GB2270186A - Footwear hangers - Google Patents

Abstract

A hanger for a pair of shoes 15 comprises means 1 for suspending the hanger, first means 4 for engaging the outer faces of the heels of the shoes, and second means (9, Figure 1) for engaging the heel portion of the uppers of the shoes, the arrangement being such that the shoes are held between the first and second means. The first means is suitably a pair of fingers, contoured to accommodate different sizes of footwear and engageable with respective heels. The second means is suitably in the form of two spaced U-shaped hooks having limbs 10, 10' each having the contour of the inside of the heel portion of the shoe upper. <IMAGE>

Description

FOOTWEAR HANGERS This invention relates to footwear hangers, that is a hanger which will receive and display a pair of shoes or the like. For convenience, reference will be made throughout the specification and claims to shoes but it is to be understood that this term is intended to cover othertypes of footwear, for example sandals.

It is now common for shops to display shoes in pairs by suspending the shoes from rails, for example, the idea being to make the shoes readily accessible and handleable by a potential purchaser, whilst serving to display the footwear in the best possible manner. There is a need to provide a hanger which will hold firmly the shoes in order to stabilize the display thereof, particularly when the footwear is being handled.

According to the present invention there is provided a hanger for a pair of shoes, the hanger comprising means for suspending the hanger, first means for engaging the outer faces of the heels of the shoes, and second means for engaging the heel portion of the uppers of the shoes, the arrangement being such that the shoes are held between the first and second means.

The first means for engaging the heels of the shoes may be in the form of a pair of fingers engageable with respective heels, and the fingers may be contoured to accommodate different sizes of footwear as regards the depth of the heel portions of the uppers.

The second means may be hook means and may be in the form of two spaced U-shaped hooks, one limb of each hook being attached to the hanger and the free end of the other limb provided with an arcuate head which conforms generally to the contour of the inside of the heel portion of the shoe upper. The length of the said other limb may also be such that the free end engages the inner face of the sole at the heel portion. In use, the open ends of the hook means face the first means. The use of hook means is preferred to avoid problems encountered with known types of hanger employing grippers which fit over, and grip, some part of the shoe upper. The problems are that the grippers can be difficult to engage on the uppers in the first place, and can mark the uppers, particularly if the latter are of leather in general and patent leather in particular.

The hooks may be provided at respective ends of an extension of a body portion of the hanger, and the plane of each hook may be inclinable to the plane of that body member extension. The extension to the body portion of the hanger may be T-shaped, with the stem of the T hingedly attached to the body portion, and the hooks being hingedly attached to respective ends of the cross piece.

The hanger is conveniently moulded in a single, flat piece from a synthetic plastics material.

A footwear hanger in accordance with the present invention will now be described in greater detail, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a front view of the hanger in the flat, Figure 2 is a section on the line II-II of Figure 1, Figure 3 is a plan view from below of Figure 1, Figure 4 is a part view of the left-hand portion of Figure 1, Figure 5 is a plan view from above of Figure 4, Figure 6 is a view from the left-hand side of Figure 4, Figure 7 is a back view (inverted) of Figure 4, Figure 8 is a perspective view of the main component of Figures 4 to 7, and Figure 9 is a perspective view showing the hanger in use.

Referring to Figures 1 to 8, the hanger is moulded from a synthetic plastics material and is moulded generally in the flat as depicted in Figures 1 to 3. The hanger comprises means for suspending the hanger, these means being in the form of a hook 1 extending from a body portion 2 provided with a part peripheral rim 3 to define an area to receive a label bearing information such as shoe size, for example. Depending from the body portion 2 is a pair of fingers 4 contoured, as best seen in Figure 2, so as to be non-planar to provided in effect spring fingers for a reason to be described.

