The Story of Aglets

Can you imagine the difficult situation you would have to face if you had to lace up your shoes without the tiny & humble, hard plastic tips on your shoelaces? As funny & ridiculous as it may sound, but just think about how much harder it would be if your shoelaces didn't have those special hard plastic tips on them.

What many of us doesn't know is that those small plastic tips at the end of shoelaces or any laces are called 'Aglets', in spite of the fact how important these little things are. An Aglet is a small tip or sheath, often made of plastic or metal, used on each end of a shoelace, a chord or a drawstring. Despite their simplicity, aglets perform several functions:

• They stop the ends of the shoelaces from unravelling
• They make it easier to hold the ends of the shoelaces when lacing
• They make it easier to thread the shoelaces through the eyelets or lugs
• They may also provide a colourful or decorative finish to the laces.

Today, most aglets on shoelaces are hard plastic. However, aglets are believed to have been around since the time of the ancient Romans. Since they didn't have the plastic back then, the first aglets were probably made of metal, glass, or stone and many were highly ornamental. Wealthy people in ancient Rome may have used expensive precious metals, such as brass or silver, to make their aglets. Before the invention of buttons, they were used on the ends of the ribbons used to fasten clothing together. Sometimes they were formed into small figures. Shakespeare calls this type of figure an "aglet baby" in The Taming of the Shrew. Though no one knows for sure who invented them, many sources credit it being popularized by an English inventor named Harvey Kennedy who is said to have earned $2.5 million off the modern shoelace in the 1790s.

The word "aglet" (or "aiglet") originates from Old French "aguillette" (or "aiguillette"), which is the diminutive of "aguille" (or "aiguille"), meaning "needle". This, in turn, comes from the original Latin word for the needle: "acus". Hence, an "aglet" is like a short "needle" at the end of a shoelace. When you think of how aglets help you thread shoelaces through the eyelets in your shoes, this makes perfect sense! 

16th Century gold lace aglet, found in the mud of the river Thames by London Mudlark

Today, most clear plastic aglets on the end of shoelaces are put there by special machines. The machines wrap plastic tape around the end of new shoelaces and use heat or chemicals to melt the plastic onto the shoelace and bond the plastic to itself. Some shoelaces made out of special materials, like polyester, can be crimped and heated so that an aglet is formed at the end out of the same material as the shoelace. The advantage of such aglets is that they're not a separate piece that can become damaged and fall off. Let's take a look at how these were made then and now.

Aglet Manufacturing Processes

Metal Aglet Process:

Antique aglet maker, as used by shoe repairers. Photo by Barry H.

In the past, most aglets were made of metal, and were created by either rolling or crimping a small piece of metal directly onto the shoelace. Shoe repairers were able to supply and fit replacement aglets using a heavy duty crimping tool (as pictured at right).

In recent years, metal aglets have seen a resurgence, bringing some "bling" back to shoelaces. These are usually attached to the factory by either glueing or crimping.

Plastic Tape Aglet Process:

Nowadays, most aglets are made of plastic and are formed directly onto the raw shoelace using a large, expensive "shoelace tipping" machine (as pictured at right).

Aglet machine in G.A. Dietz factory. Photo by Rico Gerstner.

A typical plastic aglet begins with acetate tape, twice the width of the required aglet, which is wound around a section of the uncut shoelace. Carefully controlled heat, and often a solvent such as acetone, is applied at the same time, which just melts the tape directly onto the shoelace as well as bonding the tape onto itself.
When cooled, the shoelace is cut through the middle of the coated section, leaving half on each side of the cut. This single operation creates two aglets: One attached to the end of the cutoff section of the shoelace, another attached to the start of the uncut section of the shoelace.
Moulded Tip Aglet Process:
For polyester shoelaces, there is also another totally different process where the end is clamped and heated ultrasonically, producing a solid moulded tip from the actual shoelace material itself. Shoelaces with moulded tip aglets are often used for high-stress applications such as ice hockey skates because they have no separate plastic or metal piece that can become damaged and fall off onto the ice.

Aglets appear on more than just shoelaces today. They can be found at the end of cords and drawstrings. There is a subtle distinction between aglets, which are generally functional, and aiguillettes, which are generally decorative. Aiguillettes usually appear at the end of decorative cords, such as bolo ties and the cords on military dress uniforms. Shoe companies often produce their own shoelaces, for which they manufacture aglets. Many companies prefer to add metal sheaths over plastic aglets for the sake of durability. Some may add logos or pictures to show that the shoelaces are their own products.

So the next time you lace up your shoes or your project file, spare a thought about this humble invention which eases our lives without most of us not even knowing its name. Now you know!