Laces or velcro shoes

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When you were a kid, were you banned from wearing Velcro shoes?

When I was a kid, I was not allowed to have Velcro shoes. I remember I once asked my dad why I couldn't have Velcro shoes, and he told me (in these exact words) "Velcro is for idiots." I feel like this was because my parents wanted me to know how to tie my shoes. I eventually learned to tie my shoes through occupational therapy, although when I got older I often had trouble with laces because many of the shoes I had laces that were too short, not to mention I have huge hands. (They don't make laces nice and long like they used to.) Eventually, when I hit my twenties, I was finally allowed to have Velcro shoes, and I've worn those ever since.

There's also loafers that don't have either. I don't personally like velcro for a lot of reasons, but I respect people's right to use velcro on shoes.

That being said, I've noticed that I practically never untie my shoes before taking them off, I pretty much always untie them before I put them on. I'd probably be better off with some of those more modern laces that look like shoelaces, but are actually stretchy enough to get the foot in without the foot accidentally coming out.

Which ever shoes happen to be on sale on the day that I'm buying them. I'm happy with both.

Your Dad might as well have said "Velcro is for disabled people". Using the term idiot in this context is just offensive, honestly.

I have a friend who has cerebral palsy who uses Velcro. He is certainly not an idiot.

I love velcro me

I'm not sure that's the same thing. I'm sure there are folks that are opting for velcro as an accommodation, but slip-ons and loafers have been around for literal decades and don't have the stigma attached to them and are arguably easier to put on with just a long handled shoehorn and no bending over required.

The only folks that I've seen wearing velcro shoes other than children are people with a generally weak sense of fashion. I'm sure there are various reasons for that either being quirky with their tastes, choosing comfort over style or just flat out not caring. But, there are plenty of other options and folks that wear them are going to come up against the perception that they aren't as canny as people who wear laces or loafers. It's a large part of why Sketchers has those slip on shoes that look like lace ups.

That being said, I can't personally say that I really care one way or another, other than the really unpleasant noise that those shoes make when adjusted, but that's not something that should be happening very often throughout the day.

I prefer velcro shoes due to problems with fine-motor skills. Velcro is a lot easier for me. Unfortunately a vast majority of shoes for adults are not velcro so I buy my shoes online. Lots of stores don't have adult velcro shoes. The descriptions or reviews sometimes mention older people with issues like Parkinson's disease.

When I got to fifth grade my schools uniform policies required me to wear specific loafers so I had to tie my shes but I wore velcro tennis shoes when going out to places other than school. If I had my diagnoses of Essential Tremors back then & it was the beginning of this century, I probably would have been grated an exception to that rule for medical reasons. However I think kids today with all my various diagnoses that I shoulda had when I was in school would not have to go to school & would be provided private tutors or something.

I think all my shoes have laces. Sometimes I have slip on dress shoes. The shoes I wear most often have laces But I almost never undo and retie them because they just slip on and off like slippers since they're stretchy. They're waterproof, too.. these are my second pair. I still wear the old worn out ones at the beach or for work but after a couple years they're not waterproof anymore. But nearly 2 years of waterproof shoes is pretty good. Anyways, pic of the current kicks - I highly recommend them. Super comfy, slip on and off, waterproof, very rarely have to tie the laces again. They're a bit of a local "thing," now since it's a Vancouver company. I personally don't Care one bit to be "trendy," with my shoes - I'd wear these if I were the only one here wearing them. Comfy and waterproof & breathable etc = that's why I wear them more than any of the other shoes I have.



As for tying shoes.. the only time I Really had an issue was ~12 years ago when my symptoms were all at their worst, including fine motor skills, and I had difficulty using my fingers to tie my own shoes at times.. it was bizarre & kinda terrifying to watch my neurological functions slipping further and further. It was the physical things that were very obvious vs. behavioural ones that are much more difficult to self monitor and assess until you have a moment of hindsight and realize that ASD was the reason for abc or xyzzy behaviour.

It is perfectly reasonable to use Velcro for fine motor issues. I can imagine it would be annoying to shop for velcro though, because like you say, a lot of stores don't have them.

While true for function reasons, velcro isn't exactly highly rated on the form scale.. nor other judgemental metrics like socio-economic status.

I'm sure you've heard the old adage that people judge or assess others by the shoes they wear. Like women (apparently) are taught to assess a man by his shoes.. if they're new/in good shape and fancy/stylish/trendy etc then he likely is relatively financially successful, whereas if they're cheap, old, worn out.. it's likely because he can't afford better. Similar for people assessing job interview candidates.. sure, the shirt & maybe tie matter - but you're likely to get judged harsher by out of style worn out shoes than anything else.

So, while velcro might be the ideal functional solution for some, if style and what it conveys to others around you matter.. velcro tends to convey poverty Because people associate it with the very very cheap shoes sold at discount chain stores like Kmart or Walmart. (back in the day the velcro shoes sold at Kmart were what people local to me associated velcro shoes with.. you could buy a pair for around $12 or something like that and most of the people that wore them were very poor senior citizens.)

Of course there are exceptions. I bet there's all kinds of $300 basketball shoes that have a velcro top strap or w/e. But that's different because they're some brand name designer celebrity athlete endorsed expensive shoe. Still velcro, though, I know.

But if the name of the game is ease of use w/o the stereotypical "poor," appearance, then something that slips on might be nice -> like the ones I wear. Tied up laces that almost never have to be tied. Look like skate shoes, feel like slippers.

Of course that's a perfectly valid reason to wear them, it's just that there are a lot of other options now that aren't necessarily any more, or less, expensive. You certainly can wear velcro, but there are various loafers and ones with stretchy shoe laces that look to be tied, but are just slip ons. You can also tie the shoes so loosely that they don't need to be tied or untied to get them on or off. And, if you use the correct knot, they'll look properly tied, but never accidentally come undone.

I think a lot of that comes into play as to why velcro isn't an option in many cases. I can't remember the last time I saw velcro on shoes other than as a way of keeping the laces from coming undone.

Yeah, sometimes Velcro isn't particularly fashionable, I agree with that.

When I went out almost everyday over 5 years ago, I wore tennis shoes with laces, I almost never had to untie & retire too, I’m not very good at tying, when I do tie, it is not tight enough. When I was a child in elementary school, I remember making Christmas stockings, I could tie better than. In my 20s, I learned to crochet, I wasn’t too good at it, everything I made, looked like baby booties.

There are hand free shoes online on my shoe site.

The main pair of shoes I own are sort of a cross between trainers and loafers. They look a lot like trainers, but they don't have laces or even fake ones. Instead, they have a zip on the side.

You slide them on like loafers and then zip them up.

I don't mind laces. However, I tend to find that velcro tends to lose its stick after a while. So I prefer laces over velcro but I prefer zips over laces.

If I really cared about being trendy & had money to spare, I would get a pair of self-lacing shoes assuming a company is still making something like this