On some shoes, especially with longer tongues like boots or sneakers, it’s common that one have a loop which one can pull the laces through to keep the tongue from sliding to the sides. Too often I see this used the wrong way though, if done right it’s barely visible yet functions exactly as it should.
You surely have it on some of your shoes there at home, the lace loop placed on the upper half of the tongue, sometimes called tongue keeper. It’s either a separate piece of material that one stitch on top, or sometimes one cut two slits in the main piece which one can pull laces through. The purpose is of course to make sure that the tongue stays in place, both when you put on the shoe so it doesn’t slide down when your foot enters, but mainly so it doesn’t move to the sides or glide down when worn.
Sneakers, not least high-tops, commonly have tongue loops, but it doesn’t really look well when done as on the right shoe here. If the person who shot this image had read this article he or she would have known they can use the loop yet still have it look almost like on the left where it’s not used at all. Picture: Reddit
It can have its issues though. It’s a quite common point of failure, the separate loop hole piece can come loose or the area gets torn a bit. That’s the main reason that some brands skip the loop hole also on shoes with longer tongues, if you ever wonder why not everyone has it.
If you lace your shoes with a lace type that has straight bars on top, like my favourite for dress footwear called Boston two-step (you can read more about the benefits of this lacing type in this article), it’s pretty given that one use parts going below to pass through the loop hole. When one lace the shoes with cross lacing, which is more common for many of the types of footwear that has the lace loop, it’s not as given though.
When one pull both lace-ends through the loop hole, it really impacts the look, and to me in a bad way.
Most commonly, also straight from the factories sadly, is that one pull both lace-ends through the loop so you get a very distinct piece of leather, or fabric if that’s the material, right in the middle of the lacing. It breaks off the aesthetics of the lacing, and it does so completely unnecessary. If you simply just pull the lace-end that is placed lowest through the loop hole and let the other part go above, you effectively hide the loop and make it almost invisible. It basically looks like don’t have a lace loop, but you still get the benefits of it. A very easy solution that is so often missed.
See how much better it looks when the upper lace part covers the loop, and hides it away.
Utilising the lace loop on the tongue this way you get all the benefits of it, without affecting aesthetics much at all.
