Most people give very little thought to their shoelaces when shopping for a new pair of tennis shoes. However, the lowly shoelace performs a vital job of keeping your foot secure and positioned correctly in the shoe. A quick examination of the tennis shoes available at online stores like The Walking Company and 6pm.com also shows shoelaces can vary widely in width and length.

Decoding the Sizes

Tennis shoe laces typically come in lengths ranging from 27 inches to 54 inches. The easiest way to decide which laces will be best for you is to count the number of hole pairs in your existing tennis shoes. If you have three or four pairs of holes, grab the 27-inch laces. For up to five pairs of holes, move on to the 30-inch, and for up to six or seven, youll need a 36- to 45-inch shoelace. Tennis shoes that have more than seven holes are rare, unless you have really long feet. All of this guesswork is unnecessary, of course, if your existing shoelaces are exactly the right size. Simply remove the shoelaces from your tennis shoes and measure them with a ruler.

Room for Manipulation

The way you wear and tie your shoelaces can be altered to give wide or sore feet more room or to give your shoes a tighter fit around a narrower heel or ankle. Be careful, though, because too-tight laces can cut your circulation and cause nerve damage.