--- title: Shoelaces: Here's Why They Keep Coming Undone description: Scientists ran experiments on various shoelaces and concluded that many suffered from one issue - and it's not simply poor tying skills canonical: https://time.com/4736710/science-shoelaces-university-california-berkeley/ author: Zamira Rahim article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-12T17:25:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:54:27.165Z article:section: Science og:title: Science Just Figured Out Why Your Shoelaces Keep Coming Undone og:description: It's not just you og:url: https://time.com/4736710/science-shoelaces-university-california-berkeley/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltef76dd7ee965a11d/6988bdb8cd1bba4f967043ef/sneakers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 6702 og:image:height: 3770 og:image:alt: sneakers og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Science Just Figured Out Why Your Shoelaces Keep Coming Undone twitter:description: It's not just you twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltef76dd7ee965a11d/6988bdb8cd1bba4f967043ef/sneakers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Science Just Figured Out Why Your Shoelaces Keep Coming Undone > Sponsored content. 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It reaches 40,000 subscribers with a 34.2% open rate and a 2.1% click rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: The Most Expensive Shoes You Can Buy Right Now MONEY [Watch (HLS stream): The Most Expensive Shoes You Can Buy Right Now MONEY](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/MrclZ3Ip.m3u8) (1:19)  _Published 2017-04-10. These are the most expensive shoes you can buy right now._ by [Zamira Rahim](https://time.com/author/zamira-rahim/) ## Zamira Rahim Apr 12, 2017 5:25 PM UTC  Unrecognizable young runner tying her shoelaces. Studio shot on wooden floor background. Unrecognizable young runner tying her shoelaces. Studio shot on wooden floor background. Getty Images by [Zamira Rahim](https://time.com/author/zamira-rahim/) ## Zamira Rahim Apr 12, 2017 5:25 PM UTC Why do [shoelaces](http://time.com/7940/back-to-the-future-marty-mcfly-power-laces-coming-2015/) come undone as soon as they’re tied? It turns out the answer may be more than poor tying. Mechanical engineers at the [University of California Berkeley](http://www.berkeley.edu/) found that the force of a foot on the ground along with the force of a swinging or walking leg combine together to untie even the best of knots, [the BBC reports.](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39573642) The first force relaxes the knot, the second pulls at the laces. The experts used a slow-motion camera in their experiments to figure out the science behind the problem. A colleague filmed the study’s co-author Christine Gregg running on a treadmill to work out what happened once she’d tied up her laces. “To untie my knots, I pull on the free end of a bow tie and it comes undone,” Gredd said. “The shoelace knot comes untied due to the same sort of motion. The forces that cause this are not from a person pulling on the free end but from the inertial forces of the leg swinging back and forth while the knot is loosened from the shoe repeatedly striking the ground.” The experiment was conducted using a variety of laces, which all suffered from the same issue. “This is the first step toward understanding why certain knots are better than others,” Christopher Daily-Diamond,, a lead researcher on the project, said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4736710/science-shoelaces-university-california-berkeley/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4736710/science-shoelaces-university-california-berkeley/"},"headline":"Science Just Figured Out Why Your Shoelaces Keep Coming Undone","datePublished":"2017-04-12T17:25:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:54:27.165Z","description":"It's not just you","url":"https://time.com/4736710/science-shoelaces-university-california-berkeley/","keywords":["onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltef76dd7ee965a11d/6988bdb8cd1bba4f967043ef/sneakers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zamira Rahim","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zamira-rahim/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltef76dd7ee965a11d/6988bdb8cd1bba4f967043ef/sneakers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"sneakers","caption":"sneakers","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4736710/science-shoelaces-university-california-berkeley/","name":"Science Just Figured Out Why Your Shoelaces Keep Coming Undone"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Most Expensive Shoes You Can Buy Right Now MONEY","description":"These are the most expensive shoes you can buy right now.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/MrclZ3Ip/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-04-10T17:56:49.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/MrclZ3Ip.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4736710/science-shoelaces-university-california-berkeley/","duration":"PT1M19S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4736710/science-shoelaces-university-california-berkeley/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```