You might be tying your shoes incorrectly — here’s how to fix that

Tying your shoes. You do it every day.

But did you know you might actually be doing it wrong?

It’s true, according to a Ted Talk by Terry Moore. There are actually two shoe knots you can make with the same technique, based on which way you loop the loops.

Here’s what it looks like when you do it wrong:

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See how it lines up vertically with the shoe? That’s not right.

Here’s how it’s supposed to look:

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Here’s how to do it:

• Cross the laces like normal.
• Pull the right lace away from you before looping around the loop on the left, and it will create the horizontal loop.
• Pull the loops tight.

Voila. The horizontal loop is important because it’s much stronger than the vertical knot, and it will come untied less often.

You can see a whole video breakdown here.