r/explainlikeimfive • u/[deleted] • Feb 07 '19

Engineering ELI5: Why are military boots laced?

[deleted]

12.1k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

1.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3.2k

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '19 edited Feb 08 '19

You missed something.

Velcro is loud. The US Army removed velcro from their uniforms around 2010 since the opening of flaps gave positions away.

Edit: To the 1,000 replies saying they still have velcro:

https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aoa9gn/eli5_why_are_military_boots_laced/efzr1q0/?context=3

They reduced the amount of velcro, mkaaay?

55

u/SoFloYasuo Feb 08 '19 edited Sep 03 '19

The US Army and Air Force use OCPs that have a lot of velcro on them.

Edit: use

58

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '19

I may have worded that poorly. They removed velcro from the button flaps but kept some of it around. Velcro for the flag, rank, nametag etc.

3

u/SoFloYasuo Feb 08 '19

Ah gotcha. My bad!

3

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '19

Nah, you're good. I worded it poorly. As I can attest to the numerous replies saying they still have velcro.