GB2198625A - Shoes with retractable spikes - Google Patents

Abstract

The sole 7 of a shoe is provided with retractable spikes 6 mounted on sliding rails 52, 53 connected to driving member 5. In the retracted position (Figure 1) a sharp impact to the front of the shoe (direction A, Figure 1) moves the rails rearward, the spikes following the cam surfaces to project through sole apertures 73. From this position, as shown, a sharp impact to the rear of the shoe reverses the motion of the rails and the spikes are retracted. <IMAGE>

Description

A TWO-FUNCTION SHOES WITH KICK-READY MECHANISM This invention relates to shoes, particularly, a two-function shoes with kick-ready mechanism.

Our human beings wear shoes to walk since long long age; however, the adaptability of the conventional shoes is limited; for instance, the conventional mountaineer shoes or the working shoes would, no matter what patterns being furnished under the sole, cause slipping and hazards upon walking on the road covered with greenmoss, ice or snow, or mud, or powder, or upon walking on a slope, a singlelumber bridge, a greasy road, a wet grass ground, in a woods, on a rolling stone, a rocky area, or a slippery road under bad weather condition, etc.

Normally, the conventional nail shoes are not good for a person to wear to walk on a road, such as the road paved with asphalt, cement, terra cotta, tiles, plastic tiles, wood or stone, etc.; the conventional nail shoes not only are inadequate for walking on the aforesaid road surfaces, but also would damage the road surface and the nails of such shoes, and would cause the wearer to fall.

Moreover, the inventor believes that there are no shoes according to the present invention being shown in any publications either in the past or now; in other words, there are no shoes so far, which can be used on a ground surface or in the afield, or in a working site to protect worker's safety and to increase the working efficiency.

In view of the aforesaid drawbacks on the conventional shoes, the inventor has, through many years of study and tests, developed the present invention, "A Twofunction Shoes with Kick-ready Mechanism".

The major feature of the present invention is the sandwiched members and the sole structure, which are simple, light, and sealed in the sole. In operation, the wearer just kicks the shoes forwards onto a hard object (such as a stone, a wall foot, or a tree stem) to have all the nails extended out of the sole so as to facilitate to walk on a slippery ground or a rocking surface (such as on the deck of a ship or in a car) stably and swiftly. Upon walking on a normal ground, the wearer may just kick the shoes backwards against a hard object to have all the extended nails retracted into the sole. In that case, the soles of the shoes according to the present invention will have adequate elasticity for walking comfort and convenience.

Another feature of the present invention is that the special design of the sole and the sandwiched members can prevent the wearer's feet from being injured by unexpected kicking, impact, hitting, stinging, scratching or cutting. With the shoes according to the present invention, a person can walk almost on a surface of different occasions, such as the field, a hazard road, a slippery slope, or can push or pull something on a slope, or can walk on a deck of ship rocking in a rough sea, or can climb a cliff or a tree, or can walk across a mountain area, a slippery ground covered with greenmoss, or a lumber bridge or cement ground, or a road covered with wastes. The present invention may satisfy people's curiosity of novelty, thrilling feeling, and people's requirements of precision and pacticality.

A further feature of the present invention is that the wearer of the present invention may, at the beginning, feel the shoes being rather heavy something like to wear boots or mountaineer shoes or rain shoes; however, that feeling will disappear after wearing a given period of time (i.e., the natural resistant effect as mentioned in medical field), and the wearer will become used to it.

The aforesaid condition may compare to the condition of a person who, at first time, wear a bigger watch or earrings, or a thicker eyeglass frame. Upon a wearer changing from the present invention to a normal shoes, he (or she) may feel to gain much vigorous force or energy than ever before, becoming rather active; therefore, the present invention is deemed a novel and practical shoes, which may be referred to as a "Kungfu" shoes.

An embodiment of this invention is described by way of example, with reference to the drawings in which: Fig. 1 illustrates a longitudinal sectional view of the present invention (showing the nails being retracted into the sole).

Fig. 2 illustrates another longitudinal sectional view of the present invention (showing the nails extended out of the sole).

Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view of Fig. 1 taken along line AA'.

Fig. 4 illustrates the relative positions of the nail holes disposed in the sole pattern according to the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a top view of the contact surface between the T-shaped sliding rail in the driving member and the upper pad plate.

Fig. 6 is a side view of the T-shaped sliding rail of the present invention.

Fig. 7 is a side view of the 1-shaped sliding rail in the driving member of the present invention.

Fig. 8 is a sectional view of Fig. 3 taken along line BB' (showing the nails retracted in the sole).

Fig. 9 is a sectional view of Fig. 3 taken along line BB' (showing the nails extended out of the sole).

