These have been great for my little one that's not at all interested in learning to tie shoelaces. They arrive unassembled so you can thread through your sneaks, which is easy since these cords are stiffer than a regular shoelace. After threading, you slide the squeezy toggle over both strings, measure how much slack you want, cut the excess, than snap the cap on the end. Before buying these I tried a couple pairs of the curly show strings that look like slinkies, but they all broke. Another plus with these laces is that they're not permanent - you can take them out of one pair of sneakers and stick them in another. They're in their second pair of shoes now, with no fraying of the string, the cap is still secure, and the squeezy toggles are still going strong.