US1697893A - Lacing device for shoes and boots - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 8; 1929. 1,697,893

A. E. WINLOW LACING DEVICE FOR SHOES AND BOOTS Filed Oct. 9, 1926 fllerl Willow v [3 13061120! Patented Jan. 8, 1929.

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inmate LACING DEVICE FOR SHOES AND BOOTS.

Application filed October 9, 1928. Serial No. 140,584.

This invention relates to a lacing device for shoe and boots. Its main ob]ects are to simplify and to facilitate the usuallytedious operation oflacing and unlacing these 31'". ticles of wear. A further object attained byv the adoption of my device is that the lacing is entirely outside the shoe, instead of being half outside andhalf inside the shoe front according to the usual method. From this it follows that my system of lacing and se curing a shoe is much more comfortable as there is no lacing to interfere with the comfort of the foot where it makes contact with the inner side of the shoe front. Hence the fit of the shoe can be made to more exactly. conform to the shape of the foot, thus ensur-' ing a neater appearance in the general form of the shoe apart from the smarter appearance .of the lacing itself. A still further result obtained is that the usual unsightly fastening with its tendency to become loose and dangerous is also done away with. v

I secure these results by the adoption of an external combined hook and eyelet, both of which are entirely external to the shoe. In the case of a shoe having say five lacings only that is five holes on each side of the join, the simplest case for illustration, the lace is permanently threaded through all the eyelets except the middle one on each side the ends being securely fastened and of sufiicient length to permit an easy insertion of the foot, the operation is then completed by merely taking the centre portion of the lace on each 7 side respectively and looping it over the corresponding hook on the opposite side of the join, this is but the work of an instant and the shoe is then completely and symmetrically laced. The comparative facility of this method as compared with the ordinary laced joint even when mitigated by the partial use of the ordinary rather large hook with its liability to engage adjacent clothing, is very marked.

In the drawings herewith which form part ther increased, and so the operation involves a plural ty of looping over places. Fig. 2 is also a front view of the front of a shoe, but showing the lacing completed by the replacmg of the loop on each side over the hook on theopposite side of the shoe join. Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 show details to an enlarged scale of a hook-eyelet of a form suitable for the device above described. Identical parts in the several views are indicated by similar numerals, 1 being the shoe front of which 2 is the laced front seam, 3 are the hook-eyelets-in the illustration five in number on eachside but the device is equally applicable. to high-laced boots whether for loggers orladies by repeating the hook-over device one or more times according to requirements. It 1s to be noted that all the hook-eyelets are alike and it is only in the threading of the lace to permit the cross-over that enables the device to be put into effect. Thus in a long front one, two or three cross overs may be put in according to the fancy of the wearer,

in the heavy boot of a logger the eyelets would I at 7 as required. In this method the ends of I the wire are put through the leather and clinched upon it as shown at 8, this makes a simpleand cheap arrangement which makes a perfectly symmetrical front appearance, but

the hook-eyelet may if preferred be formed as a stamping of the embossed washer type with a hollow tang piercing the leather and clinched in the form'of a split washer on the inner side ofthe leather front. In that case the top washer of the eyelet is turned upwards to make the eyelet hook required in'my device. The portion 9 is the top of the heel end of the shoe and forms no part of the invention. It isto he observed that the lace when in the loosened condition shown in Fig. 1 passes over the middle eyelet and not through it as in all the other positions.

Having now declared the nature of my said device, what I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

A boot and shoe lacing device comprising,

an endless lace adapted to unite the front seam of said shoe, an aligned series of external eyelets secured adj aoently of and parallel to each edge of said seam each said eyelet comprising an external ring portion and a solid shank portion, Which shank portion is embedded,

posed edgeWise to the seam of the said shoe that a loop of the said lace maybe readily secured when slipped over the said ring, the

said endless lace being threaded through some i as desired.

ALBERT E. WINLOW.

' of said eyelets and merely slipped over others I

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