Abstract: Shoe fastener for conventional type shoes having flaps with lace-receiving eyelets disposed along the upper edge portions thereof, includes an elastic web secured at one end to an elongated mounting plate. The plate has a plurality of bendable tabs to fit through the eyelets for securement to one flap of the shoe. At the other end thereof, the elastic web is affixed to a rectangular catch plate which includes an elongated slot. A latch plate, having tabs for fastening into the eyelets of the second flap, extends upwardly and outwardly from the flap for releasably interengagement with the slot in the catch plate. The elastic web, which extends from the mounting plate to the catch plate, may alternately be in the form of a unitary web of elastic fabric, a coil spring or flat spring, or more strands of an elastic material adapted to be affixed onto the retainer plate and the catch plate and when connected to the latch plate, will be in tensioned span on the instep portion of the shoe.