Referring to Figs. 1 and 3, there are two views of the two-function shoe according to the present invention, which comprises a front cover 1, a rear cover 2, an upper pad plate 3, a lower pad plate 4, a driving member 5, driven nails 6, sole 7 and boss 8. Both the front and rear covers 1 and 2 are sealed parts having considerable elasticity to restore its normal shape after being kicked.

The driving member 5 is provided with front and rear vents 51 and 51'.

In the front and rear brake members 71 and 72 of the sole 7, there are vents 71' in communication with the vents 51 and 51' so as to maintain the atmospheric pressure in the front and rear covers being equal to that of the external air, and to prevent the front tip and the heel portion of the shoes from having a recess or being indented upon being kicked forwards or kicked backwards. The afore said vents would provide the front tip and heel portion with a buffer effect in case of being hit unintentionally.

The upper pad plate 3 and the lower pad plate 4 are made a thin and rigid plates with a suitable elasticity.

The inside surface of that plate is a smooth surface so as to facilitate the driving member 5 to move. The upper sole and the lower sole have a non-smooth surface so as to provide a friction effect between the soft foot pad and the pad plate, and between the lower sole and the pad plate for increasing the sealing and combining force among the aforesaid structures. Over the narrow portion's of the upper and lower pad plates (as shown in Fig. 1), there are thicker foot pads being mounted respectively. A plurality of chain links 54 are mounted in the middle portion of the sole.

The sole under the chain links 54 is furnished with several lateral grooves (the both ends of those grooves are sealed and closed to the outside of the sole). The narrow portion of the pad plate is exactly under the joint portion between the metatarsus 91 and the phalanx 92 of the foot, which can provide a rigid effect upon the shoe being kicked forwards or backwards. During walking, that portion will provide the sole with a considerable softness so as to facilitate the movement of the bone joint (bent or stretched); in other words, that structure is in compliance with the requirement of human engineering.

In the driving member 5, the dual sliding rail 52 (herein after referred to as l-shaped sliding rail) and the single sliding rail 53 (herein after referred to as T-shaped sliding rail) are formed into an inter-complementary angle between their contact surface so as to increase the stability, reliability and rigidity of the driving member 5 and the linking parts 55 that is mounted near (either in front of or behind) the driven nails 6.

Further, both the driving member 5 and the nails 6 are finished with a smooth surface and a lubricating coating such as fatty acid. The contact between the sliding rails 52 and 53 and the nails 6 is done by means of a poit or line method, i.e., the contact surfaces are all curved surfaces. Therefore, upon the driving member 5 being moved in or moved back, the nail 6 can only be raised or pressed down without deviating from the direction undesired or having any resistance so as to prevent from causing any trouble.

The sole 7 of the present invention may be of a material having higher elasticity, such as rubber or the like. The shape of the nail hole 73 is similar to that of the driven nail 6, but the diameter of the nail hole 73 is smaller than that of the driven nail 6 so as to have the hole 73 tightly held the driven nail 6. Prior to inserting the driven nail 6, each of the nail holes 73 is filled with a molten wax so as to facilitate the nail 6 to slide up and down, and to provide a self seal effect to prevent water and dust from entering therein.

The nail holes 73 are all designed to be at the projected pattern portion on the outsole of the shoes so as to increase its water-proof character upon the sole touching the gound (referring to Fig. 4). The circular shaped sole patterns can provide the best elasticity and wear-and-tear durability because of the patterns able to resist impacts and movements from all directions so as to prevent from cracking and slipping.In accordance with the natural curvature of human's feet (as shown in Fig. 1), the present invention has been so designed that the sole portion under the curvature portion of the human's feet would have less pressure to be applied in the swing phases during walking (i.e., the pressure being evenly distributed), and that sole portion under the curvature portion of the human's feet will suffer from less impact and wear-and-tear; therefore, the nails would have less wear-and-tear, and would provide the feet with a grip force and direction-changing effect, and would reduce the impact effect between the nails and the ground surface to protect the feet. It is deemed that the position of the nails mounted in the sole is a scientific and skillful arrangement, and the serviceable life of the shoes will be increased considerably.

By means of the bosses 8 and the sleeves 81, the upper pad plate 3 and the lower pad plate 4 can be maintained at a constant space therebetween. Upon the driving member 5 being kicked forwards or backwards, the pad plates would not be deformed to hinder the operation of the driving member 5; further, the sole 7 can also be tightly locked on the lower pad plate 4 by means of the bosses 8 and sleeves 81, and the nails 6 can easily be driven out of the sole without causing the sole to project outwards. After the bosses 8 being locked in position, the boss holes 74 (as shown in Figs. 8 and 9) are sealed with an adhesive. The head portion of each of the bosses 8 is slightly projected above the surface of the upper pad plate 3 so as to prevent the pad plate from becoming slippery and loose, and also to prevent the whole structure of the shoes from a loosening and swinging feeling.

