LED Shoelaces?!?!?!

Hands-On With The LED Light Up Shoelaces

We are all familiar with novelty items like this that promise one thing on the website, but turn out to suck when you actually get them in hand. Thankfully that’s not the case here. Each package comes with a set of fiber optic laces and an LED lighting unit which is also used to secure the laces once they’re tightened. The fiber optic material is actually a relatively thin clear plastic tube that’s extremely flexible, and while installing them on a pair of shoes is no where as easy as installing a regular pair of laces, it’s not that much of a challenge.

And while they’re easily flexible enough to allow you to lace a pair of shoes any way you want, I’d actually recommend doing it while wearing the shoe since the grippy nature of the soft plastic laces does make them a little difficult to tighten afterwards. Again, it’s not an impossible task, it’s just not as easy as grabbing the ends of the laces and yanking. Not surprisingly you’ll probably want to use a little TLC with them.



Once laced, instead of tying a knot you thread the ends of the fiber optics through this battery-powered LED lighting unit which also serves to secure the laces using a couple of locking levers on top. On one hand it would be nice if the laces didn’t require this unit sitting on top of your shoe at all times, but on the other it is an easy to way to secure them without having to try and tie a knot which could be a little difficult with the fiber optic cable.

And since it sits near the top of your shoe it’s easy to hide under a baggy pair of pants. Unless you’re a hipster and don’t have any in your wardrobe, then you’ll just have to suck it up or convince all your friends to get them too.



The white power button on each lighting unit actually toggles between three different lighting modes including always-on, flashing slow and flashing fast. Cycling through the modes (including off) just requires you to hit the power button multiple times, and it’s an easy way to draw even more attention to yourself if you feel the static glowing of your laces isn’t attracting enough eyeballs.



As for how they look, the glowing effect is definitely noticeable even indoors in a brightly lit room, but obviously they look considerably more impressive in a darkened environment, particularly on a dark shoe providing lots of contrast. The yellow version is definitely the most subtle of the color options, but surprisingly looked like Adidas should have actually included them with their ‘Pumpkin’ sneaks they matched so well. But if subtlety isn’t your thing (and really NO one will be buying these for subtlety) the green and blue colors will definitely make you stand out the most.



The laces are available in 4 different colors from Lite Bright Raves including the yellow and red pairs used in the photos I took, as well as a green and blue option for $9.95 a pair. And since the color is only dictated by the color of the LED used in the lighting unit, there’s even a multicolor option for an extra $4.99 which I assume cycles through the aforementioned colors.

Pros:
+ Makes any pair of laced shoes extra awesome.
+ At $9.95/pair they’re relatively cheap and almost an impulse buy.

Cons:
- Slightly more difficult to thread and tighten than regular shoelaces.
- Kind of sucks that even your shoelaces will need fresh batteries every once in a while.

Links:
LED Light Up Shoelaces – $9.95