The forgotten triumph of the 80s?

I was re-tying my shoes for about the 5th time today--very annoying--when a question occured to me:

Q: Why did Velcro shoes go out of style? They're so much easier!!

A: Ya got me. I used to love boat shoes, too, and they went way out of style.

All I can really do is observe that velcro's appeal fades over time. Ever look at the velcro from your toddler's shoes? Once they've pounded around in them for a few months, the "clingy" part gets so full of string, grass clippings, dog hair and shmutz that it flaps uselessly off the top of the shoe like a dried slice of ham. I imagine that, inevitably, the same thing happened to adult shoes and people got sick of pulling the springy lint out of them.