The Punk Lace Code 

Nice dude. I didn’t know people were actually still trying to make lace code a thing again lol

I met lots of punks, who used lace codes and some of them wore red laces. They said that it also meant communism, kinda makes sense to me, but it's a bit complicated.

Just want to say that blue also can mean ACAB, which is a more modern code related to blue. While not many people use it still a lot of cops are trained on it, which is something that you need to be aware of when wearing lace code especially with blue

Punk.? Code.? Rules.? Seems like a contradiction

growing up in philly if someone ever asks you "ay man what size shoes are those?" you jus say "my size" and stare them down, they'll typically back off haha ppl getting jumped for their shoes was a thing back in the day

I grew up in the punk scene in the early 80s and red laces on black boots always meant anarchist .

I'd just add that in modern lace code blue usually just means ACAB and red is commonly used by communists, often in combination with black for anarcho-communism. But this can vary depending on where in the world u are especially for reds

I remember the days before youtube when you had to go to a show and notice which people with which colors were getting the shit kicked out of them to figure out the code. Never knew about the green ones though, that's kinda cool.

Back in the 90s the way you laced certain colors had meaning as well

Lace code is ancient. Wear what you want. I wear yellow in docs and white in my astronauts. Lace code is dead.

Im a Skinhead from california and go through most color laces and havent had a problem. i know red is kinda dodgy though, in my opinion it looks the coolest

Im Hispanic and fully understand the cultures history, i wear white and yellow ladder laced having grown up around punks and goths.

Here's the thing though..... I grew up as a Punk in the 1980's, and a Skinhead in the 90's, but I moved a lot to different cities in those years. The 'Lace Code' was real, but the colours varied from town to town.....and from state to state. For the most part you are correct on the colour political definitions (if they are straight laced), but there are vast grey areas, that making a list like your presenting, is complacated. E.g. 1. There was/is an anti-racist crew in my home town that sported white or red laces. Is 'Lace Code' dead? My answer to that is this: Older Punks and Skinheads in X-Gereation [aprox.] (45 to 60 year old's) , who are still active in the 'Scene' have been known to still adhere a 'Lace Code' of thier old/current social or political stance. The tradition of straght lacing Doctor Marten's as symbol of being working class, is rooted in the 1960's starting with the Mods. The straight lacing in your Doc's, meant that you were poor(working class), because it showed that your boots did not fit. The first coloured laces were white. The cops would remove laces from the boots of football hooligans, and Skinheads in the late 60's.....the Skins got smart and would carry a set of old school laces in their back pocket just in case. If you saw a Skinhead with white laces it meant they had the suss! The political stuff came years later. Yes. I wear a boot lace colour that ( in my city), has been designated as an anti-fascist statement. but It's a much deeper tradition for me. Not a fashion. It's my culture. No different than a indigenous aesthetic distinguishing what tribe are from. In my home city, I grew up in a Punk scene, where there were Wte pwr gangs, and they caused serious problems on the streets, and at our shows ...and I was once on the front lines of that , letting the nz's know they were not welcome in our scene. Is Lace Code dead? If you forgot about it, or dont care,..then yes. It was a thing. Do people younger than 'X' use Code? From what I have observed, yes. ...but it far and few between. Gen-X, ' cultural eccentrics' , Punks and Skins, don't use lace codeas much either that i know of .

taking off my red laces while watching this i didn’t know probably gonna replace them😭😭

2:33 I've also heard red meant you specifically killed somebody motivated by racist hatred. Kinda similar to blue for being a cop killer but for racism/neo-nazism etc. Fairly new to the punk scene but I've generally always got the vibe lace code generally doesn't mean much nowadays, especially if the person wearing docs aren't visibly punk. But if they're obviously in the punk scene and in certain areas it can be an issue. Bottom line depends on the area and if anybody gives af. Most likely nobody will care, but there's always a real possibility somebody will. In certain areas lace code can be either nonexistent, or mean different shit. Just depends on the area and the people there. But I'll def say NOT to wear blue, ESPECIALLY at any sort of anti-police protest or if you're a person of color. I've heard blue typically just means ACAB now, but cop killer was the original meaning. While ACAB is a based thing to rep, cops may give af and by wearing those you're just asking them to suspect/fuck with you. Their boomer asses may think you're a "cop killer" or some shit you never know. Don't wanna risk that, especially at any sort of protest. I'd say just stick to yellow if you wanna rep anti-racism.

love EVERYONE treat ALL like a king and queen!

