Overview

If you have a pair of shoes or trainers which have smooth shiny laces you may well have a problem with the laces coming undone while you are wearing them. Most people get around this problem by taking the two loops of the normal shoe lace bow and tying a knot in them thus making the bow immune to coming undone on its own and immune to being undone easily by you when you want to take the shoes off.

I think that I have a better way of tying a secure shoe lace bow.

The Double Shoe Lace Bow

For a normal shoe lace bow you tie an overhand knot followed by a second overhand knot in the opposite direction after having folded the ends; thus forming the loops which allow you to slip it when you want to undo it. A shoe lace bow is, technically, a double slipped reef knot so the first thing to check is that you are not tying a double slipped granny knot. While the granny knot looks OK it actually will slip as soon as any strain is applied.

Notice the difference in these pictures which show non-slipped knots: (hover your mouse over either one to see an enlarged image)

So, if you were tying double slipped granny knots then that might explain why the bows were coming undone. If not or if you still find that the bow comes undone even after you tied a normal double slipped reef knot then I recommend trying my double double slipped reef knot

Double Shoe Lace Bow

The essence of the double shoe lace bow is in the name: everything is done twice. So, start by tying a single overhand knot and then double it by doing another overhand bit:

Next pull this part tight - as tight as you can. As long as the laces aren't too slippery you will already notice that it is more secure. Next make your first loop:

Now start the second loop:

But, instead of just pulling the second loop tight past the first loop, pass the second loop around the first loop again:

Nearly there: now pull the second loop clear:

Finally pull the two loops tight whilst keeping a hold on the two lace ends to make the bow nice and neat:

I've never had one of these double bows come undone. ...and when you do want to undo it to take your shoes off it's easy - you pull the lace ends just as you would do with an ordinary bow.

NOTE. Just as with an ordinary bow you have to make sure that the shoe lace ends haven't got themselves through either of the loops because, if they have, you will end up with a very messy non-un-do-able knot - just like you would with an ordinary bow in that state.