US2812066A - Boot hanger - Google Patents

Description

Nov. 5, 1957 J. VOLOSIN 2,812,066

7 BOOT HANGER Filed July 24, 1953 IINVENTOR.

BY W r Armauszs John Volosin United States Patent BOOT HANGER John Volosin, Roscoe, Pa.

Application July 24, 1953, Serial No. 370,028

1 Claim. (Cl. 21134) This invention relates to apparel hangers and more particularly to a hanger by means of which a boot, shoe, or the like may be suspended from a clothes line, rod, or other suitable overhead support while being aired and dried.

When boots of the type used for horseback riding, hiking, construction work, and other outdoor work are removed they are often found to be wet and softened by perspiration and if set at rest in an upright position, the weight of the long upper will cause them to wrinkle about the angle portion as they dry and it is then difficult to again put them on and in addition the boots will not be comfortable.

In order to prevent such deformation of a boot, it is customary to suspend the boots in an inverted position from an overhead support for drying after they have been removed, but hangers now used are not satisfactory as they grip the boots in such a manner that the welt and adjoining portions of the shoe are liable to be scratched, scarred, or otherwise disfigured and the appearance of a riding boot or other dressy boot spoiled.

Therefore, one object of the invention is to provide a hanger for boots and shoes having arms or jaws which are presented downwardly and have free lower ends which are wide and so formed that they may straddle the instep portion of a boot sole and firmly grip the welt portion at opposite sides thereof without scratching or otherwise marring the sole or portions of the upper adjacent the sole.

Another object of the invention is to provide a hanger which may be formed as a unit from a single strip of resilient sheet metal and has downwardly presented arms connected at upper ends by a bridge portion from which extends an upwardly presented support-engaging hook.

Another object of the invention is to provide a hanger of this character wherein the support-engaging hook is formed from a strip cut from the bridge portion of the hanger and bent upwardly therefrom, thus providing a hook which is integral with the clamp and not liable to be broken oii or accidentally twisted out of a desired angular relation to the bridge portion of the hanger.

Another object of the invention is to provide a hanger for boots and shoes which may be easily and quickly applied and will tightly grip the sole of a shoe or boot and not be liable to slip out of gripping engagement therewith.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists of a special construction and arrangement of parts illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein:

Fig. l is a view showing a boot in side elevation and suspended from a clothesline by a hanger of the improved construction;

Fig. 2 is a view in elevation of the hanger taken at right angles to Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the hanger;

Fig. 4 is a view in elevation looking at the left hand side of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a view in elevation showing hangers of the improved construction applied to a wire coat hanger;

Fig. 6 is a view in elevation showing the improved hangers suspended upon nails driven into a flooring beam or similar overhead support.

The boot, which is indicated in general by the numeral 1, represents a boot of the type worn by hunters, engineers and other men engaged in outdoor work, but it could be a riding boot or the like. Such boots have high tops and when they are worn have a tendency to wrinkle about the ankle, especially if they become wet.

The sole 2 of the boot and the heel 3 have been shown provided with cleats 4 but it will be understood that if the boot is a riding boot, the cleats will be omitted.

After a boot of this type is removed and has dried, the wrinkles remain in the ankle portion thereof if set in an upright position and in order to overcome this objection many persons hang the boots in an inverted position from an overhead support. It has been found, however, that hangers now in use are so engaged with the boots that they scar the welt portion of the sole and also portions of the upper close to the welt and thus spoil the appearance of the boot.

