Outdoor Middle Cut Hiking Shoes

The criss-cross method is the traditional and timeless lacing technique that most of us are familiar with and is very often how boots and shoes are already laced when you buy them. The laces are interwoven, creating an 'X' pattern and tied in a bow knot at the top of the boot. This method offers a secure and comfortable fit for most hikers. If the criss-cross lacing technique works for you, make it more secure by pulling the laces tight and finishing it with a surgeon's knot.

Heel-securing or heel lock knots are crucial in providing heel stability, keeping the foot securely at the back of the boot and preventing forward movement of the foot in the boot, especially during steep descents. They can also help people with narrow feet. When your heel slips excessively, you likely have too much volume at the top of your boot or shoe. A sign of this is often excessive wear on the heel of your shoes or boots and the accompanying heel blisters. To tie a heel-securing or heel lock knot, lace the boots up to the next to the top hooks, then pull the boot laces straight up through the top hooks before crossing the laces and passing them behind the vertical lace joining the two top hooks together, and then tie off. This heel lock knot creates a window at the top of the boot and helps secure the heel.

If you feel soreness on top of your foot, then try window lacing. Window lacing, sometimes known as box lacing, is where you effectively leave a 'window' on the lacing pattern of your boots. If you tie hiking boots in the usual way, you use all the eyelets, but many of these techniques work by missing certain eyelets and not using all the lace hooks. Undo your boot laces to just below wherever the pressure point is. Then, rather than criss-crossing the laces over the sore area, go straight up to the next hook and start the criss-crossing of the laces upwards. This creates a window in your boot or shoe.

You may need more room in your boots if the whole of your feet are wide. To create that room, you can miss out on sets of eyelets. You unlace the boot and then re-lace it in a criss-cross pattern but miss out on a set of eyelets.

To lace for narrow or low-volume feet, undo your boot laces, re-lace starting with a normal criss-cross, skipping a lace hook, and then continue lacing them in a criss-cross pattern for the rest of the shoe. Then, tie off the boot as usual with a surgeon's knot. You can also do the same as above and omit more criss-crosses if you have at least three criss-crosses and always finish with a knot. Friends with narrow feet say this method works better in running, fell, and hiking shoes than hiking boots, but it is always worth trying. Another way, sometimes described as the knotted lacing method, uses a traditional criss-cross pattern but locks off the laces after eyelets 2, 3, or 4 with a hiking boots surgeon's knot to lock down the front of the boot. Locking here effectively creates constant tension below the knot. Try which eyelet works best for you.