Aglets are the bits at the end of shoelaces or drawstrings that make them threadable.

Bow Toes has a colourful selection of thermoplastic aglet options.

Clear thermoplastic is the safest, standard option.

We also have metal finish aglet options, silver, gold, rose gold and vintage nickel. They do not fit through eyelets 5mm or smaller.

Yes, indeed. Is it possible not to be? All packaging is 100% biodegradable, even the transparent baggies used for market packaging.

Bow Toes promotes the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle lifestyle. Reduce packaging waste, reuse old trusty shoes by sprucing them up or reuse your Bow Toes to wrap gifts if you take them out of your shoes.

Suppliers are based in South Africa , support local is the way to go.

Proudly South African label pending.

Bow Toes are made from both double and single sided satin. This results in slight differences in look and feel. Prints are done on satin ribbons and some colours are only available in poly-satin.

The ‘m’ range was conceptualised by a fellow teacher right at the beginning of Bow Toes. It is a labour intensive design which is fully customisable. Being back at work full time after cancer treatment made making time for Bow Toes difficult but a happy coincidence has arisen.

In the modern world of education teachers constantly have to come up with creative ways to stimulate the minds of students with ADHD.

When reading prescribed books in class they struggle especially. I now allow students to braid the ‘m’ range in class while we read. The profits of the ‘m’ range go directly into the classroom.

You can use this excellent guide to see how long your laces should be.

Horizontal Spacing × Total Eyelets + 500 (all measurements in mm).

The horizontal spacing multiplied by the total eyelets approximates the length of the laced section while the 500 mm allows for a medium sized knot.

Calculation example:

On a typical sneaker with a horizontal spacing of 50 mm and with six pairs of eyelets (12 eyelets total), the approximate shoelace length calculates as follows:

50 mm × 12 (eyelets) = 600 mm, + 500 mm = 1,100 mm (110 cm)

Calculation accuracy:

Note that this approximation will generally come up a little short. For slightly better accuracy, add about 3 mm to the horizontal spacing measurement:

50 + 3 = 53 mm, × 12 (eyelets) = 636 mm, + 500 mm

= 1,136 mm (114 cm)

The length depends on the size and style of your shoe based on the amount of eyelets the shoe has, as well as how dramatic you want your Bows to be or your lacing style.

When diagnosed with breast cancer at 27, a lover of beautiful details needed a form of therapy to keep her sane, she started Bow Toes.

Being a high school teacher in South Africa is exhausting enough. Trying to teach a full school year while going through cancer treatment is nearly impossible. Having taken a month off for the operation and gone through chemotherapy treatments on Friday afternoons to recover over weekends, she was shocked to hear that she needed daily radiation sessions too. At this point she decided, during the end-of-year school exams to take some time off while getting radiation. In this time she saw ribbon shoelaces on her cousin’s shoes and loved the idea. Trying to find them online was fruitless and when she figured out how she would make her own pair she wondered if this may be something that more people would like. She started an Instagram account and relentlessly started making stock, distracting her from the possible depressing realities she had to deal with too. Within a month Bow Toes was at 4 festive season markets in The Cape Town area at the end of 2019 and there are exciting collaborations planned for 2020.

Because of this experience a percentage of Bow Toes sales are going to go towards the Ditto project.