Big Guys with Ties - Keeping it together

Solution not even imagined by the manufacturer!

Ok, I've written about some pretty strange things, but none quite so personal and challenging as my ties! When your are tall like me (6'10") and a pretty long torso, it's hard to keep my front and back part of my ties together.  I wear a suit at least five days a week.  On top of that I speak to different congregations weekly as Stake President of the Salt Lake Rose Park Stake in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or speak in my role as Regional Development Director for Salt Lake County and its always embarrassing to look down and find my tie going two different directions. I think after 40 years of wearing a tie, I finally found a solution that I don't think was in the minds of the manufacture, 3M when they marketed the product.

The problem you have at my height, is that the back part of the tie, doesn't go long enough to match up with anything that can hold it.  I've tried tape, both regular and double stick - doesn't hold.  I've had well meaning friends give me tie clips, but if you placed them where you would need them they would be two inches below the tie knot.  I had some ties custom made abroad, but very expensive and frankly didn't hold up well.  Those ties they sell in Men's clothing stores that say "extra long", well maybe if you're 5'8", but not for real tall men.  Silly as it sounds, those "extra long ties" are the ones that are just leaving me 3" to 4" on the backside when tied.

A few months ago, my wife Cathy purchased for me four different kinds of Velcro tabs or dots.  Some were super heavy duty and while they stayed on the tie permanently, they were also nearly impossible to line up afterwards and usually took three or four times to tie them to come close.  Made it very difficult to untie the tie because you had to work around the Velcro surfaces.  And if you pulled them off, left a very sticky mess.  But they did hold the tie together.

Demonstration on how the Velcro dots hold the
tie together

Then I tried the Scotch Create Fastener Dots.  They are fairly inexpensive, and do hold to the clothing.  However the beauty is they come off fairly easily if I just peel them off the tie with little or no residue.  I realized for the small cost and constant frustration of trying to line up the more robust Velcro dots, that I could just place these dots on for the day, it held my tie together and at the end of the day, I just peeled them off and threw them away and untied my tie like I normally do.  My days are often 14 hour days and they stay together most of the time without any extra effort on my part.  At age 52, can I tell you how liberating this was to me!  How normal it made me feel and most importantly how I didn't have to cover up for my tie becoming like an upside down V when talking to a crowd or just a co-worker.  I'm sure they are available in craft stores, if they were smart, a big and tall store, but save yourself the time and get them on Amazon.com and have it shipped to you in two days.  Now it doesn't solve the myriad of problems in the rest of my life but for now, my ties are keeping it together!