I've had a shoelaces break maybe 3-4 times on shoes I wore regularly for more than 2-3 years. It's annoying out of all proportion to the expense involved.

(The plastic bits at the end can also get frayed and fall off, which happens more quickly, but I'm not sure knot style has much to do with that.)

It depends on the type of eyelets you have, your shoelaces, and how tightly you lace your shoes.

Some eyelets are basically razor blades, they have very sharp edges, and tight tugging can cause wear in a very narrow spot.

As a kid I wore canvas sneakers most of the time. I laced them every day. The shoes would outlast the laces even though eventually I would outgrow the shoes. Since I didn't have a personal assistant to get me new laces, I often had to tie the shoes differently so that the laces would still work in some fashion. On high top sneakers, sometimes I'd lace them approximately as low top sneakers, but with a really economical knot. The main point of wear was the point where the lace went through the top eyelets.

Yeap - a bit of my shoe lace broke just after tying them once on a work morning. I had to run to catch a bus, but instead I stood on my shoe lace mid stride, fell and slid across a petrol station driveway. Spent the bus ride trying not to bleed on the seats and had to apply disinfectant and remove stones from the flesh wound at work.

Anyway it was embarrassing but it taught me a valuable lesson - shoe laces can wear out and break.

Yeah, it happens to shoes that are kept a long time.

However, I remain unconvinced that the wear pattern matters this much. It seems to me that an alternative would be to re-lace your shoes every year, flipping sides. Then the pattern would be more even, too. And probably still a waste of time and effort.

Yes. I've had lots of laces wear out, especially the plasticky end parts.

Add me to the pile of people who have experienced this problem more than once.

Laces on my boots wear out.