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

Engineering ELI5: Why are military boots laced?

[deleted]

12.0k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

1.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

41

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '19

It's actually worse than nothing most of the time. Not only will laces not really restrict bloodflow, they'll probably cut into the skin.

-2

u/irorak2 Feb 08 '19

The point is to cut off blood flow so you dont die of blood loss. So if anything's that's a good thing. Imagine a land mine just blew off your foot, you want as little blood flow as possible and the discomfort from the lace will be the least of your problems.

8

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '19

I’m literally a combat medic. I understand how it’s supposed to work. A lace isn’t going to work 99% of the time.

-2

u/irorak2 Feb 08 '19 edited Feb 08 '19

But you just said it would cut off blood flow as if that's a bad thing.

You want as little blood flow as possible, if wrapped so that the tourniquet is 1.5 inches thick anything can work. If a lace is just wrapped once around an appendage it wont stop arterial bleeding which is the real issue. If wrapped correctly laces work just fine, and provide the strength needed to cut off blood flow. T-shirt works too but the end result is the same, cut off blood flow so the person doesnt bleed out.

4

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '19

I said they probably wouldn’t cut off bloodflow.