EP0631737A1 - Sportsshoe - Google Patents

Abstract

The sports shoe comprises an upper (11) equipped with an opening (11a), to permit the passage of the foot, and including an inner quarter (12) and an outer quarter (13) which are linked together by means of a lace or cable (15) in conjunction with a blocking device or blocker (20) along a specific alternating path around a return or loops (1 to 8) arranged on both sides of the said opening (11a). According to the invention, the ends of the strands (15a, 15b) forming the lace (15) are secured to two fixed anchoring points (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H) produced in a lower end zone of the lacing located towards the front (AV) of the shoe, the said strands (15a, 15b) together forming, at their opposite end, a free loop (21) capable of constituting a single gripping element for exerting traction according to a force (F) distributed symmetrically over each of the strands (15a, 15b) from the two fixed points. <IMAGE>

Description

The present invention relates to a sports shoe comprising an external sole on which is mounted a rod provided with an opening, to allow the passage of the foot and comprising an internal quarter and an external quarter connected together by a closure system, constituted by a lace or cable forming two strands, in connection with a blocking device or blocker and connecting together, according to a determined alternative route, a series of deflection elements or passers-by fixedly disposed on said quarters on either side of said opening near its respective edges located opposite and defining a lacing area, so that when pulling on the strands of the lace or cable, it acts in clamping on the quarters by means of the elements of return or passers-by to bring said quarters closer to one another and keep them in the clamping position on the foot via the blocker.

A similar shoe is known from US Pat. No. 262,653 which discloses a lacing device from a single lace, the single strand of which is alternately passed behind return elements located on either side and of a offset on each quarter of the shoe. According to this same device, the single strand of the lace is hooked by one of its ends in a lower end zone of the lacing situated towards the front of the shoe, while it comprises at its other end directed towards the part upper of the shoe, a device for hooking the free end of said strand after tightening.

Such a lacing device clearly shows that the tightening carried out from a single strand has the major drawback of offering a poor distribution of the tension exerted on the lace.

According to another document constituted by Italian patent N ° 19700/83, there is also known a lacing device constituted by a lace forming two strands whose ends located in the lower lacing zone form between them a loop without discontinuity capable of sliding freely in the last loops located in this area, depending on the traction exerted on each strand during tightening. The lace is locked after tightening by a blocker located at the other end of the strands.

According to a first case of this device, the tightening of the lace is effected by a traction on the end of the strands which are free, at the as a result of which the blocker interposed between said strands is brought by sliding into the blocking position.

In this way, as there is inevitably unequal traction on each strand when tightening the shoe, it follows gradually a shift in the location of the blocker relative to the center line of the lacing, this shift can go up to 'to escape from one of the strands. In addition to the poor tightening and the poor distribution of the tension thus caused, another drawback lies in the manufacturing. In fact, during assembly, it is difficult to center the location of the blocker exactly.

According to a second scenario partially remedying the drawbacks of the first, the free ends of the strands of the lace were joined together in the form of a loop and the blocker was placed between the strands, but in the lacing area, ie between two pairs of successive passers-by. Not only does such an arrangement make it impractical to act on the blocker when the lacing zone is subsequently covered, which has also led to the use of an additional cable for actuating said blocker making it blindly operable from an area external to the shoe, but moreover, as soon as the cable can slide freely in the lacing end zone, there remains the aforementioned drawback in the first case, namely poor tightening and poor distribution of tension on each strand.

The object of the present invention is to remedy all the aforementioned drawbacks.