Between the fingers 4 there is provided a T-shaped extension 5 of the body portion 2, the stem 6 of which is hingedly attached to the body portion 2 via a so called living hinge 7 (a living hinge being an area of reduced thickness). The cross piece 8 of the T-shaped extension 5 carries at each end U-shaped hook means 9 one limb 10 of which is attached to the extension by a further living hinge 11. The other limb 10' of each hook means 9 has at its free end, as best seen in Figure 3, a curvilinear head 12. The cross piece 8 of the T-shaped extension 5 is provided with strengthening ribs 13 on its front face, and strengthening ribs 14 on its rear face. The limbs 10,10' of each hook are spaced apart so as readily to receive therebetween the upper of a shoe as will be described.

Referring now to Figures 1 to 8 and Figure 9, the hanger is used by first hinging the T-shaped extension 5 out of the plane of the paper, as seen in Figure 1, to lie perpendicular to the body portion 2, whereby the free ends of the hook means 9 face in the direction of the fingers 4.

One of a pair of shoes 15 is assembled on the hanger by hinging the appropriate hook means 9 downwardly about the hinge 11 and hooking that hook over the heel portion of the shoe whilst at the same time engaging the associated finger 4 with the outer face of the sole of the shoe in the area of the heel. Thus a simple matter as the spacing of the limbs of the hooks permit the latter to slide onto the uppers. This procedure is repeated for the second shoe 15 and the assembly is then complete. The heads 12 of the hook means 9 engage the inside of the heels of the shoes with the portion 13 of the head being similarly contoured.

Depending on the depth of the heel portion of the shoe uppers, the heads 12 of the hook means 9 may also engage the inner surface of the sole of the shoe. However, this is not essential although it does provide for extra stability. It will be understood that the hanger can be used for a range of shoe sizes which means that the depth of the uppers will vary slightly so that the arcuate heads 12 may not always engage the inner face of the soles of the shoes as discussed above. The contoured nature of the fingers 4 also accommodate different sizes of shoes to ensure that they always engage the outer surface of the heel portions of the soles.

It will be seen that the shoes are held very positively between the fingers 4 and the hooks 9 to provide an extremely stable display but without the hooks marking the heel portions which they engage because they are a loose fit thereover as opposed to gripping the same as with the prior art hangers. It will be appreciated that the only contact between the hook means 9 and the shoe uppers is on the interior surface thereof, the shoes engaging the same under gravity, whereby any marking is minimal and in any event unseen.

Of course, the principle advantage of the present invention can be taken by providing gripper means instead of hook means in those instances where marking is not a problem, for example, in connection with shoes having canvas or the like uppers.

Claims (10)

1. A hanger for a pair of shoes, the hanger comprising means for suspending the hanger, first means for engaging the outer faces of the heels of the shoes, and second means for engaging the heel portion of the uppers of the shoes, the arrangement being such that the shoes are held between the first and second means.

2. A hanger according to claim 1, wherein the first means for engaging the heels of the shoes is in the form of a pair of fingers engageable with respective heels.

3. A hanger according to claim 2, wherein the fingers are contoured to accommodate different sizes of footwear as regards the depth of the heel portions of the uppers.

4. A hanger according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the second means is in the form of hook means.

5. A hanger according to claim 4, wherein the hook means is in the form of two spaced U-shaped hooks, one limb of each hook being attached to the hanger and the free end of the other limb provided with an arcuate head which conforms generally to the contour of the inside of the heel portion of the shoe upper.

6. A hanger according to claim 5, wherein the hooks are provided at respective ends of an extension of a body portion of the hanger, and the plane of each hook is inclinable to the plane of that body member extension.

7. A hanger according to claim 6, wherein the extension to the body portion of the hanger is T-shaped, with the stem of the T hingedly attached to the body portion, and the hooks being hingedly attached to respective ends of the cross piece.

8. A hanger according to any of the preceding claims and moulded from a synthetic plastics material.

9. A hanger according to claim 8, wherein the hanger is moulded in the flat.

10. A hanger for a pair of shoes substantially as herein particularly described with reference to the accompanying drawings.