GB2273235A - Sport shoes - Google Patents

Description

4 2273235 - 1 is 1 IMPROVED SPORTS SHOES WITH RETROPODALIC CONTROL SYSTEM

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION Just as is expressed in the title of this specification, the present invention refers to improved sports shoes with retropodalic control system whose purpose consists of controlling effectively abnormal retropodalic movements that are caused during jumping, missteps, in sharp changes of direction or speed, or in other similar circumstances that normally produce a large number of 10 sprains and ankle injuries.

The shoe system of the invention avoids these sprains and injuries due to some reinforcements that imitate the ligamentous structure of the ankle, whereby the ankle is adequately protected as it is never forced beyond its normal limits, said reinforcements permitting however enough movement of the foot.

On the other hand, the sole of these shoes adapt perfectly to the anatomical and physiological conditions of the foot, achieving noteworthy effectiveness result- ing in greater comfort and freedom of movement for the person wearing the shoes. The main object of said sole is that the shoes that include this sole go along to the maximum with the physiological movement of the foot, and besides the natural twisting of the foot during exercise is not limited.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Boot type sports shoes that permit support of the ankle in a manner rather better than with sneakers are known. However, up until now a system that offers the foot and ankle suitable protection has not been designed, since with said boot type shoes a large number of ankle injuries are still caused, especially when one plays sports such as basketball, volleyball, etc. This is mainly due to the fact that the existing models have the inconvenience of not offering adequate resistance as it is necessary to permit a high degree of mobility of the foot.

Concerning soles for sports shoes, some of them are comprised of a single body, defining in the support surface different shapes in order to achieve better gripping and adhesion to the ground. There are other soles, which though they have been formed by various materials at the moment of manufacture in the corresponding molds of the injecting machines, as a whole they form a single body. These soles of a single body have the inconvenience that the adaptation thereof to the different parts of the foot, and to the different parts of rubbing against the ground, upon requiring different conditions in each areas, is insufficient when good characteristics are required.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In order to achieve the objectives and to avoid the inconveniences indicated above, the invention consists of improved sports shoes with retropodalic control system that permits adequate mobility of the foot, avoiding at the same time the risk of sprains and ankle injuries.

The system of the invention is applied to boot type sports shoes and is comprised of some semi-rigid material reinforcement strips that imitate the basic ligamentous structure of the ankle. These reinforcements can be placed either outside or inside the boot, or in between the layers of the body forming the same.

One of the reinforcement strips surrounds the ankle and is situated in the top part of the shank of the boot.

This strip can b adjusted and closed by means of double m (9 -r. 111 lacing, velcrokor the like.

Another one of the reinforcement strips is an oblique tie that surrounds the tarsal part of the foot, passing over the top part of the instep and connecting with the mudguard, in the inside side thereof as well as in the outside one, in some areas approximately equivalent 3 - 1 to one-fourth of the total length of said mudguard, measured in the direction from the heel to the toe piece.

Another one of the reinforcement strips is vertical and connects the reinforcement strips that surrounds the ankle with the mudguard, starting from the same in an area adjacent to the area where the oblique tie starts. This connecting strip is used only in the outer side of the shoe.

Finally, there is a fourth reinforcement strip that is oblique, with a slant contrary to that of the oblique tie, and that connects the latter to the reinforcement strip that surrounds the ankle, in the inside area and approximately half of the surface limited by the three previous reinforcement strips. This fourth reinforcement strip, just like the vertical strip, is only used in the outer side of the shoe.

This reinforcement structure stabilizes the foot inside the shoe and has the advantage that permitting good movility of the joint of the ankle, it prevents the joint from exceeding its physiological limits, since upon the reinforcement strips imitating the ligamentous structure, when a retropodalic movement or excess twisting takes place, the stress is supported by said reinforcement strips and not by the ligaments, thus preventing the movement from prolonging up to the point where an injury would be caused.