To this end, it relates to a sports shoe comprising an external sole on which is mounted a rod provided with an opening, to allow the passage of the foot and comprising an internal quarter and an external quarter linked together by a closure system, constituted by a lace or cable forming two strands, in connection with a blocking device or blocker and connecting together, according to a determined alternative route, a series of deflection elements or passers-by fixedly disposed on said districts on either side of said opening near its respective edges located opposite and defining a lacing area, so that when pulling on the strands of the lace or cable, it acts in clamping on the quarters by means of the deflection elements or passers-by for bringing said quarters together and keeping them in the clamping position on the foot by means of the blocker, characterized in that that ends of the strands forming the lace are made integral with two fixed anchor points made in a lower end zone of the lacing situated towards the front of the shoe, said strands forming between them at their opposite end a free loop capable of constituting a single gripping element for the exercise of a traction according to a force distributed symmetrically on each of the strands from the two fixed anchor points. Such an arrangement in fact allows rapid and balanced clamping of the quarters according to a chosen force which can be exerted by one hand of the user, the latter acting with the other hand, on the blocker slidingly mounted on the strands in the area where they form the free mouth in order to block these strands in the desired clamping position.

In this way, as one always pulls on the lace from fixed anchor points from a common final loop, there can no longer be an asymmetry between the strands of the lace during traction, nor an offset of the position of the blocker relative to the strands.

• la figure 1 représente une vue en perspective d'une chaussure comportant un dispositif de fermeture par laçage, selon l'invention.
• les figures 2 et 3 sont des variantes de réalisation d'un dispositif de laçage spécialement adapté pour la pratique du ski de fond en pas parallèle ou à la pratique de la marche.
• la figure 4 est une variante de réalisation d'un dispositif de laçage spécialement adapté pour la pratique du ski de fond en pas de patineur.
• la figure 5 est une vue latérale d'un élément de renvoi ou passant, à échelle agrandie.
• la figure 6 est une vue en coupe d'un passant selon la ligne VI-VI de la figure 5.

The invention will be better understood and other characteristics thereof will be highlighted with the aid of the description which follows, with reference to the appended schematic drawings, illustrating, by way of nonlimiting example, how the invention can be carried out and in which:

• FIG. 1 represents a perspective view of a shoe comprising a lacing closure device, according to the invention.
• Figures 2 and 3 are alternative embodiments of a lacing device specially adapted for the practice of cross-country skiing in parallel or to the practice of walking.
• Figure 4 is an alternative embodiment of a lacing device specially adapted for the practice of cross-country skiing in skater steps.
• Figure 5 is a side view of a deflection or passing element, on an enlarged scale.
• FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a passer-by along the line VI-VI of FIG. 5.

The sports shoe shown in Figure 1 comprises an outer sole 10 on which is mounted a rod 11 provided with an opening 11a forward, to allow the passage of the foot and having an inner quarter 12 and an outer quarter 13 connected between them by a closure system 14. This closure system 14 is constituted by a lace or cable 15 forming two strands 15a and 15b, in connection with a blocking device or blocker 20, and connecting between them, along a determined route, a series of deflection elements or passers-by 1 to 8 disposed fixedly on either side of the opening 11a on said districts 12, 13, near their respective edges 12a, 13a located in opposite. These edges define between them a lacing zone 16, so that during an action on the strands 15a and 15b of the lace 15, the latter acts in clamping on the quarters 12, 13, by means of the return elements 1 to 8. Thus, said quarters 12, 13 are brought closer to one another and are held in the clamping position on the foot, by means of the blocker 20.

According to the invention, the general principle of which is shown in FIG. 1, the "free" ends of the strands 15a, 15b forming the lace 15 are made integral with two fixed anchor points A and B. In this case, these anchor points A and B are constituted by deflection elements 8 and 4 able to constitute passers-by or to allow the lace 15 to be anchored, according to the allocation which is intended for it. This feature will be described in detail later.

The anchor points A and B are therefore produced by placing elements 8 and 4 in a lower end zone of the lacing situated towards the front (AV) of the shoe. The fixing of the free ends of the strands 15a and 15b on the elements 8 and 4 constituting the anchor points A, B, is carried out by any means such as for example by a knot, a splice, an added stop, etc. .

Thus fixed by their ends, the strands 15a and 15b are led in a crossed zig-zag towards the upper part of the shoe, bypassing respectively the deflection or pass-through elements 3, 6, 1 and 7, 2, 5 to then form between them a free loop 21.

