Shoelace
From the unofficial Duke TIP Wiki
The shoelace is the most important fashion statement that can be made by a TIPster. It's how anyone on staff (or anyone who knows about TIP) can identify a TIPster without much trouble. The shoelace is used to separate TIPsters from participants in other programs. At Davidson, the staff may warn you about a tree that has supposedly been the final resting place of many twirled shoelaces. LISTEN TO THEM.
Most campuses have three colors of shoelaces. It's often a neon yellow or green for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd years, usually orange for 4th years with 4th-year privileges, and a third color for staff. Davidson just has two colors, since they don't have 4th years.
Of late there has been a debate over whether there is, in fact, a difference betwixt the colors of 2nd and 3rd year shoelaces at Duke West/East. The color difference used to be more pronounced, with one being more greenish-yellow, with the other being more yellow-ish green, but recently they have begun to blur the difference. Some sharp-eyed people claim they see a difference, but no official statement has been made by the TIP staff. On East Term II 2007, a distinct difference from normal traditions was made when the second and third years were given neon green shoelaces and the fourth years were given neon yellow shoelaces. This made it nearly impossible to distinguish fourth years from a distance and was met with great protesti 5A8 ng.
| The shoelaces have been used to identify us out in the real world as well. At Term II 2005, at the Durham Bulls Baseball Game, a large group of bored people were sitting around singing loudly (and probably very badly) with a collecting tin when RC Andrew came over and told us to shut up, claiming that people were complaining to the staff. When asked how they knew who to complain to, RC Andrew got very irritated and said, "How many people do you see with the neon shoelaces?" He then gave us some loose change and told us to be quiet. Thus, the shoelace has immense identifying value. |
| —Caitlin |
Shoelaces, which carry our Duke cards and room keys, are often simply called one's key. --Joseph 12:58, 14 September 2006 (MDT)
