied. And somehow double knots don’t always do the trick. That’s why Stash’s new LaceLocker is so useful. You just slip the tongue under your crossed laces, tie the laces and fasten the Velcro over them.

Here’s how it works:

I felt skeptical when I got a pair to try. But after using them for the past few weeks, I’ve come to appreciate the simplicity and reliability of LaceLockers. My shoes simply don’t come untied.

The LaceLocker also solves another problem. For reasons no one has ever explained to me, some laces come way too long. I often have 18 inches of lace ends left after I’ve tied a soccer shoe. I end up looping them around the bottom of the shoe just so they don’t get in the way. I’ve seen some sneakers with laces this long as well. You can tuck all that extra lace easily in a LaceLocker.

Just Don’t Lose Your LaceLockers

So I was sorry when one of my LaceLockers disappeared. I searched throughout my soccer bag, but finally decided I must have dropped it on the field at the previous game.

And that leads me to my only complaint about the product. LaceLockers don’t stay in place very well once you’ve taken off your shoe. Next time I’ll make a point of removing each LaceLocker and putting it inside the shoe.

The missing LaceLocker did result in a kind of accidental controlled trial: For my last couple of games, I have played with one shoe’s laces tied in a double knot and the other shoe’s laces secured with the LaceLocker. Sure enough, the double knot came undone. No mayhem ensued. But I did decide I should get another LaceLocker.

You can buy a pair for about $9.95 at one of these stores or for $7.95 for the basic model directly from Stash.

The photo on this page is by Laird Harrison

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