This loop 21 advantageously constitutes a single traction element for the exercise of a tightening traction according to a force F, distributed symmetrically on each of the strands 15a, 15b, from the two fixed points A, B, for a balanced tightening quarters 12, 13. In this way, the force F can be exerted by one hand of the user and when said force is reached, the latter acts in control, with the other hand, on the blocker 20 slidably mounted on the strands 15a, 15b in the upper end zone where they form the free loop 21 so as to fix the clamping force.

According to another characteristic of the invention, the anchor points A, B, C, D, E, F (see Figures 1, 2, 3, 4) intended for fixing the ends of the strands 15a, 15b forming the lace 15 as well as the deflection elements or loops 1 to 8 of each of them, are arranged symmetrically in screw with screws on either side of the opening 11a on the quarters 12, 13 along axes XX ', YY', ZZ ', WW' parallel to each other and perpendicular to the longitudinal axis VV 'of the shoe so to have an optimum and balanced tightening over the entire length of the instep from its front end zone, so as to promote the practice of sport and in particular cross-country skiing according to the parallel step or the practice of normal walking . It should be noted that the symmetrical distribution of the tensile force F on each of the strands is only obtained thanks to the anchoring of the free ends of these guaranteeing the exercise of a tensile force with respect to these fixed and non-sliding points as was the case in the known prior art.

In this case and as illustrated in FIG. 1, the anchoring points A, B of the ends of the strands 15a, 15b of the lace 15 are arranged opposite at the end of the lacing zone, the successive loops 1 to 8 ensuring a routing of the strands of the lace 15 for a symmetrical zig-zag lacing.

Despite the good overall results obtained according to the embodiment of FIG. 1, it nevertheless appeared during various tests that the tightening between the end elements 4 and 8 could be improved depending on the effect sought using other embodiments, always based on the same principle.

For example, in the construction method illustrated in FIG. 2, the anchor points C, D of the ends of the strands 15a, 15b of the lace 15 are arranged successively at the end of the lacing zone on the same quarter 13, the penultimate anchor points, D, ensuring the attachment of the strand 15a and simultaneously constituting a return element or passing 7 to a strand 15b from the other anchor point C.

It is well understood that in this case, the traction on the cable is carried out in a transverse direction which corresponds to the desired transverse approximation of the quarters of the shoe. Such an embodiment therefore allows optimization of tightening with respect to the embodiment of FIG. 1 in which the quarters 12, 13 undergo at the level of the anchoring points A, B a tensile force only in the diagonal direction.

According to an alternative embodiment shown in FIG. 3, produced with the same objective, the lacing device differs essentially from the previous one shown in FIG. 2 in that the anchoring points E, F, of the ends of the strands 15a, 15b of the lace 15 are arranged, for one E, at the end of the lacing zone on one of the quarters 13 and, for the other F, immediately before a passer-by 4 placed at the end of the lacing zone on the other quarter 12.

In other words, the anchor points E and F are always arranged successively but on different neighborhoods and therefore diagonally to one another. In this case, the traction on the cable is always carried out transversely as shown in said FIG. 3, and the same effect as in FIG. 2 is obtained.

In this case, none of the anchor points E and F constitute simultaneously a passer-by.

As is apparent from the embodiments described above, the number of anchor points A, B, C, D, E, F, whether or not combined with passers-by 1 to 8, whether or not ensuring the simultaneous function of point of anchoring and passers-by, is equal to eight and these elements are symmetrically distributed on either side of the longitudinal axis VV 'of the shoe, on each of the quarters 12, 13.

It can also be observed according to the embodiment of Figure 3 that the number of deflection is identical on the two strands 15a and 15b of the cable or lace 15, from a separate anchor point E or F which provides the 'advantage of providing identical performance on both strands.

Anyway, these embodiments of FIGS. 2 and 3 make it possible, in particular for the practice of conventional cross-country skiing, to have a tightening over an optimum length, over the entire instep, but not further, so as not to hinder the smooth running of the foot, while reconciling anchoring and tightening to the end of the instep area.

