Hi Tristan,<br><br>How about some cordage? It's useful stuff; tricky to manufacture in the wild unless you know what you're doing, not always conveniently available when you need it in an urban environment and easy to carry with you nearly always.<br><br>I like woven belts, because they're an instant one-time source of cord, should I ever have sufficient need of it to destroy the belt. Others on the forum have discussed weaving their own belts out of parachute cord, but I haven't gone that far. I just use woven belts bought like any other clothing.<br><br>I have one belt made of woven cords of brown leather. I have another made of woven cords of some strong elastic that are each covered in a black woven sheath of some sort that stretches with the elastic. The leather belt "stretches" just a bit due to its weave, the elastic belt stretches more due to its composition. Either can have the ends cut off, be unraveled and thus provide several strands of cord, which can be tied and/or rewoven together if longer length is needed. It's not parachute cord, but it's cord.<br><br>Another easy way to carry cord just bloomed in my mind; the product, I believe, of a seed planted during another forum thread in which the idea of scavanging one's shoe or boot laces for cordage was mentioned. I agree with those who suggested that secure footwear was of too great a priority to sacrifice your only laces in that way, but...<br><br>I paused in writing this long enough to run to my closet and relace all of my footwear. I took the laces out of one of each of my pairs of shoes & boots and laced it into the already laced matching shoe or boot. It works. With all of the footwear I own, I can thread the holes or eyelets with two laces of the same kind as I am using in them now. I have casual leather shoes, work boots, hiking boots, combat boots, running shoes and dress shoes... each with a different kind of lace (round or flat, thick or thin, leather strips or spun material of some sort, waxed or not). It's a variety, and they all worked.<br><br>The tightest fit was my running shoes, but even they fit. The speedlaces on my combat boots work fine, though loosening them to take them off isn't as automatic as it used to be. Putting them on and tightening them up is just about as easy and quick as ever, though the last two pairs of final non-speedlace eyelets down nearer my toes don't seem to have enough slack to change tension at all anymore. At least in this pair of boots, it doesn't seem to matter at all. This technique even worked securely and easily in the hooks up at the top of my work and hiking boots.<br><br>Note: I had to learn to grasp the laces differently with my fingers, since I needed to pull securely on four ends now, two in each hand. Sometimes, when the laces didn't tighten up identically, I had to figure out which one lace end to pull on to even up the tensions. This took just a bit more dexterity than usual. It's not familiar enough... yet... to be habitual, but it was no big problem, either.<br><br>Tomorrow, I think I'm going to buy some new and extra shoelaces and bootlaces! From now on, all of my footwear is going to carry a spare pair of laces... one for securing them to my feet and one for use as emergency cordage should I ever need it. If I ever find the fit too tight, I suppose I can look around for some slightly thinner laces to replace any that are too thick to fit so well when doubled.<br><br>Thank you all for stimulating the thought, Tristan and everyone who wrote elsewhere regarding laces.