These No-Tie Shoelaces Will Save You Time Every Morning

Automating your morning, one task at a time.

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Hey there! I'm Michelle and I'm probably the most impatient person I know.

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I know it's not the best quality to have, but my perfectionism combined with my overpacked social and professional lives, and that stereotypical New York feeling that I never, ever have enough time have exacerbated my impatience over the years. I'm working on it!

And as a person with zero tolerance for tedious tasks, I've recently become a fan of these dorky-sounding Xpand No Tie Shoelaces.

Michelle No / BuzzFeed

The design is simple: They're basically super-elastic shoelaces that "lock" into place via plastic anchors. The anchors are visible in the above photo, but you can also choose to hide them IN your shoes, for a more subtle look. (See the photo at the bottom of this post.)

The shoelaces first blew up in 2015, when their Kickstarter and Indiegogo raised more than $1.2 million.

indiegogo.com

And now they're sold on Amazon.

I love that these shoelaces transform any pair of shoes into snug leggings for your feet — and that the fit actually STAYS tight wear after wear.

Jer L. / Amazon / Via amazon.com

I'm a sucker for any product or "life hack" that lets me uncover hidden pockets of time, so these were an obvious impulse buy.

My first hesitation when I heard about these shoelaces was the worry that they wouldn't give my gym shoes a tight fit. But they've managed to stay taut on the treadmill, on my commutes to work, and on the hiking trail. They don't stretch out, which I assume is thanks to the "zero-memory" fabric they're made with.

The only con is that slipping my shoes on can take a sec. While I'm able to put them on without heavy wiggling, pushing my feet into my shoes does require a little bit of effort. Which, obviously — NBD. 💁 (And which might not be true for everyone — depending on your type of shoe, shape of your feet, etc.)

Also: Despite the dorky infomercial-esque name, the laces actually look pretty dece!

And installation is actually easy — just don't try to follow the directions on the back of the package, lol.

Michelle No / BuzzFeed

From start to finish, installation probably took me about 20 minutes. But that included trying to install the laces without reading the instructions at all, reading the confusing instructions on the back of the package, and finally watching the instructional video on the Xpand website, which made everything very clear. You can watch it here (skip to 2:26).

To summarize, here's how installation works:

1) Take off your old laces.

2) Re-lace by threading the laces through the anchors as shown above. The anchors are an essential part of these laces' design that keeps them from loosening.

3) Snip off the ends of the laces. You're done! You are now the happy owner of no-tie shoes.

4) Optional: If you don't like the frayed look of your snipped ends, you can also install the clips, as shown in the last photo.

If you want to hide the anchors, just thread the laces INTO your shoe, like so:

Michelle No / BuzzFeed

Sure, not tying your shoelaces only shaves a few minutes off your day, but for me, it's more a mental aid than anything — just one more tiny task I don't have to schedule into my morning routine.

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When you think about it, putting your clothes away, brushing your teeth, and taking out the trash also each take only a few minutes — and I'd happily automate those tasks if I could as well.

Also, I’ve had so many moments over the last couple weeks where I’ve bent down to tie or untie my shoes and have happily remembered I DON’T HAVE TO!

...It’s the little things, really.

Oh, and they come in 34 colors!

amazon.com

Get them on Amazon or Jet for $9.99.