Rhino Laces are a new company given a boost by Kickstarter, they basically came up with a pair of boot laces that are guaranteed to last your lifetime or if they don’t they will send you a new set! These laces claim to be un-cuttable, burn proof, un-snappable and even zombie proof. The founders were wildland firefighters who were fed up with burnt laces, so created something indestructible to solve their problems and they are now used by military and firefighters alike. That same indestructible philosophy will not only save your ass in the middle of the mountains but to me is the epitomy of sustainability, if only more companies thought like this there would be less broken junk in landfill sites.
Rhino Laces were interested in how these laces work for snowboarders so they sent me a few pairs to test, all the way from the USA to my home in the winter sports capital of Chamonix, France. They are based in the USA but ship pretty much all over the world. For the last couple of months I have been abusing them as much as possible and now the season has ended here, this is what I make of them;
The laces are a similar width to your standard boot lace but the first thing you notice is that they are a bit stiffer. This makes them a bit harder to tie tightly in your traditional bow knot. They do however come with instructions on different knots, but I found the good old double tied bow worked fine for me and kept tight. After using them a while it is clear they tie tight, they don’t wear out and they don’t snap, so what else do you want form your laces. The really are a bit of a game changer, they don’t stretch like standard laces so you can pull them super tight and get the tight fit that a Boa or quick lace system offers.
Therefore they clearly work awesomely as normal laces, but what I really wanted to test was how they performed holding the inner snowboard boot harness tight. For me this is what snaps, wears out and loosens on my snowboard boots. For this purpose they came with a plastic clips that slide over the laces and tighten them, I was a bit skeptical at first but they worked superbly. They hold tight all day and after a months solid use they look like they just came out the packet, perfect.
So as they are meant to be burn proof I held one over a candle, it turns out the outer coating does eventually melt, but underneath is a super flexy metal cable and that’s why they don’t snap!
After burning them, I took a pair of scissors to them and the nylon like outer does show scuff marks, but they wont cut through and clearly the metal inner will not cut either!
Basically they work well and do everything they claim, if you have ever lost riding time on a powder day from broken laces then buy these and that will never happen again! More importantly if you like standard laces on your boot but didn’t think you could pull them tight enough without snapping them each week, then this is you solution. I think they really should change your thinking when buying new boots.
I have started using them in my winter hiking boots and plan to use them for cycle touring across Asia this summer both places where a broken lace could end up being a nightmare, but I now know that won’t happen!
Buy some here; Rhino Laces Website