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I walk a lot, but the act of walking keeps on loosening my shoelaces, to the point that sometimes as often as every 10 minutes or so I'm re-tying my shoes. This gets really annoying.
What are some ways of preventing my shoes from coming untied so easily?
Answers which accommodate chronic hand problems (arthritis, RSI, etc.) would be especially appreciated.
The standard trick when I was a kid was to use shoe laces that were a few inches longer than the minimum, and after tying the laces normally with extra long bow loops, tie the bow loops in a half hitch over the existing knot. Works great, but it's a good bit more work to untie intentionally...
Nylon laces are slippery, though strong. Pine resin (sap) dissolved in alcohol or acetone makes an effective anti-slip agent. Apply a bit to the laces at the knot, or dip them in it. The knot can still be untied, but it takes more effort.
An alternative is to replace nylon with cotton laces... but I find they break more often. Even better, elastic shoe laces stay tied and stretch a bit so that shoes can be slipped on, a help when one has arthritis.
