Boots – shoes – and leggings – Boots and shoes – Occupational or athletic shoe
Reexamination Certificate
2002-11-13
2004-01-13
Kavanaugh, Ted (Department: 3728)
Boots, shoes, and leggings
Boots and shoes
Occupational or athletic shoe
C036S127000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06675505
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This application is a 371 of PCT/JP01/00012 filed on Jan. 4
th
, 2001.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a cleat. More particularly, this invention relates to a cleat to be used on golf shoes. This invention also relates to a method for manufacturing plastic golf shoe cleats.
2. Related Art
Pushpin type metallic spikes or cleats are conventionally used on golf shoes. Some are integrally provided and some are detachably provided on golf shoe soles. Such metallic spikes generally provide satisfactory grips or bites on grass or turf on the golf courses even when the grass or turf is wet.
Good grips and bites are provided because relatively long metallic spikes penetrate deep through grass into the ground beneath the grass, which is often damaging to the grass by the roots. The golfing ground will also get considerably roughened by metallic spikes. This problem is multiplied on putting greens. Subsequent players are often troubled by roughened putting greens. In addition, sharp metallic spikes can damage floor tiles or carpets of clubhouses.
Sharp pushpin type metallic spikes are not very comfortable to walk on, either, especially on hard surfaces such as floors or pavements.
Metallic spikes do not provide stability to wearers due mainly to a limited number of contact points with grounds and hardness of the contact points that contact grounds. Wearers of spiked shoes may easily lose body balance on hard surfaces particularly when the surfaces are wet or slippery. Metallic spikes may hurt wearers' feet, knees or waists as the shocks from the physical contacts between the metallic spikes and hard grounds can be directly transmitted to the wearers' feet because metallic spikes do not absorb such shocks.
In order to solve or alleviate the foregoing problems which are intrinsic to metallic spikes, nonmetallic types of spikes or cleats have been developed. They are mostly manufactured of plastic materials. Such plastic cleats have protrusions which are generally shorter than conventional metallic spikes and provide wearers with improved comfort since such cleats absorb shocks from hard surfaces to a certain degree. They also provide improved stability because they are shorter and a larger number of contact points are provided on shoe soles than with conventional metallic spikes. Plastic cleats do not damage turf or floors or carpets of clubhouses, unlike metallic spikes.
However, such conventional plastic cleats do not generally provide as good grips or bites on grass or turf as metallic spikes do. Providing good grips on grass is what is expected of cleats and spikes. Conventional plastic cleats often fail to provide grips on wet grass, withered grass or slopes.
JP Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 11-262401 teaches a plastic cleat
30
, which is shown in
FIGS. 12 and 13
of the drawings which are attached to this specification. This conventional plastic cleat
30
includes a threaded shaft
31
and a plurality of legs
32
as shown. The threaded shaft
31
is screwed into a threaded receptacle provided on a golf shoe sole. The legs
32
are made structurally flexible.
A plurality of plastic cleats
30
are secured on a shoe sole. They hardly damage grass or floors or carpets of clubhouses. However, since the legs
32
cannot effectively sustain wearers' weights due to the intrinsic weakness generated from the design features thereof, the legs
32
easily open outwardly as shown in FIG.
14
and lose grips on turf. Wearers do not necessarily get comfortable feelings on hard surfaces because of the “unique softness” the legs
32
provide as they are deformed. The cleats
30
do not provide good abrasion resistance, either, and they wear out rapidly. It may be possible to provide the legs
32
with more rigidity, however, then the cleats
30
will damage putting greens, more or less.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved cleat for golf shoes that is abrasion resistant and durable.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved cleat for golf shoes that provides good grips and bites on grass.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved cleat for golf shoes that can effectively absorb physical shocks from hard surfaces and is excellent in stability on hard surfaces.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an improved cleat that does not damage turf or floors of clubhouses.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an improved cleat for golf shoes that indicates progress of abrasion.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an economical method of manufacture of such improved cleats.
Other objects of the present invention will become apparent from the following descriptions.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is summarized here utilizing the claimed features that accompany this specification with the aim of facilitating the readers' easy understanding of the present invention.
An important aspect of the present invention is that a cleat of the invention which is advantageously made of a plastic material comprises a plurality of flexible protrusions and a plurality of rigid protrusions, wherein the flexible protrusions are generally provided longer than the rigid protrusions. Generally a plurality of such flexible protrusions and rigid protrusions are provided on a cleat along the periphery of the cleat.
A cleat
10
according to a claim includes a cleat body
3
from which a plurality of flexible protrusions
1
and a plurality of rigid protrusions
2
extend downwardly and generally obliquely outwardly. It is to be noted that the direction “downward” indicates a downward direction of the accompanying drawings, which is a direction toward grass or a ground when the cleat is in use.
The flexible protrusion
1
is “flexible”, however, it is so designed that it hardly bends on grass or turf and penetrates into grass and provides an excellent grip, but bends outwardly or opens on a hard surface such as a pavement and effectively absorbs shocks from the hard surface so as to alleviate potential physical damages.
The rigid protrusion
2
is generally made somewhat shorter than the flexible protrusion
1
. The rigid protrusion
2
as its name suggests is so made that it does not bend even on a hard surface. When the flexible protrusions
1
bend and open further outwardly, decreasing their vertical height and their weight supporting power, the rigid protrusions
2
support the remaining weight resting thereon. It is to be noted that the bent flexible protrusions
1
still support part of the weight.
The rigid protrusions
2
assist in providing good grips and bites on grass or turf by pressing grass hard from above. The rigid protrusions
2
prevent excessive deformation and abrasion of the flexible protrusions
1
on a hard surface.
The cleat body
3
is secured onto a golf shoe sole with securing means
4
. The overall configuration of the cleat body
3
may be a circle, oval, triangle, square or any other polygonal shape. It is also possible to integrally and directly provide a plurality of cleats
10
or cleat bodies
3
(without securing means
4
) on a shoe sole.
The cleat
10
may be made of a synthetic rubber material, ABS material, polycarbonate material, nylon material or a polyurethane material or any other appropriate plastic material or non-plastic material. Polyurethane materials are preferred materials.
It may be possible to provide each of the cleat body
3
, flexible protrusion
1
and rigid protrusion
2
with different plastic materials to provide a compound-type cleat
10
. The flexible protrusion
1
may be made of a flexible material and the rigid protrusion
2
may be made of a rigid material. Appropriate soft metallic materials or ceramic materials may be utilized, at least partially.
In an example cleat
10
, four flexible protrusions
1
and four rigid protrusions
2
are provided alternately along the periphery of the cleat body
3
.
It i
Adams Evans P.A.
Japana Co., Ltd.
Kavanaugh Ted
LandOfFree
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