Shoe laces…

Why the $%^&*&^%$£”!””£%^%^&*()(**&^%$£$£”£$%^&@)$%^ do they put #@}&&%$££ laces in shoes that are 6 feet long?

Last weekend I bought some new running shoes with which to run (jog, or maybe slouch along in); I was out in them this evening when the poxy double knot came undone, flapped under my other foot (something I still cannot understand how it happened, but it did) and sent me **&&^%$ over %££^&@(* in the street. I have just finished cleaning up the grazes to knees, hands and elbows; let me assure you they sting.

Thinking about it, just about all my shoes have laces that usually decide to trail behind me, schoolboy like, at least once when I’m walking. The exception would be my ‘best’ dress shoes which (I think) barely come down to ground level before being done up; my hiking boots came with laces that needed to go around the ankle – despite there being nothing to secure it to the boot there to prevent it slipping.

I don’t remember it always being this way – not with my school shoes anyway – so can anyone come up with a reason why there appears to be an uneconomic excess of shoe lace incorporated into every purchase these days?