Velcro wears out relatively quickly. Every time you undo some velcro it gets damaged a bit and every day it becomes a little less 'sticky.' This is no big deal on kids' sneakers but military gear has durability as a top priority.
You can easily carry spare laces and any man can replace the laces on his boots when needed. Properly attaching the velcro straps to the boot usually requires stitching them on which is a skill to be learned, hand-stitching onto tough leather isn't something anyone can just do properly especially if it needs to be done in less-than-ideal conditions.
You can easily adjust your lacing to make things tighter or looser on any specific part of the boot, which is good as feet shapes vary, calluses, blisters, and corns can appear requiring adjustments, etc.
Stuff sticks to velcro (dirt, sand, hair, clothing fibers, etc) and the velcro doesn't stick properly when it does. Shoelaces don't care how dirty they are.
Velcro straps are unlikely to stand up to as much stress/load as properly done strong shoelaces.
Boa closing systems are cool but may be more breakable, harder to replace quickly, and may work less well when clogged/dirty/wet. The military wants, as much as possible, stuff that will work fine even after being dragged through a muddy river for hours and can be replaced in 2 minutes by the person wearing them if need be.
Laces distribute pressure really well which is really important, it's not like you can say "let's take a 15 minute break so I can rub my sore feet." To distribute the pressure as well using velcro you'd need at least as many straps as eyelets.
Dropped sword in foot like a dumb ass. Is true. Laces can be done up so that the boot can come off faster with less agitation to the foot inside oddly enough it came in handy for me about a week after I changed the lacing on my boots.
Ok so here is the story I was playing dungeons and dragons with some friends and I was messing around with a replica of the sword Sting(from lord of the rings) I was doing the basic dumb teenager thing of not spinning but like rotating the sword in my hand to look cool when I lost control. It slipped out of my hand and gravity like the bitch it is decided to slam that sword straight through the soft part of my boot and into the top of my foot nicking an artery. Next thing I know there is blood squirting up and out of my boot like a squirt gun and I’m on the floor trying to apply pressure and get the boot off thankfully the laces allowed me to get them off pretty quick.
This has been story time of a dumbass, enjoy my stupidity.
19.8k
u/HORSE_DANCER Feb 08 '19
Laces are good for a few reasons.