Besides, the sports shoes of the invention include an improved sole that offers a series of relevant characteristics in comparison with conventional soles. The sole is comprised of two basic parts, the sole itself comprised of two pieces, and a thicker body that serves in turn as the mudguard and the outer section of the sol and which is the main buffer element. The cited thicker body includes a central bottom bridge that is advantageously manufactured of a less dense material, making the area e 4 is 1 of the sole separate from the heel area.

The part of the sole that rests on the ground is glued to the mudguard, said part being comprised, as it has been said in the above paragraph, by two pieces, a front piece and a rear piece, separated by the central bridge. One of them, the front one, is attached to the sole also covering the toe piece, while the rear piece is attached to the heel area.

With this arrangement the mudguard is more indepen- dent with regard to the heel, permitting more freedom of movement and helping to prevent sprains and injuries. The shank of the sole that joins the sole and the heel forms a single body with the mudguard and the outer section of the sole. Said outer section of the sole also includes in the rear side sections some decorative stabilizers.

Hereinafter, to provide a better understanding of this specification and forming an integral part of the same, some figures in which the object of the invention has been represented in an illustrative and non-restrictive manner, are attached hereto.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

Figure 1.- It represents a side view along the outside part of the improved sports shoes with retropodalic control system according to the present invention, showing with the chain line the boot in which said invention has been used, as well as the bone structure of the foot inside the same.

Figure 2.- It represents a side view along the inside part of the improved sports shoes with retropodalic control system according to the present invention, showing with the chain line the boot in which said invention has been used, as well as the bone structure of the foot inside the same.

Figure 3.- It a a bottom plan view of the sole of C the improved sports shoes with retropodalic control system according to the present invention.

Figure 4.- It is a section view of the sole cited above and according to the A-B section indicated in figure 3.

Figure 5.- It is a cross-section view of the heel area of the sole of figure 3 and according to the C-D section indicated in said figure 3.

Figure 6.- It is a bottom plan view of one of the two basic component parts of the sole of the sports shoes of the invention, said part forming the mudguard.

Figure 7.- It is a plan view of the front piece belonging to the other basic part of the sole of the sports shoes of the invention, said other basic part is being that which rests on the ground.

Figure B.- It is a plan view of the rear part belonging also to the cited part of the sports shoes of the present invention that rests on the ground.

DESCRIPTION OF AN EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

Hereinafter a description is made of an embodiment of the invention, referring to the numbering used in the figures.

Hence, the retropodalic control system that the sports shoe of this embodiment includes, is used in boot type (1) sports shoes and has a reinforcement strip (2) located in the top part of said boot (1), so that it surrounds the ankle, corresponding to foot (3) that is inside the same.

This reinforcement strip (2) can be closed and lacking or the like.

adjusted by means of velcr(3 k Besides, it has another reinforcement comprised of an obloque tie (4) that surrounds the tarsal part of the foot (3), connecting with the mudguard (5) of the boot (1) in the inside and outside sides thereof from the areas corresponding to 25% of the length of said boot (l.) This oblique tie (4) has an approximate width of 20 mm.

6 is The invention has provided for a vertical reinforcement strip (6) that connects the top reinforcement strip (2) with the mudguard (5) in the area thereof right in front of the part where the oblique tie (4) starts. The inside surface of the boot (1) does not have this vertical reinforcement strip (6.) Besides, the outside surface of the boot (1) is provided with a slanted reinforcement strip (7) that 3oins the oblique tie (4) with the top reinforcement strip (2.) This slanted reinforcement strip (7) has a slant approximately opposite that of the oblique tie (4) and occupies the central part of the approximately triangular area defined by the other reinforce- ments (2,)(4) and (6).

