Boot kilties

[Iolaus]

At least I think that's what they are called.

Anyway, a lot of shoes and boots come with these little tabs laced into the bottom of the laces. On my Chippewa boots, it runs the entire length of the tongue, sticks out past the laces, and appears to have the function of covering the joint where the tongue attaches to the boot (an extra layer of water-proofing?).

Is it actually functional? ...or just decorative?

How many of you would leave it in?

[Yaish]

I leave mine in on all my western boots. I think the scalloped edges show its also supposed to be decorative, not just functional. I dont think it would keep out water though, but sand and dirt most likely.

[KiltedKnight]

Personally, I don't mind those so much as all the different and useless eyelets that some idiot keeps designing that won't allow you to tighten the laces by pulling on them and after a number of times pulling the laces through those that will work the sharp edges of the fancy eyelets cut through and destroy the laces. I don't understand why they didn't stick with the tried and true eyelets that existed for 10,000 years, well that might be a slight exageration.

Chris. :confused:

[Southern Breeze]

I've had boots with those and always left them on. This is the first time I've heard them called kilties though.

[The Wizard of BC]

They are purely decorative. They serve no purpose whatsoever.

Unlike the tassels on my yuppie shoes. They always point towards the nearest Starbucks.

[GlassMan]

We had a different kind of tab on our fire department boots. They laced into the boots and looked just like the ones you mention, but they had a zipper down the middle. The reason? That way you could easily unzip your regular boots, kick them off, and then hope into your firefighting gear and firefighting boots. Minimized changing time since we had to be fully changed before hopping on the engine. It might seem like a short amount of time to unlace a boot, but in a fire those seconds are precious.

[UmAnOnion]

Unlike the tassels on my yuppie shoes. They always point towards the nearest Starbucks.

Those things woudl be spinning like fan b;ades in NYC as there is a starbucks on every other corner around here ... woud provide some great ventilation when kilted in the summer tho... hhhmmm....

[Jerry]

Are there like the fringed leather pioeces which covered the laces on old style golf shoes?

[Moosehead]

We had a different kind of tab on our fire department boots. They laced into the boots and looked just like the ones you mention, but they had a zipper down the middle. The reason? That way you could easily unzip your regular boots, kick them off, and then hope into your firefighting gear and firefighting boots. Minimized changing time since we had to be fully changed before hopping on the engine. It might seem like a short amount of time to unlace a boot, but in a fire those seconds are precious.

Same as zips used on flying boots, known as "Alert Zips". That way, if you were snoozing comfortably in your ezboy, it was a simple matter of donning and zipping boots if the klaxon went off.