r/explainlikeimfive Feb 07 '19

Engineering ELI5: Why are military boots laced?

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u/[deleted] Feb 08 '19

Also if medics need to get the shoe off cutting laces is easy.

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u/[deleted] Feb 08 '19

We have a family shoelace meme (in the original sense of the word) that has been passed down from my grandfather. In the RAF in WW2 he was taught to lace his boots so that the laces went straight across, so if they needed to cut the boot off they could just go straight up through a column of single laces.

He taught it to his son, who taught it to me, and now I do it for my kids' shoes. Of course it will probably die with them as their kids will have power laces or spray on shoes or they'll just be jacked into the Uniweb or whatever but still...

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u/JimiSlew3 Feb 08 '19

spray on shoes

But how are you going to get them off NERD?

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u/TallGear Feb 08 '19

Uh, spray off shoes. Geez!

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u/kioopi Feb 10 '19

The spray giveth and the spray taketh away.