All of the reinforcements (2), (4) (6) and (7) are made out of a semirigid material such as plastic, Pvc, etc., for the purpose of permitting a small elongation of the same and great resistance to the forces caused by retropodalic movements, whereby risks of sprains and injuries are avoided without substantially reducing mobility of foot (3), due to the imitation of the ligamentous structure of the foot of the arrangement of the reinforcements (2), (4), (6) and (M The types of mudguard (5) and sole of the sports shoes are independent from the present retropodalic control system, whereby this system can be included in many types of shoes, although in the present embodiment a sole with special and very sutiable characteristics has been provided for, which in turn can also be used in other types of shoes that do not include the retropodalic control system, such as for example low sports shoes that do not cover the ankle area.

Hence, this embodiment includes an improved sole for sports shoes that is comprised of two basic parts: a thick body (8) which in turn surves as a mudguard and 1 1 i - 7 1 outer section of the sole, and that constitutes the main buffer element, and a second part defined by two essentia ly flat pieces, a front one (9) and another rear one (10.

on the other hand, the thick body (8) includes a cen tral bridge (11) established in the area of the shank and that is introduced in the heel area, in such a way that said central bridge (11), advatangeously manufactured out of a material less dense than the mudguard, separates the sole area from the heel area.

The front flat area (9) is attached to the front area of the main buffer element or thick body (8), occupying the sole and also the toe piece. Besides, said front flat piece (9) has two slightly arched transversal projections (12), which fit in some complementary recesses (13) belonging to the thick body (8). The edge of the front flat piece (9) that connects with the central bridge (11), has a transversal rib (14) that fits in a complementary channel (15) established in the edge of the cited bridge (11.) The rear flat area (10) is attached in the heel area, just as it can be seen in figure 3 and in figure 5. This rear flat piece (10) has a rib (16), which fits in a complementary channel (17) that goes around the edge of the central bridge (11) at the rear part.

In the rear sides of the outer section of the sole there are some ornamental stabilizers (18) that form part of the main buffer element or thick body (8.) The structure of the sole of this embodiment of the invention, provides great comfort and stability for the feet, and likewise has all of its advantages when used in shoes that do not have the retropodalic control system described previously.

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Claims (4)

1.- Improved sports shoe with retropodalic control system, said system being of the type that are used to protect na area of the human body avoiding in-iries in the same; characterized in that the system has some reinforcements (2), (4), (6) and (7) made of semi-rigid material whose arrangement imitates the ligamentous structure of the foot (3) and that are preferably used in boot type (1) sports shoes avoiding the risk of sprains and ankle 1n3uries without a noteworthy detriment to the mobility of the foot, a special sole, capable of being used in other types of shoes without said control system, and that comDrises two basic aprts, one of them comprised of a thick bodv (8) that defines the mudguard and the outer section of the sole, while the other one is in contact with the ground and includes a front flat piece (9) and a rear flat piece (10), being provided for in said shoes (1).

2.- Improved sports shoe with retropodalic control system, according to the above claim, characterized in that said system has a top reinforcement strip (2) that surrounds the ankle at the area of the shank of the boot (1), that is closable and adjustable by double lacing, velcrokpr the like, and that remains near in the front part thereof another reinforcement comprised of an oblique tie (4) that sUrrounds the tarsal area of the foot (3) and that connects in its ends to the mudguard (5) of the boot (1); a vertical reinforcement strip (6) that connects the top reinforcement strip (2) with the mud- guard (5) and a slanted reinforcement strip (7) that connects the top reinforcement strip (2) with the oblique tie (4) having been provided for in the outside area of the boot (1).

3.- Improved sports shoe with retropodalic control system, according to claim 1, characterized in that the 1 1 is 0 9 thick body (8) includes a central between the sole and the heel, bott2m surfaces of said thick body (8) are joined rescecflat area (9) thatt tivelly to the front - occ-upies t! e sole area: and the toe piece, and to the rear flat piece (10) that occupies the heel area: it being provided for that said front -;",'.at piece (9) includes some transversa.1 pro JecziQns (12) that remain fit in ccmiDlementarv recesses -;ck bodv (8.) (131 --f the th senarati.na '-ridge (11) while the front and rear

4.- A sports shoe substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.