Eli5: I tie both of my shoe laces with the same technique and strength. Why does only one always get untied?

Question

Eli5: I tie both of my shoe laces with the same technique and strength. Why does only one always get untied?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

My best bet – the shoelace knot is supposed to be a form of the reef knot – ‘left over right, right over left’. When tied wrong, with both half knots tied the same way, it is called a granny knot. The granny knot doesn’t lock, and slips.

It is possible that your technique is getting one of the half knots backward. And it is easy to see – when tied properly, the laces lie across the shoe, when tied wrong, the laces try to lie along the shoe.

If someone is tying both shoes in a granny knot, the solution is easy – you tie the ‘base knot’ the other way, then when you tie the finishing knot the same as always, the knot works out correct. But if you are tying both shoes differently, it isn’t quite so easy to fix.