Tension and Lace

The flat woven shoelace presented an uncalibrated slack. Stepping onto the padded collar of your athletic trainer near the front mat, I inspected the crisscross pattern along the eyelets. The tension was uneven on the third rung from the top. Bracing my foot against the tongue, I took hold of the braided synthetic lace and applied steady, vertical leverage until the loop tightened by three millimetres. The friction of the textured weave held firm against the metal grommet. A balanced footing requires uniform tension across every pass.