How to Straight Lace Shoes

Insert shoelace into the first eyelets of your first shoe. With the toe of the shoe pointed away from you, the first pair of eyelets is the pair farthest from you. Insert the left end of the shoelace into the left eyelet and the right end into the right eyelet.^[1]

Finish right lace. Run your right lace underneath the right row of eyelets toward you, all the way to the last eyelet. Pull it up through the final eyelet.^[2]

Adjust the shoelace length. For this technique, the left lace is going to be doing all the work, so you want it to be much longer before you begin. Pull on the left lace until the remaining end of the right lace seems about long enough to tie a knot with when you are done. For now, make a rough estimate as you can adjust it more later.

Prepare to lace the second bar. Run the left lace toward you until you reach the next eyelet on the left side. Pull the lace up through this eyelet.

Lace the second bar. Pull the left lace across the shoe to the right side and push it down through the second eyelet on the right side. Pull the lace until it's taught. We will now refer to this lace as the "working lace."

Prepare to lace the third bar. Run the working lace toward you until you reach the next (third) eyelet on the right side. Pull the lace up through this eyelet.

Lace the third bar. Bring the working lace across the shoe to the left side. Push it down through the third eyelet on the left side. Pull the lace until it's taught.

Continue lacing. Using this same single lace, repeat steps 4 through 7 until you reach the last eyelet.

Adjust the lengths of the laces. Now that you've finished lacing, make sure once more that each lace is of approximately equal length. Pull on your working lace as far down the shoe as you need to go in order to make your non-working lace longer, or vice versa.

Lace your other shoe. Complete all of these steps on your second shoe.