I Have Been Tying My Shoes Wrong for Over 50 Years

Bunny Ears Method

Around tree method

When I was 3 or 4, I'm not sure of the exact age, but I was in Juneau, Alaska before I started school, so it was 1965 or 1966 when I learned to tie my shoes.

I learned to tie my shoes using the "Bunny Ears" method, and started to work on the, "Chasing the bunny around the tree," method, but being a clever lad, I realized that the knots were the same,
At that point, I started looking at tying my shoes with the  "Squirrel and Tree" method where you make one loop and push the final loop through, but I gave up when I realized shortly after I realized that they created the same knot.

But my shoes kept getting untied.

Well, I just figured out what was going on.

Bows are tied in a, "double knot," and there are two forms double knot, the square (reef ) knot, and the granny knot.

The difference is that in the former, it is over-under or under-over, and in the latter it is over-over or under-under.

If you naturally lead with one hand, and I do, then the, "Chase around the tree," method naturally produces a square knot, while the, "Bunny ears," method naturally produces a granny knot.

I was doing a granny knot, so my shoes were constantly coming untied.

I am still doing bunny ears, but now I am consciously doing under-over, and my shoes are staying tied.

Two clever by half, and it only screwed me up for 50 years.