One of my favorite runs is out my front door and into the Santa Clara River Reserve. I have a 6 to 8 mile loop that puts my Huaraches to test. It is quite rocky and abrasive. I originally was running off-road in Huaraches (Vibram Cherry Soles) using Ted’s double threaded hemp method. I then began to get very tender under my right toe. To the point that it was even effecting my barefoot running. I then had a stroke of fortune – my huaraches disappeared. Which was not cool as I was heading to Bryce Canyon and had no time to order new materials from Ted. I had some elephant bark soling and one extra hemp braided cord. The family was packed and waiting to go — I grabbed the soling material — stood on it in the driveway and traced my feet. I then cut the material our with a pair of strong Fisker fabric scissors in less than two minutes. I have a small Swiss Army pocket knife on my key chain and used the awl tool and knife to punch out three holes and threw them into the side door of the car with the hemp cord.
Arriving in Bryce Canyon I split the hemp cord in to two pieces and threaded my minimal Huarache sandals. I did not have enough cord to tie them like ted does and with the cord crossing over the top of my arch. So I eliminated the cord wrapping around the ankle. It took a few adjustments to get everything worked out as the back kept wanting to fall off of my heal, but then I got it dialed in and have not looked back since.
The first thing that I notice was that the distance between cord breaks was four times what it used to be. This last point was one of the original reasons that I was using the double lacing method – more abrasion resistance. The next thing I notice was something that I just learned to deal with and that was how the wrapping of the cord would tighten up around my ankle when I would go up or down steep inclines. I would have to stop when I got to flat sections and re-adjust. Now this is wrapping is completely gone and my mobility I feel is significantly enhanced on running on any terrain. The last benefit was that I figured out that the big double knot of the double cord method was what was giving me my tender toe. No more tender toe – YES!
So take a look at my strapping method and let me know how it works for you all out there.
PS – Interesting note – I am put on more muscle and lost some fat. Weight is not around 238 and feeling faster and fitter than ever. And by the way the I am que up to run the St. George Marathon again this year, and of course sans shoes.
Thanks for showing us this ! I’ve tried several different ways of lacing my huaraches but always with the ankle loops, so your method is very interesting. I’ll try it today and see how it goes. By the way, I use an ‘oysterman’s stopper knot’ also known as ‘Ashley’s stopper knot’ under the sandal (https://www.helsinki.fi/~galambos/knot/stopper.html) It does the job and flattens very well.
Hi
I have been trying to use your method of tying as I don’t like the cord around my ankles, however, I can’t get it right. Could you post some step-by-step instructions please?
Hello – I took some pictures of building my daughters huaraches and will post shortly. Michael