You bought yourself a pair of new sneakers with fashionable high soles. But when we returned home from the store and tried on the new clothes again, we noticed that the laces were too long and spoiled the whole stylish look. Don't rush to run to the store again for new laces. Your problem can be easily solved at home.
Determine how much we will reduce
Too long laces not only look unsightly, but can cause you to fall if you accidentally step on a protruding edge. Therefore, there is only one way out - they need to be shortened. It won't take too long.
To begin, put on your sneakers again, lace them up and tie them the way you will wear them. Measure how many extra centimeters you need to remove. If using a ruler is inconvenient, use a tape to measure the length of the protruding ends.
What you need for work
Before you start shortening, prepare everything you need:
- sharp scissors;
- marker or felt-tip pen;
- transparent tape;
- polyurethane glue or nail polish;
- cocktail straw or shrink tubing;
- lighter or candle.
Start fixing the ends immediately after trimming.
How will we shorten
After taking off your feet and unlacing your sneakers, apply the tape you used to measure the length of the excess and mark this place with a marker. Next, you can proceed in several ways.
Using tape
The easiest way to shorten laces is to use tape. Cut off the excess parts and secure the new ends with transparent tape.
To make the operation more or less successful, place the tape on the table with the sticky side up. Place the tip of the lace in the middle and wrap the tape tightly around it. For reliability, you can drop a drop of glue onto the aglet and then secure it with tape. The tape will hold the fabric securely on the lace and it will not roll around.
One problem is that the tape doesn’t look very impressive, so if you have sneakers for running, you can shorten them this way, but if you have expensive sneakers for the weekend, then such a modification will ruin them.
Using glue
A lace in which the fixation point is treated with glue will look much neater. Use scissors to cut off excess pieces of laces, and fix the resulting ends with polyurethane glue no more than 1 cm. Give the drop of glue a cone shape by slightly pressing.
After drying, you can repeat the operation by applying another thin layer of glue - this will make the lace stronger and look neater.
After such a procedure, you will have to wash your hands of glue for a long time, but it is worth it. And to prevent your hands from getting dirty, you can use gloves.
It is not recommended to use other types of glue.
Using a straw
But the most attractive ones will be the laces treated with cocktail straws. Cut the laces along the marked line.Cut 2 pieces of tube so that their length does not exceed 2 cm. Thread the ends into the tubes so that the lace fabric does not peek out.
Bring a lighter to the end of the straw and heat the straw. Do this carefully so as not to scorch the plastic black. The heat causes the straw to shrink at the edges and form a cone, visually resembling a cap. After processing both ends of the lace, it can be tucked back into the shoe.
It is advisable to match the color of the tube to the color of the lace. But if you like shocking, then you can use contrasting colors.
Advice from experienced people
Those who have already practiced shortening have learned several rules well:
- you need to cut only with very sharp scissors so as not to fray the ends;
- You cannot shorten the lace on one side, as in this case you will end up with two completely different ends;
- in order not to suffer with the ends, you can cut off the unnecessary part of the lace in the middle, then tie both parts together and fix them with glue for reliability;
- do not use “Super Moment”, as it will glue the lace to your fingers and make it difficult to form the tip;
- waterproof glue can be successfully replaced with transparent nail polish;
- the straw can be replaced with a heat-shrinkable tube, which you can get from electricians;
- instead of a lighter, you can use a lit candle or a mini-iron, if available;
- screw the end of the lace into the tube so that it frays less;
- synthetic laces can be immediately melted over an open fire, and you will get a neat eglet;
- carry out the procedure over the sink so that in case of fire, immediately extinguish the fire;
- Allow the ends to dry thoroughly before lacing.
Once the laces are dry, insert them into your sneakers and make sure you cut enough. But if they are long again, the operation will have to be repeated.
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