The improved boot hanger constituting the subject matter of this invention is applied as shown in Fig. 1 and when so applied a boot may be suspended from an overhead support such as a clothesline 5 without portions of the boot gripped by the hanger being scarred. This hanger 6 is formed from a strip of resilient metal and upon referring to Fig. 2 it will be seen that the hanger is substantially U-shaped and has arms 7 the upper ends of which merge into a bridge portion. The strip of metal from which the hanger is formed is quite wide and lower ends of the arms are bent outwardly to form lips or jaws 8 having portions of their side edges rounded as shown at 9 so that the side edges of the lips merge into the lower free edges thereof and thus eliminate sharp corners which would be liable to scar the leather of the boot upper when the hanger is applied to the boot. When the strip is bent to form the lips or jaws 8, inwardly presented ridges 10 are formed which fit across the upper surface of the Welt in close contacting engagement with adjoining portions of the welt and the upper and thus cause the boot to be firmly gripped and prevented from slipping downwardly out of engagement with the hanger. The angular disposition of the jaWs or lips 8 permits them to be grasped and the arms '7 of the hanger sprung outwardly so that the hanger may be readily disconnected from the boot when it is to be removed and such spreading action may also be effected when the hanger is applied to the boot.

In order that the hanger may be engaged with a clothesline or other suitable overhead support, there has been provided a book 11. This book is formed from a strip 12 which is provided by striking or cutting a marginal side portion of the wide strip of resilient metal longitudinally substantially midway its width from approximately the center of its bridge portion. The longitudinal cut extends into the upper portion of one of the arms '7 and then diag onally towards one side edge of this arm until this end of the strip is free from the arm. After therstrip has been formed, it is bent upwardly to form the hook which has an arcuate bill portion 13 and the shank of the hook is twisted at its junction with the bridge portion of the hanger so that the hook is disposed transversely of the hanger. Therefore, when the hook is engaged with a clothesline a boot to which the hanger is applied will be disposed transversely of the clothesline and a pair of boots may be suspended in side-by-side relation to each other and will occupy a minimum length of the clothesline and thus take up a small amount of room. Of course, if so desired, the twist may be omitted, in which case the hook will extend longitudinally of the bridge portion of the Patented Nov. 5, 1957 hanger and boots to which the hangers are applied will extend longitudinally of the clothesline.

Instead of engaging the hooks with a clothesline they may be engaged with the stretcher bar 14 of a wire coat hanger 1 5 and the hook 16. of the coat hanger thenengaged with the clothesline or any other suitable overhead sup port. This is illustrated in Fig. 5 wherethe two hangers are engaged with the stretcher bar and disposed near opposite ends thereof so that an even balance will be obtained and the boots disposed in desired transversely spaced relation to each other.

In Fig. 6 there has been shown a pair of boot hangers which, instead of being engaged with a clothesline or a coat hanger, have their bridge portions engaged with nails 17 driven into a floor beam 18 of a porch, cellar or the like under which it is desired to have the boots suspended while being dried and aired.

It will be obvious that the hangers may be suspended from other. overhead supports.

As this invention may beiembodied in several forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof, the present embodiment is therefore illustrative and not restrictive, since the scope of the invention is defined by the appended claim rather than by the description preceding it, and all changes that fall within the metes and bounds of the claim or that form its functional as well as conjointly cooperative equivalents, are therefore intended to be embraced by that claim.

What I claim is:

support basses fo a best, s e? n he l ke semprising a relatively wide band body of substantially C- form and resilient material and having the free end portions thereof in spaced opposed relation and adapted to resiliently engage under the side edges of the sole of an inverted boot, shoe and the like, a hook tongue comprising a strip of the material fashioned from a part removed from one side edge of the central C-form portion extending away from the qwformtportion centrally thereof and substantially normal thereto, the shank of said hook tongue having a torsional twist to orient the hook at right angles to the C-torrn portion to facilitate its engagement over a supporting means such as a cord, wire or bar extending in the direction of the-length of the band, whereby a num' ber of such hangers may be positioned to support boots, shoes and the like with the soles thereof in side edge to edge relation.

References Qitedin the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,146,981 Weinberg July 20, 1915 1,718,316 Swenson June 25, 1929 ,032, 3 He tn m M 6 2,278,258 C illett Mar. 31, 1942 FOREIGN PATENTS 70,218 Norway aof 1946

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