Some other meanings I may have missed although I do not know for sure if this were recognized. Pink: queer pride/queer bash back. Orange: no meaning to be seen. Make sure they don't look too red Multiple color: depends on what colors. Grey: no meaning. Make sure they aren't too light

I do not have doc’s but I have black vans with red laces but that’s only because black and red are my fav colors. The only person I offed is my old self.

I would like to get orange laces for my black doc's but idk what orange laces mean but more I keep looking into it people keep saying they mean what you want them to be. So if you guys have any answers on orange laces it would be great

Was there any thing for orange, want to have it match my camp halfblood shirt for a cosplay

Is the lace code only for boots in particular Doc Martens or does it apply to tennis shoes as well? I don't want to wear something that could potentially make someone afraid.

What if you’re a person of color wearing red laces or white just because they look cool af??

High school in the 2000s they had lace rules, no red or blue for bloods/crips. Later went onto ban pink laces (super popular in the skate scene then) but was cause it was seen as pro gay, catholic school and all. We just wanted our laces to match our shoes, or mix match even 😂. Now that I have docs and stumbled on this I can’t believe they’re trying to revive old boomer targeting

My patent leather docs came with yellow 😂 I’m from England and had no idea there was still code about

Thanks dude this helps

the era i grew up in . yup, kid did get rolled for docs those days. , back then all of them were made in england and really good . unfortunately not as much made in england anymore .still like my docs tho

what do cyan laces mean?

Wow had no clue I have a pair of boots that came with red and yellow laces I thought it’d be cool to wear one of each which is how I have them I’ve had them like three years. I literally had no idea lace colors had any meaning just thought the ketchup mustard vibe was cool I hope I still have and can find the other two laces so I can just wear yellow yikes otherwise I’ll just buy some yellow ones holy hell

nice

so i got the new MET docs, i want to straight lace them to see the art better but they came with cream laces, i don’t want to send the wrong message

I all wear yellow laces with my Doc Martens because I am not a racist

I feel like lace code is mostly dead because that kinda punk scene is mostly dead. I still go by the lace code. I'm in LA & like I mentioned before the punk scene isn't what it used to be. it's more "whatever u want it to be" in most places now.

I’ve been meaning to get purple and yellow laces for my boots

I'm a simple man, I wear the laces my Docs came with.

Nazis have gotten much more stealthy the past 15 years so catching a nazi for wearing red or white laces is going to be very unlikely. Essentially if you see someone with white or red laces repping sketchy or downright fascist bands, slogans, etc then it can be easy to draw a conclusion, however at that point the laces will be the least obvious sign. I say wear whatever you want and don’t question someone’s laces since if their laces are genuinelly being used to show that they’re alt-right then they will probably be wearing somethig else that’s much more obvious. the people on Reddit trying to bring it back are mostly babypunks who want to feel different and/or knowledgable as to not come off as a babypunk. The punks who are overly critical about others are either new to punk or not actual punks, once you start going to gigs and meeting people irl in the scene, you’ll notice how fucks are rarely given.

You should have mentioned the Braces (suspenders).. yes I know this is an old vid, but for us Skins it was Up for casual / non Fight Mode if you will.. When they were hanging it meant Ready to go. Cheers mate.

As a gay man who wears purple laces on Dr Martins I had no idea that was a thing lol. I just happened to like it.

what light grey lyce means i did not understand please replay me and i translate it in google

2 toner skull?

Thanks man! Really helped me out :)

Damn i have blue hair and wanted blue laces but i dont even wanna risk a misunderstanding lmao

Do you know the brun meaning ?

Red also represented the working man. Different countries seemed to have different color codes.

What about orange laces?

I wear the laces that come with the docs when i buy them.

Thank you for this! One of my shoes had a white lace (I didn’t know the meaning) so I replaced it with purple!

