Boots – shoes – and leggings – Uppers – Closure
Reexamination Certificate
1998-05-18
2001-05-29
Sewell, Paul T. (Department: 3728)
Boots, shoes, and leggings
Uppers
Closure
C036S113000, C036S116000, C036S117100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06237253
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a shoe, optionally a shoe with a high upper such as a mountaineering boot, hiking boot, golf shoe or a sports shoe, comprising an upper and a tongue connected with s aid upper and having a foot-inside edge, a foot-outside edge and an edge close to a shin, said edge close to the shin connecting the foot-inside edge and the foot-outside edge, said tongue extending from a forefoot-instep portion of the shoe to at least an ankle-flexure portion of the shoe and being approximatively formed in a saddle shape for adapting to an instep-ankle-flexure contour of a foot.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A problem associated with such shoe is that after wearing the shoe for some time the tongue slips, regularly towards the outer side of the foot. In particular, with shoes for sportive leisure time activities such as hiking boots, mountaineering boots or sports shoes, during which the foot is frequently moved to a large degree, a correspondingly large degree of friction against the shoe is generated, thus causing painful pressure sores or abrasions, when the tongue is not in its correct position relative to the foot. One reason for the slipping effect is that the tongues are usually preformed. In the process of performing they are precurved along the foot contour and, if necessary, along the contour of the lower leg. Depending on the material and the design of the tongue the preform can be attained in many different ways. Multi-layered tongues made of textile or/and leather materials, for instance, can obtain their preform by superimposing individual, non-preformed material layers of the tongue in the desired shape. By suitable stitching or glueing of the material layers a permanent preform can be attained. If plastics parts made of flexible plastics material are used for the tongue, the plastics parts can be manufactured in the desired form, e.g. by injection moulding. It is also conceivable to press the tongue into its desired shape. If, during walking, the forefoot or metatarsus is now bent towards the tibia (shin), the tongue is correspondingly bent in the ankle flexure portion. In order to retain its preformed shape the tongue thus slips away from the lower leg pressing towards the front. The consequence is that it slips to the side. The reason why in most cases it slips to the outer side of the foot can be found in the anatomical differences between the foot-outside and the foot-inside. Usually these anatomical differences are not taken into account in performing the tongue; a symmetrical shape is much rather given to the tongue with respect to a cross-section taken transverse across the instep.
The slipping of the tongue can be particularly painful in shoes or boots with ankle height or shin height with tongues that extend over the ankle flexure portion of the shoe, since in such cases the tongue can easily slip over the ankle, in particular over the lateral malleolus, where abrasions or pressure sores are particularly painful and considerably impair the wearing comfort.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to increase the wearing comfort of a shoe as mentioned at the beginning.
To achieve this object in accordance with the invention it is proposed that said tongue comprises, in the ankle-flexure portion of the shoe, at least one, optionally flat flexing zone, which is flexurally softer than adjacent tongue portions.
It turned out that in such shoes the propensity of the tongue to slip towards the side is considerably reduced, even when the shoe is used for activities requiring a high degree of motion such as hiking or running. This increases the comfort of the shoe and circumvents painful abrasions or pressure sores on the foot. The enhanced positional stability of the tongue can even be attained in the case of very slim feet, the danger of slipping of which is generally very great. By means of the flexing zone the tongue puts up a lower flexural resistance to the lower leg pressing to the front during a walking motion. Thus the tongue follows the lower leg to the front without slipping towards the side. During the overall movement the tongue clings to the foot, and optionally to the lower leg—if the tongue is that long. It is of considerable advantage that the clinging effect remains even during such movements, during which the lower leg moves towards the back relative to the foot, as is, for instance, the case when descending from a mountain. In conventional shoes the contact between the lower leg and the tongue loosens considerably, so that the tongue can easily slip towards one side, whereas in the solution in accordance with the invention the flexing zone enables the tongue to remain in a permanent contact with the lower leg thus stabilizing the foot-inside the shoe. Without great resistance the tongue can go through any deformations caused by the backward and forward movements of the lower leg relative to the foot.
In particular in shoes with ankle height it is expedient for stabilizing the foot in the portion of the upper edge of the shoe, when the flexing zone is spaced from the edge of the tongue close to the shin and said tongue is terminated by an edge zone at its edge close to the shin, said edge zone being flexurally stronger than the flexing zone.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention the flexing zone extends only over a part of the width of the tongue between the foot-inside edge of the tongue and the foot-outside edge of the tongue. This guarantees that a portion of the tongue lying above the flexing zone towards the tibia and a portion of the tongue lying beneath the flexing zone towards the metatarsus are connected by a flexurally stronger connecting strip, left open by the flexing zone, so that the overall shape of the tongue remains unchanged and the two mentioned portions of the tongue do not move relative to each other.
The propensity in known tongue designs to particularly slip towards the foot-outside can substantially be ascribed to the asymmetrical anatomy of the human foot. To counteract this tendency it is advisable to asymmetrically form the tongue. It is therefore proposed that said flexing zone is formed asymmetrically relative to a midline of the tongue in the middle between the foot-inside edge of the tongue and the foot-outside egde. In tongues in which the flexing zones extend only over part of the width of the tongue this asymmetry can particularly consist in the fact that the flexing zone is offset towards the foot-inside edge of the tongue relative to the midline of the tongue. For it has shown that the position-stabilizing effect of the flexing zone acting on the tongue occurs in particular when the flexural strength in the foot-inside portion of the tongue is diminished. The anatomy the tongue gives rise to the fact that during walking the deformation of the ankle-flexure portion on the foot-inside is greater than on the foot-outside. Therefore the flexing zone can narrow towards the foot-outside edge of the tongue.
Due to the reasons mentioned above the flexing zone preferably extends to the foot-inside edge of the tongue. Likewise the flexing zone will expediently terminate at a distance from the foot-outside edge of the tongue, however, it has proven favourable when the flexing zone extends at least over the instep apex. The tongue can be stabilized further by the fact that at its foot-outside edge the tongue comprises an edge reinforcing structure extending over at least a portion opposite to the flexing zone. Such edge reinforcing structure has proven expediently when the flexing zone extends close to the foot-outside edge of the tongue.
It is conceivable that the tongue comprises at least one further flexing zone spaced from the flexing zone. The tongue can optimally adapt to deformations occurring during walking when a plurality of flexing zones are present. Good results can be achieved when said further flexing zone is offset relative to said first mentioned flexing zone towards the foot-outside edge of the tongue. When said further flexing zone extends to the foot
Baker & Botts L.L.P.
Sewell Paul T.
Stashick Anthony
“Lowa” Sportschue GmbH
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