How difficult can it be? One shoe, one lace, You thread it through the holes, tie it up and off you go. Read on as Chris Sharp of The Footbed Clinic talks about the main types of lacing, its advantages and disadvantages, and how special lacing techniques can help specific foot types. Using the wrong lacing pattern for your foot shape can cause discomfort, blisters and, at worst, injuries.
BASIC LACING
1. Cross Lacing: most people lace their trainers like this (see diagram). The advantage is that cross lacing holds the foot firmly in position laterally. The disadvantage is that is can put an uncomfortablle amount of pressure on the top of the foot if the laces are pulled too tightly.
2. Bar Lacing: favoured by the armed forces. The advantage of this method is that it places less pressure on the top of the foot. The disadvantage is that the lace tends to stretch, reducing stability.
The big drawback with both of these basic lacing patterns is that neither allows the foot to expand during exercise. If you pull your laces snug before a session, chances are that 20 minutes later your shoes will be pinching.
PRESCRIPTIVE LACING
3. Lock Lacing: using the extra two holes sometimes found at the top of the lace box allows for expansion during exercise. Lock lacing can be used in combination with any other lacing pattern. Take each end of your lace back inside the shoe at the extra hold, forming two loops. Then lace through the opposite loop and pull towards the ankle to tighten the loops, then tie the laces in the normal way.
4. High Insteps: with a high instep, whether you use cross lacing or bar lacing, you are likely to feel lace pressure. To give the foot stability and relieve pressure, literally lace around the peak of the instep, using cross lacing below the instep and lace lock above the instep, as shown.
Most trainers have an extra line of holes along the lace box, which are there to give a multiwidth facility:
5. Narrow feet: use the lines of holes that are furthest apart to make the shoe fitting narrower.
6. Wide feet: using the holes that are nearest together gives a larger width fitting.
