Using Laced
How and when to start your entries
Start about five minutes before the Draw opens, ten to fifteen with several profiles. Started means Laced is running and waiting, not that an entry has been submitted.
Checked against app version 1.4.11 ·
Open the Launch page about five minutes before the Draw opens.
Give it ten to fifteen minutes if you are running ten or more launches, or more than one account.
Check that every billing profile you are using still reads green.
This is the last point at which a billing problem is fixable. Validation alone takes up to sixty seconds.
Tap Start on an individual launch card, or Start All to start everything at once.
Start All staggers the launches with delays rather than firing them together, which is why a large set needs a longer run-up.
Leave the app open and watch the log card that appears.
Use Stop on a card, or Stop All, if you change your mind before the window opens.
Five minutes, or ten to fifteen
Start about five minutes before the Draw opens. If you are running ten or more launches, or more than one account, give yourself ten to fifteen.
The reason for the longer run-up is Start All. It does not fire every launch in the same instant, it staggers them with delays. With a handful that takes moments. With twenty, the last launch in the queue needs time it will not have if you began at the last minute.
There is no penalty for starting earlier than that, and nothing is gained by it either. A Draw is decided at random at its close, so an early entry and a late one inside the window are the same entry. How SNKRS draws work covers why. The only reason to start early is to remove the risk of not starting at all, and that reason is enough on its own.
Started is not submitted
This is the distinction the whole page exists for.
Started means the launch is running. Laced is awake, holding the release, the profile and the size you saved, waiting for the window to open. Nothing has reached Nike.
Submitted means the entry has gone in. That happens when the Draw opens and Laced sends it, and it is the log card, not the Start button, that tells you so.
The confusion is easy to have. People tap Start, see the button disappear, read that as done and close the app. The button going away is the launch beginning, not finishing. Leave the app open. The log is the only view you have of what is actually happening, and a drop can run anywhere from a few seconds to ten minutes depending on the release. What the log shows once things are moving is covered in during a drop.
Start and Start All
Start on a card runs that one launch. Start All runs everything on the Launch page, staggered.
Start All is the right default when the whole set is intentional and billing is green across the board. Go card by card when it is not: when one profile has a problem you have not fixed, when you saved a size you no longer want, or when you are close to the window and would rather get the pairs you care about running first.
Stopping
Stop on a card ends that launch. Stop All ends every launch that is running. Both are there for the change of mind before the window opens, a size you have thought better of or a pair you have gone off.
Once a drop is live, the buttons stop being the useful thing to look at. The log is.
One last check before you start
Look at billing. Sixty seconds of validation is survivable at five minutes out and not survivable at thirty seconds out. A profile carrying a red dot will not produce an entry no matter how early you start it, and a running launch against invalid billing is the quietest way there is to miss a drop.
The rest of the routine, in the order that works, is in the drop day checklist.
If something goes wrong
The Start button has disappeared
Why it happens: That is what a started launch looks like.
Once a launch is running, Start is replaced by a log card showing activity. Nothing has gone wrong. The launch is doing exactly what you asked it to.
You are inside five minutes and nothing is started yet
Start anyway, and start the launches you care about most first rather than reaching for Start All in a rush. A late start only costs you if the window closes before the entry goes in.
The drop has started and nothing has resolved yet
Why it happens: Depending on the release, a drop can take anywhere from a few seconds to two to ten minutes.
Give it the full window before you assume something is broken. Watch the log card rather than the Start button, and leave the app open while it runs.
Questions people ask
Does started mean my entry is submitted?
No. Started means the launch is running and waiting for the Draw to open. The entry is submitted once the window opens and Laced sends it, and the log card is where you watch that happen.
How early should I start my entries?
About five minutes before the drop for a normal set of launches. Ten to fifteen minutes if you are running ten or more, or more than one account, because Start All staggers them and the last one still needs time to get going.
Can I start too early?
Starting early costs you nothing but battery and attention. A Draw selects at random at its close time, so an entry submitted as the window opens and one submitted near the end are treated the same way.
What does Stop do?
Stop ends that one launch and Stop All ends every launch currently running. Use it before the window opens if you have changed your mind about a size or a pair.