Run DMC's Reverend Run said the group's lace-less trainers stayed on their feet by "magic".

The hip hop vocalist's group started a fashion trend in the 80s when they started to wear their trademark Adidas Superstar trainers without laces, but the singer said there was no danger of them ever slipping off their feet.

He wrote on his blog: "When questioned if I had problems with the sneaker staying on my feet because we sometimes didn't wear the laces I say, 'not one.' It wasn't even a question. The sneaker didn't come off our feet, for whatever reason - it was magic, I don't know."

The Reverend - real name Joseph Simmons - also said although he doesn't know why they wore their trainers in that way, he speculated it was because convicts weren't allowed laces in jail.

He added: "I guess it was the extreme hood-flavor that people knowing that guys coming straight from jail wore them with no shoestrings for whatever reason.

"Then they used to try to call them 'felon shoes' and they recognised that they didn't let you have shoestrings in jail, 'cus you might hang yourself, I heard."