UNLACED is an imaginary educational book cover about how unnecessary it is to learn how to tie your shoes. It takes the tone of a very serious instructional manual and uses it to argue something extremely dumb. But when you think about it — IT'S A GOOD ARGUMENT.
Helpful diagrams. Solid warnings. Look at how much effort we’ve put into pretending shoe-tying matters. For decades. Centuries, probably. All for knots.
Velcro exists. It makes fun noises. It does not come undone. It does not require daily practice. And yet we persist.
This piece steals the visual language of mid-century educational publishing—overconfident typography, friendly diagrams, authoritative explanations—and applies it to a problem that absolutely does not need solving. The result is a book that looks helpful, feels official, and explains nothing of value whatsoever.
It’s designed to feel like something you’d find in a school library, immediately trust, and then slowly realize is completely unhinged. The diagrams are earnest. Start a conversation.
UNLACED does not care about metaphor. It does not care about culture. It does not want to teach you anything. It just wants you to stand there, look at it, and think, yeah… tying shoes is pretty stupid. And that's all we need to happen to change the world.
Velcro forever. VZZZK!