Hey bud, I hope you got that lice problem taken care of 👍

I always thought white laces were for boneheads, but then I met a bunch latino and black trads who wore white laces...so confusing. Red is also RASH and Redskin

Once upon a time, back in the 70s and 80s, my dad wore red and white laces. He was a white supremacist and a fascist. When he passed down his boots to me when he passed, I took off those laces and put on black laces. I didn’t know lace code, so black laces were in memorial to my dad. After learning lace code, I bought 2 more pairs, put blue ones for ACAB on one, Purple and Yellow on the other, and I still have the OG black laces from 2002 on my dads to this day. I wear my dad’s all the time in memorial, even if he was a bad person. Be your own person. Don’t follow in the footsteps of your parents if you don’t want to. Be proud of being different. Be amazing! I love yall

What about on one foot Red other foot white?

Whats the song though :o

thank you! gonna order red-white laces real soon!

i can’t afford docs,can i use lace code on converse ?

Great vid

good thing i learned about this when i did i almost bought red laces

In the 1980's/90's the lace code had some followers, white was always National Front/Racist. Red was mixed BNP/Communist- no hard and fast rule. More important than laces was eyeballing if the target had steeltoe cap boots. They could do some real damage.

Green can mean drug abuser too by the way :)

Imma start rocking purple laces ig plus its my fav color

Do pink laces have a meaning?

Background noise too loud

i live just down the street from dr strange

Us Latinos in socal use white in a ladder lace

Where I live it is red and white lace of black boots that skinheads wear so you can not wear that where I live

So as much as I know its pretty similar all around the world but from where I'm from (ex Yugoslavian country) red didn't really mean anything with nazis. It either ment your just an anarchist or a communist.

is it ok to wear one black for straight edges and one yellow for anti racist

I thought blue also for anti-cop in general.

I just wanted to get green laces to show ecological support

but... but... red laces on black boots look really cool... :(

I use to get quite a few funny looks back when I ran one Red and One white lace for shits and giggles hahaha.

The only people I’ve ever known to give a shit about laces was the bonehead skins. I avoid red because I’m big bald and covered in tattoos. You won’t get pushback on laces from anyone outside our dead scene. The people still putting on for punk rock are mostly old af and tired now. Not exactly cracking heads these days 😂

Lace code needs to stay dead docs just look good with color laces back in the day I wore red for a not so good reason now I wear black keep code dead and just wear what u want

good thing im a size 7, 9 in girls lol

My boot laces are black and red. I just like the colour scheme and fuck the neo Nazis for trying to ruin coloured laces 😂 Good video bro good look into an old near forgotten part of punk history

WP Get the reds out

1161

haha my best friend has red laces on her docs she has no idea... definitely not a nazi lol mine are yellow :)

I rock my purple laces

lol, how silly

Being a Non-binary trans woman who is also indigenous ( mainly Lakota and Wichita with a dash of German lol) also to top it off I am a Skinhead ( nothing special life just kinda took me there lol). I knew from my older gen X skinhead friends about the lace code in there time but I had no idea about purple so it's funny because purple along with black are my favorite colors so I always rock purple laces and braces (British skin term for suspenders) so I liked how that naturally worked out lol Oi! 🖤⚒️💜

do you have lice? you seem to scratch your head alot...

I WEAR WHITE LACES!!!.....WHITE LACES!!!💣

Literally every religious picketer at my liberal arts college who was prolife & reciting bible scriptures... they all had white laces 😮‍💨

Lace code is dead and has been for a long time.

Monarchy in the uk 🖕🏼

Lace code is dead 😂

does anyone know what pink laces mean?

I'm an old skating hardcore punk kid, till death.... White Laces meant "White Pride".. Red laces meant "you spilled blood for ypur race" or in the punk scene it meant "you're a right winged anarchist" Blue laces meant "Blue Blood/working class" it has nothing to do with cops.. working class traditional skinheads... Green meant "Irish skinhead".. traditional skinhead.. Yellow is "unity".. never understood why people used yellow, but whay ever... And Docs came with black laces, not yellow. Laces.... This could vary depending on the city... Don't trust Reddit for old school info. Just find a true old schooler..

i have white laces

a lace code is the dumbest thing ive ever heard XD

Why are people entertaining this nonsense? Wear what you want, it's called freedom of choice,i thought that was punk?

Lace code isn’t real.

Woke is not punk...

Never ever feel pity or guilt for beating up a Nazi.

goooooo yellow!

it's wild how the lace code is do stupid no one can agree on what they mean

Lace code is dead