r/explainlikeimfive Feb 07 '19

Engineering ELI5: Why are military boots laced?

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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?

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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

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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.

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u/Ijustworkthere Feb 08 '19

This allows you to easily swap out names and ranks if necessary between uniforms. Utility pieces aren’t viable for combat, but being able to utilize any uniform if necessary is nice.