I know these are cheap and honestly if your going to use them for decorations or tying things together it's fine but if you want to use them as shoelaces than IMOP they are basically useless. If you pull them tight they turn into the thinnest string and hurt your hands. Over time they'll probably end up ripping the shoe holes but I won't let it get to that point and just threw them away.These are some darn nifty shoe strings. While they did not tie themselves as I had hoped, they are quite handy at keeping my shoes from falling off my feet.