Velcro vs. Laces

I’m in the market for new general purpose gym shoes, and being flat footed, I prefer basketball shoes for the extra support. I was surprised to find velcro-only options. Is the idea that you can adjust tightness locally, whereas with laces, it’s sort of all-or-nothing? Does it actually work better than laces? I’m having a hard time getting over the velcro look, but if they’re functionally superior, I may give in.

Nothing works better than laces typically. Because they can be local adjusted and in effect work as a net over your foot displacing pressure over a wider area. The velcro thing is a bit of a trend. It comes and goes, though it is pretty heavy right now. There has been a trend toward the lower profile, higher stick velcro which is pretty cool.

Umm…if I came to the blacktop with velcro, there would be A LOT of trash talk…

  • “Bro, do those light up when you stomp yo’ feet?!”

  • “did yo’ mommy pack you a juice box?”

-“I’m glad you came dressed to get schooled.”

etc., etc., etc.,

On the flip side, you could hussle for a lot of money. Maybe even a pink slip…

Although not basketball shoes, I have some Vans OG Prison Issue LX with Velcro and they’re pretty comfortable and don’t loosen like laces, but they’re one look, so I wear them very sparingly.

Ok, if it’s trend driven, then I’m not interested. I haven’t had much success with locally adjusting laces. Part of the problem is I have a bone spur on top of my foot. The laces “net” ends up putting a lot of pressure on that spur. Can be painful.

I probably won’t actually be playing basketball in these, but I hear you, haha. I’m not a fan of the velcro look either, trust me, I was just interested in the functionality.

So unless these feel like I’m walking on a cloud, I’ll pass on the velcro for now.

For your average schlub, probably doesn’t make one whit of difference in performance.

Many cycling shoes are velcro only. The very expensive ones aren’t and tend to talk about lightness, stiffness, power transmission and a lot of other phony baloney marketing gibberish. You can put me in the “best” most-expensive shoe, a professional cyclist in flip-flops and they will drop me like a bag of wet sand. Crush my soul.

Buy whatever floats your boat.

I also prefer the comfort of velcro but don’t wear them because of the sound and ‘patched on top of’ look, how about Hickies?

By “performance” I mean the amount of support my feet/ankles get. Not “these are going to make me faster” performance. It’s a matter of whether or not I’m sore the next day. But I like your example, and 100% agree with you in that regard.

Never seen those before! I might give those a shot. I wish they were a little more minimally styled though. I want just a straight band without the bulge around the fastening point.

I certainly think that comfort is a part of performance. Kind of hard to perform when uncomfortable.

My point being is, you won’t know unless you give it a try. Those shoes may give you great support, me none, or vise-versa, or any other combination. And obviously, don’t believe the hype.

Worth a try when ever you’ll be due for a pair.

Look at climbing shoes and discussions about the preference between velcro and laceups. Keep in mind climbing shoes are purposely extremely tight and somewhat uncomfortable so velcros are nice for gyms where you can take them off quickly. I find I have a bit more control over the pressure distribution with laces when I take the time to lace them up properly (aka never). But I also find velcros distribute the pressure more evenly and also tend to keep the shoe from buckling around the eyelets.

The foot is the most dynamic part of the body with the highest concentration of bones and muscles… and there is a ton of variance amongst people. Try them out. Perhaps velcro is the solution to your bone spur problem.

Went to Nike yesterday, tried on a bunch of different shoes, and came out with these Flyknit Hyperdunks! The velcro felt weird on the Lebrons and others.




They. Are. Amazing. Hands-down the most supportive and comfortable athletic shoe I’ve ever worn. I wore them for 6 hours last night at a concert and my feet weren’t sore this morning. Normally I’d barely be able to walk. I was also surprised to find that my orthotics work pretty well with these, which is rarely the case. Bravo, Nike.