By the way, I was talking with my sister recently about my nephew's difficulty in tying his shoes (he's five). Only his "church shoes" have шнурки -- all the others close with velcro, so he doesn't get much practice with shoelaces. (Velcro shoes were almost unheard of when my sister and I were that age, and we certainly didn't have any shoes with red LEDs that light up and flash with each step!)

Anyway, the conversation reminded me that I wasn't 100% sure about how to express some of these things in Russian.