Category: Barefoot Sandal Tying

Ande has a fun, funky no-toe, no-thong tying style.

(Actually, she has two, and this is the first).

Note the added bling with beads

Okay, it doesn’t get more minimal than this (hence the name).

Arguably, this is even more minimalist than the Ultra-Minimalist Hitch since there’s no knot.

Our first customer service manager, Bill Babcock, came up with this idea, and he uses it for running 100+ miles/week.

To make this style, you’ll need 2 “Crow Beads” (available at any craft store):

First, a few tying tips and notes:

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Tying the Lace knot:

This is the knot we most commonly use, especially with our 100% polyester laces.

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The “Lace Bead”:

This is the smallest “knot” you can make for your Xero Shoes.

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Tying a Figure-8 knot:

If you have our original laces with the nylon core, you’ll want to use this knot.

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Lacing tips:

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The basic running sandal tying pattern

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Uber-Ultra Minimal to the Max Style

Step-by-Step instructions coming soon!

Here’s a fun lacing tip/trick you can use with your Xero Shoes.

Basically, it’s making a “lacing loop” out of a small section of our new laces or using our toe loops.

There are two reasons you may want to do this:

1) It’s a cool decorative element (especially if you use a different color for the loop than you do for the rest of your lacing), and lets you re-lace your Xero Shoes really fast.

Here’s what our sales manager, Rudy, did with this idea, when he added a loop at the ankle holes and toe hole:

2) The other thing this lacing loop is good for is “addressing” a form problem.

A very small number of people will create abrasion at the outside ankle hole which wears out the lace at that spot (FWIW, I and all the Xero wearers I know have put tens of thousands of miles on their shoes without ever wearing out a lace).

If you do this, you can “fix” the problem, by attending to your gait (and stopping creating the extra horizontal friction that causes the problem).

OR… you can “address” the problem by making the lace more resistant to abrasion. One way to do that is by rubbing some Shoe Goo on the lace. The lacing loop is another.

The video below explains how to make the lacing loop and why you would use it.

I can’t wait to see what you do with this idea!

This is a riff off of the Xero Loop.

But instead of using one loop for the slip knot, you make 4.

Step-by-Step instructions coming soon!