Boots – shoes – and leggings – Boots and shoes – Occupational or athletic shoe
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-24
2001-02-13
Kavanaugh, Ted (Department: 3728)
Boots, shoes, and leggings
Boots and shoes
Occupational or athletic shoe
C036S122000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06185846
ABSTRACT:
DISCLOSURE
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This present invention relates to a snowshoe construction and, more particularly, to a lightweight snowshoe providing a user with enhanced maneuverability.
Because in the past snowshoes have been awkward to use, many design changes to the basic construction have been proposed. Much of the recent effort has been devoted to designing binding arrangements and their securance to the remainder of the snowshoe in such a way as to accommodate the natural stride of an individual, such as by allowing the foot to cant behind the user without the snowshoe itself leaving the ground. In other words, many relatively modern snowshoe designs include an articulating hinge rod or the like to allow the toe of a user to grip the snow (typically with the aid of a crampon) while the heel lifts up from the snowshoe. Examples of this type of shoe construction can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,517,772 and 5,787,612.
This approach, as well as other approaches, have not resulted in a snowshoe which is commercially acceptable for certain uses.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a lightweight snowshoe construction which assures that the user remains highly maneuverable. The snowshoe is designed so that the wearer hardly knows he/she has snowshoes on.
More specifically the shoe is designed to impart basically all of the weight on a user's leg to a single claw plate in all situations. To this end, the foot binding arrangement (preferably simply a plurality of straps as will be described) is rigidly connected to the claw plate at a pair of locations which are spaced longitudinally of the foot of a user to accept the weight of the user transmitted through the foot both at the ball and heel of the foot. This is simply accomplished by providing one of the locations near the ball of the foot and the other at the rear portion of the instep, i.e., adjacent to the user's ankle. Thus the claw plate provides a very stable platform for the user. The maneuverable showshoe of the invention includes both a peripheral frame and a membrane which is circumscribed by the same. The upper surface of the membrane is provided with the foot binding arrangement whereas the underneath or bottom surface of such membrane has the claw plate.
Most desirably, the claw plate extends to the peripheral frame of the shoe, both at the toe securance location and the ankle securance location. The result is that the claw plate acts not only to grip snow, but also to reinforce the snowshoe laterally. This enables the peripheral frame to be provided by a relatively flexible and lightweight tubular material. As a major feature of the instant invention reinforcing strapping extends from the foot binding arrangement to the peripheral frame to transfer to such frame, all forces which might tend to distort the membrane, including all torsional forces and all forces (including components of forces) which lie in the plane of the membrane.
Other features and advantages of the invention either will become apparent or will be described in connection with the following, more detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention and variations.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5517772 (1996-05-01), Anderson
patent: 5540002 (1996-07-01), Liautaud
patent: 5659981 (1997-08-01), Liautaud
patent: 5787612 (1998-08-01), Mahoney et al.
patent: 5809668 (1998-09-01), Kiniry et al.
patent: 5887362 (1999-03-01), McKenzie
patent: 5996259 (1999-12-01), Galley et al.
patent: 6092312 (2000-07-01), Neidhardt
P. 106 and another (unnumbered) page of a German language publication from an Austrian retailer “Transa” that appears to be part of a catalogue.
Kavanaugh Ted
Pride Industries
Zimmerman C. Michael
LandOfFree
Maneuverable snowshoe does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Maneuverable snowshoe, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Maneuverable snowshoe will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2598278