EP2036449B1

EP2036449B1 - Shoe with heel area opening to make the fit easy and adjustable

Info

Publication number: EP2036449B1
Application number: EP20080011511
Authority: EP
Inventors: Franco Malenotti
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Malenotti Franco
Priority date: 2007-09-12
Filing date: 2008-06-25
Publication date: 2013-04-10
Anticipated expiration: 2028-06-25
Also published as: PT2036449E; EP2036449A1; ITTV20070151A1; ES2414480T3

Description

This invention has as object a shoe with heel area opening to make the fit easy and adjustable.
The invention, finds particular even if not exclusive destination in the field of children's clothing and, in particular, footwear.
Footwear for young children and in the developing age, and clothing in general, is a typical problem for parents, because in this age group children grow rapidly making it therefore necessary to adapt clothing to successive growth stages. The circumstance entails significant costs that can affect the family budget significantly.

Prior art

Solutions of adjustable shoes are known in the field of children's footwear, that is footwear equipped with devices or elements that allow the shoe to be easily adapted, within a certain range of predefined values, following the growth of the child's foot. This results in the achievement of the aim relative to adjusting the same shoe in function of the progression of sizes of the foot.
In literature the following anteriorities can be found regarding this:
JP5192201 (Aasaa ), describes a children's shoe equipped with a removable internal sole with a particular structure, that compensates for the smaller-sized foot inside the shoe; said internal sole obviously is removed with the growth of the child.
US5570523 (Ji-Tyan ) describes a modular shoe, that is, in which the part of the upper that bands the heel is separated from the front part of the upper, and further custom insoles can be applied inside in order to increase the internal thickness and therefore to satisfy the needs of a smaller-sized foot.
JP11169202 (Kazuyuki ) and GB465968 (Hutton ), propose a shoe in which the part of the upper that bands the heel is separated from the front part of the shoe; the two parts are hooked at the sole by means of male-female connections.
In US3142911 (Raborg ) a shoe for children equipped at the upper portion of the heel with a vertical opening closed with laces is described, that can to be partially opened loosening the closing laces to ensure that the shoe itself adapts to the growth of the child's foot.
All these things considered it is therefore reasonable to consider known:

Children's footwear, adjustable in size being modular, connecting in an appropriate way the rear part to the front part of the shoe, are however two separate components, to be adapted to the dimension of the foot of the child;
Children footwear in which the adjustment is allowed by some laces on an opening of the upper portion that bands the heel, laces which may be loosened or tightened according to needs,
A footwear in which the back-foot is closable with respect to the fore-foot portion of the footwear and it is provided with adjustable means to block in a determined position the back-foot with respect to said fore-foot portion of the footwear depending on the sizes of the foot.

Closest prior art

D1: CA2386645 (Chiang)
D2: US5813144 (Prengler )
D3: FR2516762 (Sarragan )
D4: US4280286 (Sartor )
D5: DE451157 (Hermann )