Moreover, the designed features of the present invention in weight, stress or elasticity are described as follows: a. Both the front support 56' and the rear support 57' in the driving member are provided with a hollow tube portion as shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 3.

b. The contact portion between the upper portion of the T-shaped sliding rail 53 and the upper pad plate 3 is widest portion thereof, which is also the highest protected portion thereof (as shown in Fig. 5).

c. The portion other than the upper pad plate 3, the lower pad plate 4 and the driving member 5 is furnished with an elongated hollow portion (including the nail hole) so as to provide elasticity to the shoes for making necessary bending.

d. The screen-shaped front and the rear shoulder portions 50 and 50' are all furnished with three hollow spaces respectively (as shown in Fig. 3).

e. The nails 6 are subject to hardening and surface finish treatments (such as being coated with chromium).

The operation method of the present invention is as follows: In the event of preventing from slipping on a surface or requiring to start a motion or to brake a motion (such as pushing or pulling a heavy article, a physical force is required to apply thereto), the wearer of the present invention may kick the front ends of the shoes against a rigid article (such as a wall or road surface) to cause the driving member 5 to move backwards until the front top member 56 moving a given distance and being stopped by the front brake member 71 (i.e. until most of the impact force being absorbed by the T-shaped sliding rail 53 to drive the nails 6 and by the rear brake member 72).

The moving distance of the front top member can just have the -shaped sliding rail 52 moved from the highest portion 58 to the lowest portion 59 along the both shoulder portions 62 of each nail 6; simultaneously, the highest projecting portion of each of the T-shaped sliding rails 53 will slide and press into the grooves 61 on the top of the nails 6 to drive the nails 6 out of the sole, and maintain in a vertically pressing position. The nails 6 will be hold firmly in position without loosening or being disengaged because of being gripped by the tight nail holes 73 and the shoulder portions of the l-shaped sliding rail 52.

Moreover, by means of the sleeves 81 of the bosses 8 and the fixing effect of the holes of the lower pad plate 4, the driving member 5 would not deform or move laterally to cause any resistance to the nails to move out for gripping the ground surface. The nails 6 will be something like the leopard's claws to firmly and flexibly grip the tree, when a wearer of the present invention wants to apply force to move forwards or backwards.

On the contrary, when a wearer of the present invention is walking on a surface without slippery possibility, the wearer may kick a stiff or hard article with the rear ends of the shoes to have the driving member 5 to move forwards until the rear top member 57 being limited by the rear brake member 72 (i.e., most of the impact force being absorbed by the l -shaped sliding rail 52 to raise the nails 6 and by the front brake member 71).In that case, the l-shaped sliding rail 52 is pushed from the lowest portion 59 to the highest portion 58 along the shoulder portions of the nails 6, being positioned in place; simultaneously, each of the T-shaped sliding rails 53 (i.e., the projected members pressed on the nails) will be moved forwards so as to have the nails 6 pushed upwards smoothly by the l -shaped sliding rail 52, to let all the nails 6 retract into the sole. Since the upper and the lower pad plates 3 and 4 are separated with a given space by means of the bosses 8 and sleeves 81, the nails 6 would not be pressed out of the soles during normally walking; in other words, the nails 6 can be driven out or retracted in only when the shoes being kicked forwards or backwards; otherwise, the nails 6 will be maintained in a normal condition.

Upon kicking forwards or backwards the shoes according to the present invention, the shoes will restore their normal and straight shape; further, any sail or water attached to the soles might be dropped during kicking shake so as to let the nails extend out clearly and to have the nail holes closed completely upon the nails being retracted in.

In comparison with the conventional shoes, the present invention has the advantages as follows: a. Since the soles and the sandwiched members have been reinforced adequately, both the feet and shoes have been provided with a better protection.

b. The shoes according to the present invention have the function of the conventional nail-shoes without damaging the road surface, and they also can used as an oridinary shoes to walk on a slippery ground surface without slipping.

c. A pair of shoes can be used for purposes, i.e., they can be used as nail shoes without really changing shoes or bringing a pair of nail shoes or skates, which might damage the slipping-proof surface; a person who wears the shoes according to the present invention can almost walk on any surface. The present invention is deemed an economic type of shoes.

d. Since the sealed portion of the sole has a considerable height, the wearer can maintain his (or her) feet dry and the shoe vamp clean upon walking on a wet or muddy road.

e. The present invention has provided the wearer with a biological vital force such as a claw and palm, whereby the wearer can climb a tree, a cliff, or walk on single-lumber bridge, a slippery ground, a rocking and slippery deck, and a field under windy and rainy weather.

f. The wearer of the present invention would have more working efficiency during pushing a car, an object, or braking over a slippery slope, or handling articles at a working site.

g. The present invention is in conforming with the human engineering theory so as to protect the feet in a healthy condition.

h. The shoes according to the present invention can also used as rain shoes, ice shoes, boots, fire-fighting shoes, seaman shoes, worker's shoes, leisure-time shoes, mountaineer's shoes, student shoes, military and police shoes, golf shoes, new fashion shoes and surf-fishing shoes, etc.

