Shoelaces have always allowed for creativity.
As I previously touched on in an earlier post, it’s
a culture of customization unto itself. Since the mid to late 90's the art of
the lace has been increasingly overlooked. With sneakers being produced in
industrial quantities and in all manner of shapes, sizes and colours, the lace
has become somewhat accustomed to a more functional than decorative role.
However, it would seem high time to bring a renewed focus back onto laces in a
bout of updated nostalgia.
Reminiscing aside, it's accepted that any
shoestring can give additional flavor to the shoe but those that bring out the
sneaker as a whole have historically been both wider and fatter. Recreating
such a look has its throwback qualities but it's limited in its expression of something new. What we have learnt since the 80's is that the
fatter the laces are, the better they are. If issues of size are still of
relevance, then it should be expanded to their logical and practical conclusion.
From the simple fat lace came the medium fat lace, which quickly evolved into the
super fat lace. From this point on there were no further developments. The
shoelace was at a dead end and ready to begin its steady decline within sneaker
culture. It was unable to be salvaged even by the fancy lacing systems of
the 90's. It would seem that there simply wasn't a shoe large enough to
accommodate the next size up. But what if the shoe was ditched altogether?
