Lock Laces For Young and Old

We all start out as infants and if we are lucky, we can live to a ripe old age.  It's like climbing a hill until we reach middle age, whenever that is.  When I turned forty, I didn't like it.  I told my mom that I was over the hill.  Her advice to me was that it is a lot easier going downhill than up.  As it turned out, forty isn't over the hill at all.  There is still quite a climb ahead.  Now I can officially say I am over the hill.  Life in the sixty's and seventy's is sweeter in many ways.  If a person is fortunate enough to be reasonably healthy, we can do a lot of things that were not acceptable earlier.  We can stay up as late or get up whenever we want, we can swear and no one cares, we can eat a snack at 10 pm, we can speak up, watch cartoons and kick our shoes off without untying them.  Old age isn't all roses and balloons, but the freedom to be yourself is a definite bonus.

Speaking of kicking off your shoes without untying them, young kids do it all the time but most often they get in trouble for ruining the backs of their shoes.  My husband doesn't like to deal with tying and untying his shoes, he is not as agile as he used to be.  He solved that problem for himself.  He bought new shoelaces for his shoes.  They are called Lock Laces.  Lock laces are elastic shoe laces with a locking mechanism to keep the shoes tied and plastic tips to keep the laces from unraveling.

I don't know where he learned about these laces, but he asked me to find some to order.  I found them for $4.99 each.  We ordered three pair.  He chose his favorite worn out athletic shoes as a test pair.  He sat down to convert the laces.  The first thing you do is take out the old laces and string the new laces in the same manner as any replacement laces.

I know these shoes look like they have seen better days.

When the laces have been strung, then the locking part is laced through both sides.  They get tightened to a comfortable point, the same tension as tying your shoes.

The laces are long enough to accommodate all shoes sizes so when when the shoe is comfortable, the excess can be cut off.

The plastic tips are put on and the new laces are ready to go.  When putting the shoes on the locking laces are elastic enough to allow the foot to slip into the shoe.  If needed the locking disk can be loosened or tighten to adjust the fit.  Also with no shoe strings to come untied there is no risk of tripping on them.  For some reason most athletic shoes come with extra long laces which make them easy to come untied.

So now my husband can put on, with the help of a shoe horn, and kick off his shoes without a problem.  Maybe "kick off" isn't the right term for an older person, but he can remove his shoes easily.  I'm not ready for these yet but they are a good option for some people young and old.