Drawbacks

The above mentioned solutions, according to the opinion of the applicant, seem to solve effectively the problem of obtaining a shoe whose size can be adjusted in function of the child's growth, however for their structure they do not allow for fast and easy fitting to the child's foot and some solutions are very complex because of the use of the modular shoe concept, others instead have a limited possibility of adjustment. In good substance, the prior art does not seem to include a children's shoe that conjugates at the same time a minimum complexity as to construction with easy and functional fitting and optimal adjusting function of the dimension of the shoe itself, in order to go along with the increasing size of the foot.
In particular we point out that the solutions proposed in US5570523 (Ji-Tyan ), JP11169202 (Kazuyuki ) and GB465968 (Hutton ) result in little practical use, difficult fitting and complex assembly, the user having to completely dismount the shoe in order to adjust its size with the disadvantage that there may be a strong possibility of causing the regulating systems to open, maybe during strong stresses for example during a run or climbing and descending steps. Moreover, the shoe being modular, it is easier for water to infiltrate in the connection points of the different elements when it rains or when stomping on wet surfaces.
On the other hand, the technical solutions proposed by JP5192201 (Aasaa ), and by US3142911 (Raborg ) achieve only a limited adjustment resulting anyway in a poor practical fitting and besides, in the solution proposed by the American patent, the laces in contact with the heel can at the very least cause inconvenience, and even hurt the child while walking about and also cause fastidious cuts or blisters.
A further disadvantage, in the adjustable footwear and in the techniques adopted until today, relates to the fact that the components that participate to the adjustment of the shoe do not allow for a rationalisation of the production costs and management of the storehouse codes.
With particular reference to D1-D5 we point out that if on the one hand said known footwear allow the adjustment depending on the growing of the foot, approaching the back-foot portion the shoe to the fore-foot, on the other hand a reciprocal guiding function between the two portions is not achieved, causing the two said portions to difficultly approach each other. If one looks at the prior art documents, moreover it is not difficult to detect that the side portion of the footwear back-foot overlaps the fore-foot upper or in some other cases it is arranged against the inside wall again of the fore-foot. This from a practical point of view causes the footwear to be uncomfortable for the user, but above all it does not allow any function relative to the guiding and to the following-through the approaching of the back-foot portion to the fore-foot portion. Moreover, the approaching between the two thus obtained portions does not guarantee a good sealing on water infiltrations, this occurring because the water tend to migrate along the overlapping line between said two parts.
There is therefore the need for the enterprises of the field to find optimal solutions to obtain the following set aims.
This and other aims are reached by this invention according to the characteristic of the included claims, solving the abovementioned problems by means of a shoe whose heel area has an adjustable opening including a sole and an upper, characterised in that the upper is divided into a rear portion and a front portion, said rear portion being hinged on an axis passing through a hinge that connects the rear portion to the sole, the reciprocal position of the rear portion with reference to the front portion is determined by the insertion degree of at least one toothed tongue, hinged with an end on the rear portion of the upper, internally to at least one hooking device of the toothed tongue, placed at the front portion of the upper.

Aims

By the considerable creative contribution whose effect constitutes an immediate technical progress different aims are achieved.
In the first place, a particularly easy fitting shoe for children being rearward openable was desired, whose fitting is above all simplified whatever the position of the foot is, also, for example, if it is a little rotated with respect to the shoe to be fitted.
Another aim that was desired was the obtainment of a shoe particularly for children with a greater adjusting and adapting capacity as to the child's growth and therefore a shoe with universal fitting.
An additional aim consists in the fact that the shoe, structured as desired, is roomy and comfortable and does not present cutting or unsuitable blister dangers for the child's foot, a non-decomposable shoe avoiding possible slackness or accidental opening problems of the hooking systems of the shoe itself during normal use as well as possible water infiltrations.
A third aim was to obtain a shoe that in completely open configuration could also act as sandal in the summer period, letting the foot perspire to a greater extent.
One more aim is referable to the fact that the number of components participating in the embodiment of the shoe, is extremely moderate, above all simplifying and making the management of storehouse codes easier.
These, and other advantages will appear from the following detailed description of some preferred embodiments with the aid of enclosed schematic drawings whose details are not to be considered limitative but only illustrative.

Content of the drawings

Figure 1 is a side-view of the shoe object of the invention completely closed.
Figure 2 is a side-view of the shoe object of the invention completely open.
Figure 3 is a view from the rear part of the shoe object of the invention completely closed.
Figure 4 illustrates the longitudinal section of the lower connection border 4 and of the upper connection border 3 in the complete closing phase and in the partial closing phase of the shoe object of the invention.

