Understanding Shoelace Tips & Aglets.

The ends or tips of a shoelaces are called “Aglets”. The Aglets on shoelaces are often made from plastic and metal.

Premium shoelaces are often fitted with metal Aglets to provide a longer lasting shoelaces, as the plastic Aglets can often snap. Here you can find information about Aglets on shoelaces.

What are Aglets?

An “Aglet” is the name for the metal or plastic end of a shoelaces and can often be referred or spelt as “Aiglet”.  Aglets are an important part of a shoelaces for the following reasons.

• They provide a secure end of the shoelace to prevent unravelling.
• They enable the shoelaces to be threaded with ease through a shoes eyelets.
•  They can provide additional styling to shoelaces, such as colour, wording or branding.

 

Where does the word “Aglet” come from?

The Word Aglets was derived from France, taken from the Old French word “aguillete” meaning needle, originally taken from the Latin word for needel: “acus”, meaning an aglet to be the short needle at the end of a shoelace.

Metal Aglets

Generally aglets used to be manufactured in metal by simply crimping a small piece of metal around the end of a shoelace to form the aglet. Shoe repairers and cobblers where able to repair and fit aglets to shoelaces if a replacement was required. This service was found in high street shoe repair shops.

Metal aglets are often used today for Custom aglets. The aglets are generally made from metal featuring custom colours and branding which can be fitted to the shoelace for customising.

Plastic Aglets

More commonly today aglets are made from plastic and are fitted directly to the shoelace itself. This is mainly because of the recent affordability of the machines used to produce the shoelace. Similar to metal aglets, plastic aglets can often be seen produced in various colours and styles for branding and customisation.

 

Molded tip aglets

Polyester shoelaces require a different process for producing the aglet. The method involves the ends being clamped and heated creating a solid moulded tip from the shoelace material. This type of shoelaces is commonly used for sport activities due to the shoelaces be more robust from its design.