Salomon Lace Install: The Best Way

About almost three years ago now, I found myself the most perfect shoes ever. They are trail-running shoes from a swedish company named Salomon. I wasn’t really even interested in them when I first saw them, but once I tried them on my feet… love at first lace-up, I tell you, love at first lace-up. I bought two pairs because there was an awesome sale, and now I’m on the last of those two pairs.

I can probably spread out another year out of them. These shoes are so well constructed, I swear I’ve never seen anything better. Except maybe my 4Runner, but hey that’s a Toyota, right? Only thing is, they don’t use typical laces, which is actually one of the things I really liked about them. They use a Kevlar lacing system with a special lock, so you don’t have to worry about undone laces in the middle of a run or anything. No loose shoes!

Downside is that when they eventually fray & break, you can’t just go down to the local store and pick up a new pair; you have to order them (I ordered mine through REI.com). And I have done this now 3 times in the last handful of months: twice to replace the original laces on each foot, and then again once because the new puppies got ahold of one pair and bit the laces off. And There’s a bit of a trick I’ve found to “install” them properly. The fist couple times I tried this, I had a hell of a time, so much so that I got more frustrated than I should at a pair of shoes and damn near threw a fit.

The problems stem from the fact that the directions call for you to trim off the excess lace, shove it through a teeny tiny hole in an adaptor, and tie off a knot to keep it from slipping back through. The problem is, once you cut the lace, it frays terribly and there’s no f*cking way that you can put the frayed lace through the damn little hole. Well, there is, and I found it out this last time on a hunch, and I will tell you so that if you ever end up having to replace some Salomon laces, you can avoid my frustrations and just instead deal with sweet success. The first time.

If you’ve already cut the laces, you’re screwed. It won’t be easy, I’m sorry. However there’s two ways to make it a little easier. The first is to try and burn the frayed ends so that they stick together. The problem with this is that it typically melts too wide, and when you try to skinny it up, it just frays again. But you can be successful with it, you have to just keep trying. The other way is to take some good tape, and tightly coil the tape around the frayed end and down the shaft a little for grip, and also up into nothing in a skinny tail that you can easily fit through the hole in the adaptor. Then, you have to pull and simultaneously twist & push from the bottom until you get it all through. This is how you end up a frustrated Sicilian, you see.

Anyway, if you’ve yet to undertake the task, that’s because you’ve failed already on another attempt and you’re trying to find a better/ the best way to install Salomon replacement laces before you screw it up again. And I can help you out. The trick is to take a step from the above “I’ve already f*cked up” recovery plan, and apply it earlier in the process. What you do is, when you’re ready to “cut” out the excess lace, instead you should “burn” out the excess lace.

What I’ve found is that if you burn the lace apart, the ends taper nicely without bulging, meaning you don’t have to worry about frayed ends or huge bulges not fitting through the hole in the adaptor. So you can actually complete the “lace install” without bulging forehead veins and somewhere under 5 minutes.

“Lace install.” Kinda makes you wonder, huh? Maybe a little too complicated? Maybe a little?