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Test review: Self-tying Shoelaces 3000
**Reviewed by Gini & Karl**
(3/5 Fish)
Have you ever been in one of these situations?
- You're carrying twelve fish and can't bend down.
- You're late for coding class.
- A seal is chasing you.
- You're balancing on one foot while eating an ice cream.
- Your hands are full because you're carrying your brand-new robot.
Now imagine simply saying:
"Shoes, tie yourselves!"
and: Zip! Zip! Both shoes tie themselves in less than two seconds.
Wouldn't that be awesome?!
I know you are a penguin and you would probably object that there is just one small problem:
Penguins don't usually wear shoes.
But these are... mere details!
Lots of people do!
Polar explorers, mountain climbers, Santa's elves, engineers, scientists (sometimes), astronauts.
And sometimes even Uncle Jayden wears safety boots when testing one of his inventions (which is usually a good idea).
Besides... technology is fun whether you need it or not.
Features
So we tested them and they have many cool features:
✔️ Voice control
✔️ Automatic tightening
✔️ Waterproof
✔️ Snowproof
✔️ Mud resistant
✔️ Works in complete darkness
✔️ Can remember your favorite knot
✔️ Emergency double knot for mountain climbing
Our tests
Test 1: Karl
**Result:**
Karl went first. The shoes tightened themselves beautifully.
Unfortunately... they also tightened while Karl was standing on one foot. He spent the next thirty seconds hopping around the workshop trying not to fall over.
Everything looked very impressive.
Test 2:
Then I (Gini) tried the shoes. I widened them a lot to squeeze my feet in and after saying the magic words they again tightened themselves beautifully. They also felt quite comfortable while walking around with them.
But then I asked a simple question: Wait... Where is the knot?
The box proudly claimed:
**"Self-Tying Shoelaces!"**
Karl looked at the shoes. "They tightened..." I nodded. "They did." Karl looked closer. "But..." "They never actually tied a knot."
Silence filled our workshop. Karl finally whispered, "...We've been tricked."
Deeper Investigation
There was only one thing for us to do: Open them and look what's inside to find out how they were made. Five minutes later one boot was lying on our workbench in about forty carefully organised pieces. (Well... ...I organised the pieces. Karl mostly produced them.)
What we found
- tiny electric motors
Hidden inside each side of the shoe were two miniature electric motors.
These pulled the laces tighter by winding them around tiny reels. Rather like a fishing reel. Very clever.
When the motors turn, they gently pull both laces until the shoe fits snugly around your foot.
To loosen the shoe, the motors simply unwind the reels again.
We measured the motors. They're only about as big as a large coin!
- tension sensors
One question had immediately come to mind. "How does the shoe know when to stop pulling?"
Inside the lacing system we found tiny force sensors.
These measure how much tension is in the shoelaces hundreds of times every second.
As soon as the tension reaches the perfect level, the computer switches the motors off.
That means the shoe won't become too loose... or painfully tight.
That explained why the shoes always felt comfortable.
- a microcontroller
Hidden inside the sole was a small microcontroller.
It constantly checked the sensors and decided when to tighten or loosen each lace.
It's amazing how much computing power fits inside something no larger than a postage stamp.
- rechargeable battery
The motors need electricity.
The battery was hidden in the heel.
According to the manual, one charge lasts for several hours. Not too impressive!
Maybe the manufacturers should add tiny solar panels. They'd recharge while you walk!
It can even be recharged wirelessly.
- bluetooth
Of course there was an app.
There is always an app.
You could choose different modes for different tightness, different weather etc. We don't like apps so we didn't test it any further. Why do you always need a phone, even to simply tie your shoes?!
Our big discovery
After examining every single component...
we finally reached one unavoidable conclusion.
These are **not** self-tying shoelaces.
They're...
**self-tightening shoelaces.**
The bow at the top never changes.
The motors simply tighten and loosen the laces underneath.
It's still clever. But calling them self-tying is a little misleading.
It actually left us feel disappointed.
No tiny robot inside making knots!
And that's why we only gave 3 stars. The shoes are kind of working, they are kind of cool but they are not making knots!
Could we build real self-tying shoelaces?
Karl's eyes suddenly lit up. "What if we built some?" Now **that** sounded like a proper project.
We spent the rest of the afternoon brainstorming ideas.
- Idea #1: tiny robot hands
A miniature robot hidden inside the tongue of the shoe could grab both lace ends and tie a perfect bow.
Advantages:
- Actually ties a real knot.
Disadvantages:
-We would somehow have to build the world's tiniest shoelace expert.
- Idea #2: shape-memory shoelaces
Some special metals can "remember" a particular shape. Maybe we could use nitinol, a nickel-titanium alloy that has some shape memory properties (meaning it can remember its original shape) and also is very elastic. (see https://www.chemistrylearner.com/nitinol.html)
Imagine tiny wires hidden inside the shoelaces.
When electricity flows through them, they gently warm up and automatically curl into a perfectly tied bow.
But even though this sounds almost like the shoelaces remember how to tie themselves, they really simply remember what shape they were trained to make.
Karl still thought it sounded like magic.
We need to investigate this a bit more.
- Idea #3: magnetic lace tips
Tiny magnets inside the lace tips could guide them into position while miniature motors pull them through the loops.
Rather like a tiny sewing machine hiding inside your shoe. Complicated? Yes. Impossible? Maybe not.
- Idea #4: Fake Knots
The bow you see on top is permanent and never changes. The real tightening happens underneath using hidden cables. It might look real but is still cheating.
Final thoughts
The Self-Tying Shoelaces 3000 taught us something important.
Sometimes a product isn't disappointing because it works badly.
Sometimes it's disappointing because it doesn't quite do what its name promises.
These shoes tighten themselves quite well.
But they don't actually tie themselves. And they come with an app which is really a nuissance!
Which leaves one important challenge...
Build them ourselves. We keep you updated!
However as we usually don't even wear socks, we might develop self tying scarfs first. Imagine:
Simply wrap it around your neck and say: "It's cold!" The scarf ties itself into a perfect knot.
When you get too warm, it politely loosens itself again.
So as it might take a while until we come around with our own shoe tying invention we recommend velcro to our human shoe wearing readers (who don't want to tie their shoes) in the meantime. It's easy to use, it doesn't need any batteries, usually comes without an app and is already on the market and working quite well! 😉
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-tying_shoes