Here’s a fun lacing tip/trick you can use with your Xero Shoes.
Basically, it’s making a “lacing loop” out of a small section of our new laces or using our toe loops.
There are two reasons you may want to do this:
1) It’s a cool decorative element (especially if you use a different color for the loop than you do for the rest of your lacing), and lets you re-lace your Xero Shoes really fast.
Here’s what our sales manager, Rudy, did with this idea, when he added a loop at the ankle holes and toe hole:
2) The other thing this lacing loop is good for is “addressing” a form problem.
A very small number of people will create abrasion at the outside ankle hole which wears out the lace at that spot (FWIW, I and all the Xero wearers I know have put tens of thousands of miles on their shoes without ever wearing out a lace).
If you do this, you can “fix” the problem, by attending to your gait (and stopping creating the extra horizontal friction that causes the problem).
OR… you can “address” the problem by making the lace more resistant to abrasion. One way to do that is by rubbing some Shoe Goo on the lace. The lacing loop is another.
The video below explains how to make the lacing loop and why you would use it.
I can’t wait to see what you do with this idea!
I like this idea, the lace can easily be changed to match my clothes and I can use two different colors of laces. Will it be tight enough for running or is it only for casual wearing?
If you use a loop for the toe hole only, then it’ll work fine for running (as well as casual use, of course).
If you want to put loops at the ankle holes, too, then you’ll want to keep those loops small — about 1/2″ or less extending past the sole. If they’re much longer, there’s a bit too much play in the lacing.
At least that’s my experience. Try it yourself and see.
Thanks for your reply. I placed my order today, so I’ll try it out as soon as I get them!
Go from front toe mini-strap to the right or left side mini-loop, behind your heel, the other mini-loop on the side and to the front hole mini-strap and make the knot there. Now you have flip-flops with a heel-strap. I will try that. 🙂
Where’s the knot? It looks like the white cord is continuous…
The knot is at the top of the foot. The extra lace is trimmed tightly.
Love it *EXCEPT for running in mud*! I wore my sandals with exactly this lacing style (and color!) for a couple hundred miles. Loved it! Very solid and looked like new after each run. The laces showed no wear at all unlike my experience with the traditional lacing style. Wednesday was my first run with them in the pouring rain. They did great on roads, sidewalks, and even through a few puddles. Then I hit a park (mud trail) and… BAM! Five or so strides in, my left Xero flew off my foot. What happened?! The toe loop had pulled out completely and the flat melted lug at the bottom was completely missing. Struggled with fixing it for five or ten minutes, taking a few more steps to find a seat. In those few steps the right Xero toe loop *also* pulled out!! I ended up running the two miles home completely barefoot in the rain, Xeros in hand (not a bad experience, just unexpected). I believe what happened is that a small amount of mud was forced up the toe hole, which lubricated the straps and allowed them to pull much harder than normal on the thick hard flat area formed by melting and pliers, shearing it off. Possibly the mud added to the friction and shearing. I think a proper knot under the toe may have helped, or sealing the hole with Goo to prevent mud coming through. I’ll experiment with those next.
Please, Steven I need step-by-step instructions on how to tie my xeros like this. I got the loops, and then?? Please help somebody who’s 100% hopeless at DIY (the basic tying of my Xeros took me the whole day and lots of swearing… and I got them custom-made!). Thank you so much!
After the loops, it’s just the Xero Basic. That is, you run the double lace through the ankle loops and then tie a knot at the top of the foot (a double half hitch, like in the Basic) and cut off the excess.
Thanks Steve! A double half hitch with the double lace then? That’s a massive knot, looks smaller in the picture and that’s where I got confused. Anyway, looks good now, thanks a lot!
You can make that double half hitch pretty flat… but any knot will do. Experiment. Play. See what you come up with 😉
Hi Steven, I guess I will, need to get more laces though… In the meantime I’ve used the double-double half hitch and I’ve got to say my Xeros are now orders of magnitude more comfortable to wear than with the basic tying. Perfect look for my week in Greece 😉 Thanks a lot!
Does 550 cord (or para cord) work the same?
I haven’t tried it, but you’ll probably have to remove the core to get it to melt into a good bead.
Do you have instructions for tying this style?
The video shows how to make the Lace Loops (Lace Beads)… after that, it’s essentially this, done with the doubled-up lace rather than a single strand: https://xeroshoes.com/barefoot-sandal-tying/ultra-minimalist-hitch/
Will leather laces allow you to do the same thing?
You can’t make the loops with leather, since they require melting the ends to form them into a “flat bead.”