Mastering the art of knowing how to lace football boots isn't as straightforward as it may seem when unboxing a new pair for the first time. It's crucial to choose a technique that ensures a secure fit, keeping you locked in during the game.
Thankfully, we've prepared a step-by-step guide that will walk you through one of the most effective ways to tie your best football boots, ensuring you're fully prepared to hit the pitch.
Moreover, we've covered several alternative lacing techniques to help you achieve the perfect fit and discover a style that complements your playstyle. For example, if you play as a striker, trying out a side knot might offer you a clearer area to strike the ball.
So, regardless of your position on the field, our guide will have you out there and playing in no time. Just make sure your boots actually come with laces and aren't some of the best laceless boots around. Reading this guide becomes pretty irrelevant if they don't...
How to lace football boots
As mentioned, the following method is what we believe to be the best technique to ensure a comfortable yet secure lock-in.
This technique should work for most boots out there, regardless of the brand, providing the boots in question aren't laceless. Stick around though, because we'll get to a few alternative methods a little later on...
Step 1: Pass your shoelace through the two lower eyelets of your first boot, making sure to go from the outer side to the inner side to create a horizontal bar in the middle.
Top Tip: Make sure both ends of your shoelace are the same length for a more secure and even knot at the top.
Step 2: Pass the inner shoelace through the second eyelet from the outside, ensuring it goes to the opposite side of the shoe. For example, if you're lacing your right boot, the inner lace should be positioned on the left side.
Step 3: Do the same with the outside lace through the inner eyelet the next row up.
Top Tip: Make sure your laces stay flat as you work your way up, correcting any twists as you go.
Step 4: Repeat this process until you reach the final row of eyelets. If your boot is designed with a lace loop on the tongue, be sure to thread the shoelace through it to prevent the tongue from shifting during your game.
Step 5: When you reach the final set of eyelets, you have the option to either feed the lace ends from the outside in or from the inside out, depending on your preference. After that, tie the two ends of the lace into a knot.
Step 6: Copy steps one to five with your second boot and you'll be good to go.
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What type of laces do you need?
A typical pair of football boots, like these Nike Zoom Mercurial Vapor 15s, usually come with relatively thin, flat laces to ensure a cleaner, uninterrupted strike. Therefore, if you're looking to replace your laces, then we'd recommend sticking with flats around 4-6mm in width.
The colour choice will come down to your preference though. For example, these Fabmania cotton laces come in a wide variety of different colours, so should make for the perfect pick if you want to deviate from the traditional black or white colours.
In terms of length, we'd recommend picking up laces around 125cm. This will of course vary depending on your boots; however, this length should fit most boots without leaving too much excess.
Read More: Best football boots under 100
Alternative ways to lace football boots
Although our step-by-step guide details one of the most common techniques, there are several alternative ways of lacing football boots to suit different styles and for different fits. We've summarised a few key techniques of note right here.
Runners loop
The Runners Loop is designed to eliminate as much movement inside your boots as possible.
The technique is mostly the same as the aforementioned method, with the main difference being that once you reach the second to last eyelets, rather than crossing, simply feed each end through the next eyelet up on the same side.
This should create a loop in which you can now cross each end over and feed through for a more secure lock-in.
Read More: Best Nike football boots
Straight bars
Tying your shoelaces using straight bars isn't a particularly common method when it comes to football boots; however, it does produce a particularly clean look.
Start in exactly the same way as our first technique, but rather than working one row up at a time, the trick is to alternate eyelets.
For example, take the outside length and feed it through the third eyelet up on the inside, then thread it through the opposite eyelet over the top to create a bar across the tongue.
Do the same on the other side but through the second eyelet instead, then repeat this process to the top. For more information on this, check out our guide to lacing Converse and Jordan 1s right here.
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Side knot
This technique is almost identical to the first method we mentioned; however, the difference here is you tie the knot slightly to the outside of your boots instead of the middle.
The benefit of doing this is to leave the centre and inside of your foot clear for a cleaner strike. To finish this technique off, simply tuck the remaining lengths of your shoelace into your boot for a tidier look.
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