Product information, not medical advice. If you're recovering from surgery or managing a health condition, check with your doctor or therapist first.
Short answer: yes. Helping with arthritis is one of the most common reasons people choose no-tie elastic laces, and they are simple to use. You install them once at whatever grip strength you have on a good day, and from then on the shoe slips on and off without tying.
Why arthritis makes shoes hard
Arthritis can make three ordinary parts of putting on shoes harder than they used to be: gripping a thin lace, pulling it tight, and tying a bow with fine finger control. Add the part nobody warns you about, retying laces that work loose halfway through the day, and one pair of shoes can cost you four separate goes with your hands. Stiff, swollen morning joints make all of it harder, which is exactly when most people are trying to get out the door.
How no-tie elastic laces solve it
Elastic laces replace the tying with stretch. You thread them through the eyelets like a normal lace, set the tension once, and tie them off a single time. After that the shoe is a slip-on. The elastic flexes open when your foot goes in and pulls back to the tension you set once your foot is seated. You don't grip, pull, or tie again. The fit you dialed in on a good day is the fit you get every day, including the harder ones.
Why occupational and physical therapists use them
Many occupational and physical therapists use elastic laces as part of adaptive-dressing strategies, for a practical reason: they look exactly like regular laces. There is no special-equipment look, no Velcro, nothing that reads as a medical aid. The shoes you already own stay the shoes you wear out of the house. If you work with a therapist, the one-time install is something you can do together at a single appointment, and the shoe is set from then on.
How to install them (one time)
- Pull your existing laces out.
- Thread the elastic laces through the same eyelets, in the same pattern.
- With the shoe on the foot, snug them to the tension you would normally tie at, not tighter. The elastic gives where it needs to.
- Tie them off once and trim any extra tail. That is the only time you tie them.
It takes a few minutes per shoe, and you only do it once. The fit you set once is the fit you get every time.
What length to order
The 45-inch lace fits most standard adult sneakers. Lower-cut shoes with fewer eyelets take 35 or 40 inches; high-tops take 63 inches; boots take 72 inches. Sizing goes by how many eyelet pairs your shoe has and how high the lacing runs, not by your foot size. If you are between sizes, our elastic shoelace length guide walks through it.
Which style to choose
- Flat or Round elastic handles most shoes and looks like an ordinary lace. Round suits casual and leather shoes; flat suits sneakers.
- Tieless Silicone is the simplest option if you want to skip lacing entirely. It is a set of small silicone straps that hold the shoe closed, with no threading and no bow.
- Bow Clips convert laces you already own into permanent no-tie, so you do not have to buy new laces at all.
For weak grip specifically, Tieless Silicone asks the least of your hands day to day, while Flat or Round elastic keeps the most normal look.
What customers say
"Due to arthritis I have a terrible time tying shoe laces. I can now slip into my walking shoes with no difficulty and no pain. The length was just right and they look like normal shoe laces. Highly recommend."
— J. Samuels
Stretchlace has been seen on Shark Tank, stocked in REI nationwide, and earned 4.5 stars across 7,000+ verified reviews.
Common questions
Do I need grip strength to use them?
Only once, for the install, and you can do it on a good day or have someone help. After that the shoe is a slip-on and needs no grip to put on or take off.
Will they look like medical or adaptive shoes?
No. They look like ordinary laces. Nobody can tell by looking, which is why therapists use them in adaptive-dressing plans instead of Velcro.
Will they stay tight all day?
Yes. The elastic holds the tension you set at install. They only loosen if you set them looser than you actually need, in which case you redo the one-time tie-off a little snugger.