US1854642A - Dancing slipper - Google Patents

Description

p\ril 19, 1932. B BRQDlCK 1,854,642

DANG ING SLIFPER Filed Sept. 6, 1929 INVENTOR WITNESS ATTORNEY Patented Apr. 19, 1932 srrs T lai) BENJAMIN BROIJCK, OF BRONX, NEW YORK DANCING SLIPKPER This invention relates to improvements in dancing slippers, and its leading object is to provide a ladys dancing slipper which will be provided with a quarter adapted to snugly grip the rear part of the foot of the wearer and yield to all muscular movements, without causing the binding rim of the slipper to expand.

Public dancers employ slippers which are l constructed with sti box toes luponwhich various strenuous dancing exercises are e1,- ecuted. In the past it has been the practice to construct the entire upper of these slippers with materials which would gradually stretch from use, and which failed to hug the foot during the various dancing movements, so that the support which the dancer relies upon from the slipper was not of a dependable character, causing the slipper to shift about on the foot and actually work loose and fall off, thus interrupting the execution of the dance, and sometimes ,causing serious accidents, when great muscular effort is being exerted. i

I have discovered that while it is essential that a non-expansible but contractable rim be provided around the foot opening of the body of the shoe, continued support can be n maintained during all muscular dancing 0 movements, by the use of an elastic quarter,

so designed that the slipper will snugly support the foot in all dancing positions, andk will expand or yield to any internal pressure produced against the quarter, and then resume its original condition, by contracting about the foot when its pressure has been released.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be hereinafter specifically pointed out, or will become apparent, as the specication proceeds.

With the above indicated objects in view, the invention resides in certain novel constructions and combinations and arrangement of parts, clearly described in the following speciication and fully illustrated in the accompanying drawings, which latter show an embodiment of the invention as at 50 present preferred.

sections Ea and Eb are secured by stitching tion.

Tn the drawings,

Figure l is a perspective View ofthe improved dancing slipper, in iioor-toeing position.

Figure 2 is an enlarged detail section, f' taken on line 2 2 of Figure l.

Figure 3 is a similar view on a more enlarged scale, taken on line 3-3 of Figure l.

Similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the several views of the drawings.

Referring to the accompanying drawings,

A designates the improved slipper, which is provided with the usual sole B, the toe C in which the usual reinforcing toe boxis inseited, (not shown), the vamp D and the quarter E.

The quarter E is constructed from elastic gore material, and consists of two sections Ea and Eb, which are united to each other at the center of the heel and at their lower edges to the sole B, as in the common practice with turned slippers. Theforward edgesu of the to' the rear edges of the vamp. 75

A non-elastic and substantially non-expandible binding F is folded upon the upper edge portions of the vamp and the quarter, so as to straddle the same, and is then stitched so that its terminal end portions Fa are open. This binding F serves as a flat tube in which the pull cord G is enclosed, with its ends hanging free to be manually pulled and tied. This pull cord is also of non-elastic and sub- ,l stantially non-expansible material, so that both the binding and pull cord will eectually resist the tendency of the foot opening to expand beyond the limits fixed for safely retaining the' slipper upon the foot.

The slipper is positioned on the foot in the usual manner, and the pull cord is drawn and then tied so thatl the binding forthe foot opening will not expand in its secured posi- Itis understood that this binding may be contracted about the foot by the drawing of the pull-cord, but when contracted the elastic' quarter will be free to yield in all directions, expanding and contracting under its own elasticity, to snugly grip the foot of the wearer in all positions assumed during the strenuous dancing movements.

One very important feature of the slipper construction as illustrated in the drawings i? and hereinabove described, is that, when desired, the pull cord or draw string G may be completely omitted, not only during dancing, but during the operations of putting on and taking olf the slipper. Actual tests have shown that if the binding F be non-stretchable as hereinabove specified, and the vamp and quarter be shaped and joined together and to said binding as hereinabove specified, and if the material for the vamp be the usual material employed in the art (that is, a material with some minute stretch therein, yet substantially non-stretchable so far as the eye can detect), and if the material for the quarter be the elastic material hereinabove specified, said pull cord or draw string G may be completely omitted, as just above explained, and with the advantages indicated.

The feasibility of omitting the draw string G results also partially from the fact that the elastic quarter is made of two halves seamed together as aforesaid at the middle of the heel, from the binding F to the sole, that is, from the top to the bottom of th; shoe; and partially from the factthat the lines of seaming between the front ends of these quarter sections andthe rear ends of the vamp sides are along lines, as clearly shown in the drawings, which rather sharply rearwardly and downwardly extend. These two pecularities of construction, in combination with the other features of the slipper, insure, first, that the lines of elastic pull rising in the quarter and acting to draw back the vamp will all originate at the midback of the heel, and, second, that such lines vofpull, on each side of the slipper, will vary inintensity all along the side wall of tlie slipper, due to the oblique angle of the side seams between vamp and quarter. Due to such variation, said lines of elastic pull will be ofmaximum intensity somewhat more than half way up the side of the slipper, and hence opposite concavities or valleys at the sides of the foot lying just below the protuberances of the anklebones and just above the sidewardly projected basal flesh masses at the bottom of the heel. Otherwise stated, the zone of maximum elastic pull will not be at or exceedingly close to the binding F, since that is non-stretchable, nor will it be near the sole, for that, too, is relatively non-stretchable.

The elastic quarter thus provides, in the combination of the present invention, a self molding heel support, which maintains full and close contact with the heel of the wearer, and maintains a reverse tension against the foot muscles, when they are placed under strain, so that danger of collapse of the .foot

- during vigorous violent movements will be reducedto a minimum, and possible severe accidents thus avoided.

rlhe hereinbefore described construction admits of considerable modification without departing from the invention; therefore, I do not wish to be limited to the precise arrangement shown and described, which is, as aforesaid, by way of illustration merely. In other words, the scope of protection contenu plated is to be taken solely from the appended claim, interpreted as broadly as is consistent with the prior art.

rIhe elastic gore material is preferably selected of the same color and finish as the material used in the construction of the vamp, so that, the appearanceof the finished dancing slipper will be of high artistic merit, and comply with the highest standards of design and finish.

I claim as new A dancing slipper comprising a sole, a toe and vamp secured to the-sole, a quarter secured to the sole and vamp and extending rearwardly from the vamp, saidquarter comprising an elastic gore formed of two sec-l tions joined by a vertical seam at the back of the quarter and secured to the vamp by downwardlyv and rearwardly extending seams upon opposite sides oftheslipper, and a continuous .inextensible flexible binding secured around the entire upper marginal edge portions of the quarter and vamp and adaptf ed to engage the upper; portion of a foot snugly, whereby said binding affords a nonyielding anchorage to retain the slipper securely upon the foot against displacement while theelastic quarter permits muscular expansion weithin the slipper duringmovements of the foot in dancing.

In testimony whereof I hereby affix my signature.

BENJAMIN BRODICK.

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