In the practice of cross-country skiing according to the skater's step or skating or other similar techniques (in-line skating ......), the problem arises in a different way in the sense that it is necessary then, d '' have a lacing which goes as far as possible towards the front of the foot, in fact up to the level of the metatarsals, in order to have an effective maintenance of the foot in this area during the support or propulsion phase, without that there are tightening problems in the little toe.

In such a situation, it is not possible to make such a length of lacing compatible with the morphology of the foot. Indeed if you want a tightening up to the level of the big toe in question, it is not possible to have a symmetrical tightening on the other toes, which would cause a lack of comfort.

In order to remedy this problem, and as illustrated in FIG. 4, the anchor points G, H intended for anchoring the ends of the strands 15a, 15b forming the lace 15 are arranged on an inclined axis tt 'corresponding substantially to that of the metatarsals of the user's foot, so as to ensure optimum and balanced tightening at all the metatarsals, including the big toe, during '' a lateral force, especially in the propulsion phase, in the practice of cross-country skiing according to the skater or skating step.

In this case, the anchor point G furthest forward (AV) of the shoe corresponds to the metatarsal articulation zone of the big toe, and ensures the fixation of the end of a first strand 15b of the lace 15, while the other anchor point H of the end of a second strand 15a corresponds to the metatarsal articulation zone of the small toe and simultaneously performs the function of returning or passing 4 of said first strand 15b, so as to obtain a number of identical passers-by 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, 6, 7, 8 on each of the quarters 12, 13 to be clamped, and this according to forces always converging.

To achieve this, the shoe has on the inner quarter 13, four loops 5, 6, 7, 8 and an anchor point G, while the outer quarter 12 has four loops 1, 2, 3, 4, including that of end 4 also constitutes an anchor point H.

This embodiment therefore makes it possible to obtain a tightening going as far as possible on the inner (or medial) side of the foot and in particular beyond the tightening area of the instep, while preserving the comfort aspect on the outside of the foot.

According to another characteristic of the invention shown in Figures 5 and 6, each of the loops 1 to 8 is constituted by a flat base 22 having a fixing hole 23 on the shoe, made at one of its ends, and a hook 24 obtained in material with the base 22, at its other end, along a parallel plane in order to delimit with an internal bee 25 made at the free end of the hook 24, a housing 26 adapted to receive laterally the lace or cable 15 and to retain it there after elastic deformation of the hook 24 for the passage of this cable.

Preferably, the dimensions of the housing 26 are provided so as to prevent the sliding of the end of a strand 15a or 15b of the lace 15 in the longitudinal direction if this end is provided with an element forming a stop, so that the passer-by can also constitute an anchor point for said end of the strand 15a or 15b. The anchoring of each end of strand 15a, 15b can also be achieved by simply passing a loop formed at this end over the hook 24.

According to an improvement, the bottom 27 of the passer-by 1 to 8 constituted by the connection area of the hook 24 with the base 22, is of a section whose part facing inwards is rounded to act as a pulley for the passage of the cable 15.

Advantageously, the cable or lace 15 is made of an inextensible material and having a low coefficient of friction capable of promoting its sliding in passers-by 1 to 8.

Claims (11)