Practical embodiment of the invention

With reference also to the figures the object of the invention refers to the children's shoe (1) with adjustable heel area opening (figs. 1, 2, 3) and a constructive particular (fig. 4).
The shoe (1) object of the invention is essentially composed by a sole (11) and an upper (12).
In the described, not limitative, example of a practical embodiment, the upper (12) is substantially divided in a front portion (121) corresponding to the tip and the back of the foot and in a rear portion (122), corresponding to the heel area with adjustable opening, according to an imaginary straight line inclined with respect to the plane of the sole (11) about 45° and passing through the hinge (13) (fig. 1). The front portion (121) is joined to the sole (11), while the rear portion (122), that bands the heel, is movable being hinged in its lower end, by means of a hinge (13), at the rear end of the sole (11) and at the end of the front portion (121) of the upper (12).
The rear portion (122) is equipped with two toothed tongues (14) each of which is hinged at the end (141) to the rear portion (122). The tongues (14) are therefore able to rotate around the axis passing through the hinging point of the end (141). The tongues (14), as said above, are placed in a symmetrical position and on opposite sides of the rear portion (122) of the upper (12) with respect to longitudinal axis of the shoe (1).
The free end (142) of each tongue (14, during the approach of the rear portion (122) to the front portion (121) for the closing of the shoe, is inserted inside the hooking device of the toothed tongue (15) placed, obviously, in a congruent position for the insertion of the free end (142) of the tongue (14), on the front portion (121) of the upper (12). The hooking device (15) of the toothed tongue (14) that in this case consists of a hooked lever, is present at least in a quantity of two and each of them is placed in a symmetrical position and on opposite sides of the rear portion (122) with respect to the longitudinal axis of the shoe (1). In one of the cases, in order to facilitate the insertion of the toothed tongue (14), the hooking device (15) can be hinged too in such a way as to present the orientable entry in relation to the inclination degree of the toothed tongue (14).
The adjustment of the shoe (1) object of the invention is carried out more or less partially inserting the toothed tongue (14), by means of the free end (142), inside the hooking device (15) of the toothed tongue (14), therefore more or less approaching the rear portion (122) to the front part (121) in such a way as to give the child a comfortable fit, said rear portion (122) being able to rotate around the axis passing through the hinge (13). The hinge (13) in one of the cases can be composed by a mechanical device, or alternatively, comprise a connecting material portion of the yielding type in order to allow for the rotation of the rear portion (122), with respect to the front portion (121).
Completely extracting the toothed tongues (14) from the hooking devices (15) it is possible to obtain the complete opening between the front portion (121) and the rear portion (122) of the upper (12), making the fitting to the child easy from the rear opening of the shoe obtained in this way.
Finally it should be stated that in order to prevent water infiltrations or in any case tangling unsuitable phenomena of the upper (12) at the edge of the contact upper between the rear portion (122) and the front portion (121) during the closing of the shoe (1), the upper connection border (3) of the rear portion (122), acting as a male connection, is more or less partially inserted in the guiding seat (401) (see fig. 4) according to the closing degree, guiding seat (401) acting as a female connection and obtained in the lower connection border 4 of the front portion (121) of the upper (12).

Reference:

(1) shoe,
(11) sole,
(12) upper,
(121) front portion,
(122) rear portion heel area with adjustable opening,
(13) hinge,
(14) tongue, (141) end, (142) free end
(15) hooking device,
(3) upper connection border,
(4) lower connection border, (401) guiding seat.

Claims

Shoe (1) with adjustable opening including a sole (11) and an upper (12), with the upper (12) which is divided into a rear portion (122) and a front portion (121), said rear portion (122) being hinged on an axis passing through a hinge (13) that connects the rear portion (122) to the sole (11), and provided with at least a tongue (14), hinged at the end (141) on the rear portion (122), able to be introduced in at least one corresponding hooking device (15), placed on the front portion (121), and in which the reciprocal position of the rear portion (122) with respect to the front portion (121) is determined by the insertion degree of the tongue (14) in the corresponding hooking device (15) characterised in that the rear portion (122) is equipped with an upper connection border (3) that gradually deepens inside the guiding seat (401) of the lower connection border (4), during the rotational approaching phase of the rear portion (122) to the front portion (121) of the upper (12) for the fitting of the shoe (1), in such a way that said upper connection border (3) is inserted inside the guiding seat (401) obtained at the lower connection border (4) of the front portion (121).
Shoe with adjustable opening, according to the previous claim, adapted for children and characterised in that it includes:
(1) shoe

(11) sole

(12) upper, (121) front portion,

(122) rear portion heel area with adjustable opening

(13) hinge

(14) tongue, (141) end, (142) free end

(15) hooking device

(3) upper connection border,

(4) lower connection border, (401) guiding seat.