I walk about 4 miles a day on a treadmill (actually a walking desk, an amazing invention. Look it up, it will change your life). For a FAA 170 lb human, shoes are supposed to last about 400 miles. As you get heavier, the mileage you can get out of a shoe drops off substantially. Since the FAA considers me ~1.5 human, my shoe mileage runs about 300 or so miles, meaning I am getting a new pair of shoes about every 3 months. That’s not actually too bad, before my knee replacement (aviation injury, but not nearly as sexy as it sounds) I was walking 10 miles a day and blowing through a new pair every month. I use NB shoes exclusively, besides the company’s attempt at keeping things American made (or at least designed), they have a better selection of widths, and fit better. Bad shoes for distance walking, running or whatever are murder on your feet. I also wear Injinji “toe socks” to keep my toes from blistering each other. But, I digress.

The last couple of pair of NB shoes I have purchased have seemingly had shorter and shorter shoelaces. This is not just an opinion, I pulled one old set and compared them to the new ones. I am not sure if NB is getting shorted by a supplier, decided that they could save a penny or two per hundred shoes or just ran out of longer laces, but the laces supplied with the shoes are no longer usable for me as supplied. I bought a couple of new sets of laces, but then came on a better solution.

On the Internet, there is everything. For people who want to look, you can find recipes, cars, and sites specifically devoted to lacing shoes. My solution to the NB problem is to switch them to straight bar lacing, a method that allows for 28% longer lace ends. With the shorter shoelaces, this comes out about right.

But I would prefer getting the right laces for the shoes.