The aforesaid embodiment is used for describing the objects, the features and the functions; any change or modification of the present invention made by any person skilled in the art should not be deemed having deviated from the spiritual scope of this invention. The scope of the present invention can only be defined with the claims attached hereto.

Claims (8)

1. A two-function shoes with a kick-ready mechanism, comprising a vamp, a front cover, a rear cover, an upper pad plate, a lower pad plate, a driving member, a number of nails, a sole and a plurality of bosses; and characterized in that the simple mechanical means in the sole can drive said nails to be driven out or retracted in said sole upon being kicked forwards or backwards so as to provide two functions with one pair of shoes.

2. A two-function shoes as claimed in claim 1, wherein the structure in both the front and the rear ends of said shoes are similar to each other, i.e. to form a front cover and a rear cover made of elastic and impactproof material in a sealed manner.

3. A two-function shoes as claimed in claim 1, wherein sandwiched members are mounted between said upper pad plate and said lower pad plate;' and said upper and lower pad plates being made of thin, rigid and elastic metal or non-metal material , and the inner surfaces of said pad plates being smooth, while the outer surfaces of said pad plates being non-smooth.

4. A two-function shoes as claimed in claim 1, wherein said sole is made of a material having high elasticity such as rubber; and all said nails being extended out of the projected pattern portion of said sole, and the nail hole and said nail having the similar shape, but the inner diameter of said nail hole being smaller than the diameter of said nail so as to have said nail hole held said nail tightly, and each of said nail holes being filled with molten wax before mounting the nail therein so as to have said nails moved smoothly, and to provide water tight and dust-tight effects.

5. A two-function shoes as claimed in claim 1, wherein said bosses and said sleeves are used for reinforcing the strength of said upper and lower pad plates and the sole structure so as to maintain said upper and lower pad plates with a constant space, and to let said nails extend out or retract in freely and smoothly.

6. A two-function shoes as claimed in claim 1, wherein the two shoulder portions of the longitudinal sectional view of said nail (as shown in Figs. 8 and 9) are formed into a flat surface, while the lower portion of said shoulder portions looks like a semicircular shape upon being cut into a longitudinal view no matter from which angle; and the portions under the two shoulders are merely in contact with saidl-shaped sliding rail at a point or along a line; and the front and rear portions of the groove of said nail top being a flat surface; and the both sides (left and right) under said shoulder portions being formed into semicircular grooves; and the front edge of said nail being formed into a slightly curved shape, and therefore said nail can be in contact with said T-shaped sliding rail at a point (at edge portion) or along a line (on the top portion).

7. A two-function shoes as claimed in claim 1, wherein said sandwiched members include mainly said driving members, i.e. (from the front to the rear), a front top member, of which the longitudinal sectional view looks like a

front vents being in communication with the vent of said front brake member directly; a -shaped sliding rail, of which the sectional view of the projected portion forms into a round top; a T-shaped sliding rail, of which' the sectional view of the projected portion forms into a round top; and the side view of the opposite faces between said T-shaped and -shaped sliding.rails forms into an intercomplementary angle each other; chain links, being mounted under the joint portion of the metatarsus and the phalanx of the foot; and the soft foot pad over said chain links being thicker than other part; and the sole under said chain links being furnished with lateral grooves to facilitate the sole to bend; rear vents being in communication with the vent of said rear brake member directly; and a rear top member, which has the similar shape to that of said front toD member: and between

" // saidi-shaped and T-shaped sliding rails, additional linking parts being furnished and being closely in contact with the hiqhest or the lowest portion of said

" II j-shaped sliding rail so as to let said driving member have adequate stability and rigidity upon transmitting a driving force, and also to enable said driving member to withstand the pressures from the foot and the ground with out causing trouble; and said driving members being all finished with a smooth surface (such as electro-plating) and then being coated with a thin lubricant (such as fatty acid) for slipping, water-proof and rust-proof purposes.

8. A two-function shoes as claimed in claim 1, wherein the design of this invention has the following features so as to reduce the weight and to reinforce the stress and the elasticity, i.e.: a, both said front and said rear supports of said driving member having a hollow core tube; b, the contact form between the top of said T-shaped sliding rail and said upper pad plate is shown in Fig. 5, in which the widest portion is the most downward projected portion thereof; c, the portions other than the contact portion between said upper and lower pad plates and said driving member are all formed into a

shaped hollow portions (including the nail holes) so as to facilitate the shoes to bend freely during walking; and d, the screen-shaped front and rear shoulder portions (as shown in Fig. 3) are fromed into a hollow core including three discrete sections.