Shoelaces are exposed to great strains when lacing shoes and walking.
Not only when lace up the shoes, there are great tensile and friction forces. Even when walking, the laces constantly rub against each other during the rolling movement of the shoes and at the edges of the eyelet holes. You barely see it, but it happens.
They are thus classic wearing parts. Nowadays most shoes are equipped with laces made of plastic materials. Although they also have advantages, but unfortunately also a big disadvantage.
The advantages of these plastic laces are that they are very tear resistant and also less abrasive. But even without wear, these shoelaces are not. The big disadvantage is the formation of microplastic. So a lot of plastic molecules get into the environment and then into the food chain. One person alone probably will not worry about this, but one has to realize that these are billions of shoes and laces that people use every year. There comes a lot together.
That's why we at LACCICO have dedicated ourselves to waxed cotton laces. The particles created by the friction are simply cotton, and they rot naturally and are not a problem for nature.
In order to better protect the cotton fiber, which in itself is not particularly resistant to abrasion, against these hard loads, there is a traditional method. The growth. The growth of threads of all kinds has long been an effective method that greatly increases the durability of yarns and anything made from them.
The finished braided line is then pulled through a bath of liquid wax. The wax penetrates the fiber mesh and the fiber structure becomes much more compact. In a further step, the waxed cord is pulled under high tension over two opposing, very smooth and heated metal discs having the shape and the diameter of the cord at the edge. This serves to densify the fiber structure and ensures that the tear strength increases even more.
When the rotating circular brushes have polished the resulting surface, the cotton fibers of waxed shoelaces are perfectly protected against moisture and abrasion.
Besides, they look better as well.