Sports shoe comprising an outer sole (10) on which is mounted a rod (11) provided with an opening (11a), to allow the passage of the foot and comprising an inner quarter (12) and an outer quarter (13) connected between them by a closure system (14), constituted by a lace or cable (15) forming two strands (15a, 15b), in connection with a blocking device or blocker (20) and connecting together, according to an alternative route determined a series of deflection elements or passers-by (1 to 8) fixedly arranged on the quarters on either side of said opening (11a) near its respective edges located opposite and defining a lacing zone ( 16), so that when pulling on the strands (15a, 15b) of the lace or cable (15), the latter acts in clamping on the quarters (12, 13) by means of the return elements or passers-by (1 to 8) to bring said districts (12, 13) closer to each other and keep them in position tightening on the foot via the blocker (20), characterized in that the ends of the strands (15a, 15b) forming the lace (15) are made integral with two fixed anchor points (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H) made in a lower end zone of the lacing situated towards the front (AV) of the shoe, said strands (15a, 15b) forming between them at their opposite end a loop free (21) able to constitute a single gripping element for the exercise of a traction according to a force (F) distributed symmetrically on each of the strands, (15a, 15b) from the two fixed points. Shoe according to claim 1, characterized in that the anchoring points (G, H) intended for fixing the ends of the strands (15a, 15b) forming the lace (15) are arranged on a corresponding inclined axis (tt ') substantially at the axis of articulation of the metatarsals of the user's foot. Shoe according to claim 2, characterized in that the anchor point (G) furthest towards the front (AV) of the shoe corresponds to the axis of articulation of the metatarsals of the big toe, and ensures the fixation of the end of a first strand (15b) of the lace (15), while the other anchor point (H) of the end of a second strand (15a) corresponds to the axis of articulation of the metatarsals of the little toe and simultaneously performs the function of returning or passing (4) of said first strand (15b), so as to obtain an identical number of passers-by (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, 6, 7, 8) on each of the quarters (12, 13) to be tightened. Shoe according to claim 3, characterized in that it has on the inner quarter (13) four loops (5, 6, 7, 8) and an anchor point (G), while the outer quarter (12) has four passers-by (1, 2, 3, 4), the end of which (4) also constitutes an anchor point (H). Shoe according to claim 1, characterized in that the anchoring points (A, B, C, D, E, F) intended for fixing the ends of the strands (15a, 15b) forming the lace (15) as well as the return or pass-through elements (1 to 8) of each of them, merging or not, are arranged symmetrically opposite on either side of the districts (12, 13) along axes (XX ', YY', ZZ ', WW') parallel to each other and perpendicular to the longitudinal axis (VV ') of the shoe. Shoe according to claim 5, characterized in that the anchoring points (A, B) of the ends of the strands (15a, 15b) of the lace (15) are arranged opposite at the end of the lacing zone, successive passers-by (1 to 8) ensuring a routing of the strands of the lace (15) for a symmetrical zig-zag lacing. Shoe according to claim 5, characterized in that the anchoring points (E, F) of the ends of the strands (15a, 15b) of the lace (15) are arranged for one (E) at the end of the zone lacing on one of the quarters (13) and for the other (F) immediately before a loop (4) disposed at the end of the lacing zone on the other quarter (12). Shoe according to claim 5, characterized in that the anchoring points (C, D) of the ends of the strands (15a, 15b) of the lace (15) are arranged successively at the end of the lacing zone on the same quarter (13), the penultimate anchor points (D) ensuring the attachment of the strand (15a) and simultaneously constituting a return element or passing (7) to a strand (15b) from the other point anchor (C). Shoe according to one of claims 5 to 8, characterized in that the number of anchoring points (A, B, C, D, E, F), whether or not combined with passers-by (1 to 8), ensuring or not the simultaneous anchor point function is equal to eight and in that these anchor points / loops are symmetrically distributed on either side of the longitudinal axis (VV ') of the shoe, on each of the quarters (12, 13). Shoe according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that each pass (1 to 8) is constituted by a flat base (22) having a fixing hole (23) on the shoe, made at one of its ends and a hook (24) obtained so with the base (22) at its other end in a plane parallel in order to delimit with an internal bevel (25) produced at the free end of the hook (24), a housing (26) adapted to receive laterally the lace or cable (15) and to retain it there after elastic deformation of the hook (24) for the passage of the lace or cable. Shoe according to claim 10, characterized in that the bottom (27) of the passer-by (1 to 8) constituted by the zone of connection of the hook (24) with the base (22), is of a section whose part turned towards the inside is rounded to act as a pulley for the passage of the cable (15).

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