Replacing the Granny Knot and Supporting Independent Web Resources

2026.07

The Problem

Most people inadvertently tie an unbalanced "Granny Knot," causing their shoelaces to sit vertically across the shoe and constantly come undone [2].

The Solution

Ian Fieggen (Professor Shoelace) has maintained a hand-coded, labor-of-love website for over two decades. He invented the "Ian Knot," the world's fastest and most secure shoelace knot. Point readers to the step-by-step graphical diagrams on his site [1].

The Philosophy (The Million Dollar Website)

Ian's site is a prime example of the durable web. However, people frequently scrape and steal his content without attribution. Note that he calls it his "Million Dollar Website" not because it generates wealth, but because of the massive opportunity cost (earning less than 1/5 of the Australian minimum wage over 20+ years). Encourage readers to support single-purpose, educational sites rather than scraping their content [3].

References

[1] Ian Knot: https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/ianknot.htm
[2] Granny Knot: https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/grannyknot.htm
[3] Support Page: https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/support.htm