You might not guess it from the video, but Houdini tells us the secret to rope escapes is not so much getting slack, nor concealing a hook-knife. No, it really depends on what kind of shoes you wear.
At least, that's what he wrote in the Ladies Home Journal in June 1918. Escape artists ever since have preferred Congress-Gaitors.
They're still available, and their characteristic side-gussets make them not a bad place to secrete the hook-knife.
