GREEPER Laces are an amazing new invention that enables the user to loosen and tighten laces with ease and they never come undone! Perfect for almost any footwear with laces – trainers, school shoes, casual shoes, golf shoes etc. – these laces are both fun and functional for all generations.

GREEPER Laces, invented by entrepreneur Peter Greedy, are a patented lacing system that enables quick and easy release and fastening of the laces. The laces are made with highest quality 100% polyester laces and are not elastic. This is important for athletes: Edinburgh Sports Podiatrist Jacqui Baggaley notes “the use of regular non elastic laces ensures optimum shoe support for the feet during exercise and reduces the chance of injury”.

The laces come in a number of different styles depending on your shoe type including ‘Execs’ suitable for smart shoes with black or brown laces; ‘Hikers’, suitable for your walking boots, ‘Originals’ which come in a number of colours, ‘Rounds’; ‘Fats’ and ‘Sport’ as found in trainers. The Sport laces are perfect for triathletes looking to put on shoes quickly, and the Execs are great for people of all ages with co-ordination or dexterity problems who have difficulty tying their own laces.

Review

I tried a pair of the Sport laces in my trainers and they took less than 5minutes to fit. During long runs they remained secure and provided good support round my foot when pulled the laces were pulled tight.

My only issue with the laces was for my size 6 shoes they were a little too long. They recommend that you trim your laces to the correct length but I left them so that I could easily remove and refit them when I washed my trainers and consequently the loops were slightly too long. So I would recommend leaving the lengths under the tag a little longer and pushing the extra length under the tied laces.

Working with a child with dyspraxia over the Summer he loved my laces and could easily pull the laces tight himself without help. The added bonus is that once the GREEPERS are tied they never come undone again, great not only for kids who seem to be forever having their laces undone but also athletes who don’t want them coming undone during races/runs.

Watch our video to see just how easy it is to fit and use the GREEPER Laces.

Celebrity Partner

GREEPERS also have a celebrity partner in the form of Triple Ironman World Champion Chrissie Wellington who is now using GREEPER Sports Laces in her Brooks running shoes. Chrissie says “GREEPERS Laces are easy, fast and give me support exactly where I need it!”

In July 2010 Chrissie Wellington broke the world record for the Iron-distance triathlon in Roth, Germany. She recorded a time of 8hours 19:13 to beat her own previous mark by 12 minutes and 46 seconds. Of GREEPERS Chrissie said “The laces were amazing! I really do think they gave my feet the stability and comfort that I needed to run to a new World Record!”

Chrissie’s marathon time of 2:48:54 after completing a 3800m swim and record breaking 112mile bike ride was the fastest ever achieved in an iron-distance triathlon.

Charity Greeper Gear

An important aspect of Chrissie’s partnership with GREEPERS is that a portion of all proceeds from product sales is donated to various charities, jointly agreed by Peter and Chrissie. GREEPERS are also producing a unique “Chrissie” version of the Sport laces that will bear Chrissie’s motto “Live It, Love It” – along with a Chrissie smile! When asked about the motto Chrissie said “anything is possible if you live and love life to the full!”

Special Edition “Chrissie Greepers” Laces are WHITE with Black edges. Perfect for all sports! With each pair including a £1 donation to the Jane Tomlinson Appeal.

To complement the Special Edition GREEPER Sports laces already available. GREEPERS have launched launch a new exclusive line of GREEPER Gear. Working with Chrissie and supporting the Jane Tomlinson Appeal, these beautiful quality 100% cotton T shirts and Hoodies, have the GREEPER Logo and Chrissie’s inspirational motto “Live It, Love It”.

The T Shirts and Hoodies are available in both white and grey and a range of sizes. GREEPERS will make a donation to the Jane Tomlinson Appeal for each item purchased – £5 for each Hoodie and £2 for each T Shirt.

For those taking part in Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life and Run 10k events and are looking for some pink laces, the Sports laces also come in a pink version and as a company 10% of all GREEPER profits go to charity.

GREEPER Laces and clothing are available from Greepers.com

I’ve never been a fan of Golden Bond places. Rather than the ballot entry fee of £30 the charities have to pay around £350 for a golden bond place which they have to recoup from the money you raise. If you feel passionate about raising money for a given charity, there are many big city marathons run around the same time as London you could enter for £30 or less, with more of your hard earned sponsorship money given to the charity directly.

If you desperately want to run London, there is no need to get your friends and family to pay for your impatience by thinking they are donating to charity, when really they are mainly just contributing towards your entry fee.  You will get a guaranteed place if you have been rejected 5 times and there is probably a good chance you would have got in through the ballot by that time. You could train harder and get a good for age time for next year. Or if you train extra hard and get a championship time by January 2010 you will still be able to race in April 2010

If you are a member of a running club, they have club places available. The regular competitive club runners will probably have their own places through either full or half marathon times, so if you want to run London for the first time, joining and becoming active in a club will probably lead to a club place offered to you next year.

If you have been lucky to get your own place in the 2010 VLM and want to fund raise for a charity then Virgin are now providing a more cost effective way to collect money. In the past most of us have had a JustGiving.com page for fund raising and it does have it’s benefits. Adding a link to your facebook page or sending out an email to friends you don’t see personally, is an easy way to encourage sponsorship and they collect gift aid for you. But they do this for a charge. A £10 donation can also reclaim £2.82 from the government as gift aid, yet JustGiving take 5% as a transaction fee (64p) plus VAT at 15% (10p) along with the credit card fee of 15p resulting in a whopping cost to the charity of 89p. Over 10 years £526m has been raised through JustGiving. Transaction fees of 5% would have earned them £26.3 million, that’s paying for some impressive overhead costs.

But with Virgin sponsoring the London marathon now they have set up Virgin Money Giving as a non profit making company to help you raise more money by only charging 2% as a transaction fee (card fees are the same) so the total cost to the charity is only 35p from a £10 donation.

Obviously the most effective way would be to get post dated cheques from your sponsors that you promise to cash only if you finish the race, ensure you get their permission to claim gift aid and then the charity gets to keep all 128% of your donated money. But if you are planning on a fund raising event and want on online sponsorship page for any event (it’s not limited only to VLM runners) then Virgin Money Giving (virginmoneygiving.com) could be the most effective way to collect your donations.