US20110126432A1

US20110126432A1 - Combined Shoe

Info

Publication number: US20110126432A1
Application number: US12/897,070
Authority: US
Inventors: Yuk Ling Sek
Original assignee: CREATIVE WORKSHOP (INTERNATIONAL) Co Ltd
Current assignee: CREATIVE WORKSHOP (INTERNATIONAL) Co Ltd
Priority date: 2009-12-01
Filing date: 2010-10-04
Publication date: 2011-06-02
Also published as: JP2011115276A; CN102078044A

Abstract

A combined shoe formed by a selected vamps and soles with different functions and appearances at any time, comprises a sole, a vamp and attaching means used to quick-connect the vamp and the sole for forming a whole shoe. The attaching means includes a front cap located in front of the sole for buckling the tip of the vamp; a hind cap located in the hind of the sole for buckling the heel of the vamp; two pairs of matched anti-slide plates located in half-soles/heels of both vamp and sole for preventing relative sliding between the vamp and the sole; and a plurality of pressing means used for pressing the vamp on the sole tightly. The combined shoes provide a multitude of combinations and reduce the shoe purchasing cost. Since the vamp and the sole can be disassembled and assembles quickly, when the wearer enters a room, he needs only remove the sole for keeping the cleanliness of the room and still can keep his feet warm and/or prevent the diffusion of foot odor.

Description

FIELD

This disclosure relates to footwear. More particularly, it relates to a combined shoe which is freely combined from different soles and vamps (uppers) for getting different functions and appearances.

BACKGROUND

Until now, shoes have had a single function and appearance. For example, people wear tennis shoes when they play tennis, people wear dancing shoes when dancing, people wear overshoes when it is raining, etc. Each pair of shoes is combined by soles and vamps, these two parts are fixed together so that they are integrated and can not be separated.
As the development of the science and the improvement of the manufacturing technology, people find that prior shoes have many shortcomings. One of the shortcomings is the waste of materials and work-hours. For example, dancing shoes have hard leathered half-soles so they easily glide on waxed floors, while the heel is made of rubber for easy stopping. The vamp is preferred to match the dress. So, there must be numerous dancing shoes in different colors and appearances for selections. Thus, it is common for each person to have dozens of dancing shoes. In fact, this is not for the sole, since anyone in his lifespan will likely never wear out several pairs of soles by dancing. The reason for buying dozens of dancing shoes dwells in selecting different vamps.
For sport footwear, the condition is contrary. Any sport footwear should best fit between the vamp and the instep, while the soles are different for different sports. For example, to play basketball indoors, the sole must have certain coarseness for anti-gliding. To play basketball outdoors, particularly on coarse cement ground, the sole must have lubricity for reducing friction. The shoes for cycling use only half-soles, while the shoes for tennis use whole soles. They are quite different. Therefore, dozens of different shoes are needed for playing different sports.
A person who either likes dancing or sporting must have dozens of dancing shoes and dozens of sporting shoes for his daily choice. This is expensive and will be difficult to accommodate since he must also buy several of racks and have a large space for receiving them.
Another shortcoming of prior art shoes is using them both indoors and outdoors. For example, a person wears a pair of shoes going out from his office to visit a patient, and then he returns to his office to work. In the whole process, he wears the same pair of shoes. In the past, Japanese removed shoes before entering the room. While nowadays, this good habit is reduced since many public sites such as hospitals, offices, cinemas, etc., could not supply indoor shoes for everyone. Therefore, a pair of shoes used in both indoors and outdoors must reduce the indoor cleanliness from the outdoor usage.

SUMMARY

A technical problem is to address the above mentioned shortcomings, and to provide a kind of combined shoes which is matched by selected soles and vamps with different functions and appearances at any time. The disclosed shoe not only increases the number of combinations, but also is less expensive. For example, since the vamps and the soles can be separated and combined quickly, when a person enters a room, he only needs to remove the soles, the cleanliness of the room and the warmth of the feet can be kept and any foot odor will not diffuse.
The combined shoes comprise the vamps, the soles, and attaching means which connect both vamps and soles together for forming a whole shoe. The attaching means include: a front cap located in front of the sole for buckling the tip of the vamp; a hind cap located in the hind of the sole for buckling the heel of the vamp; two pairs of anti-sliding plates located in the half-sole of both the vamp and the sole and in the heel of both the vamp and the sole. They are matched with each other for avoiding relative sliding between the vamp and the sole; and a plurality of pressing means press the vamp tightly on the sole.
The anti-sliding plates are a plurality of matched straight denticle grains, respectively, on the contact portion of the half-soles/heels of both the vamp and the sole.
The anti-sliding plates are a plurality of matched V-shaped denticle grains, respectively, on the contact portion of the half-soles/heels of both the vamp and the sole.
The pressing means are single or plural tight laces which wrap around the instep of the user.
The pressing means are Velcro fasteners located in the contact portions of both half-soles/heels of both the vamp and the sole and which exert no pressure on the instep of the user.
The pressing means are self-locking zippers around the periphery of both the vamps and the soles and therebetween, and which exert no pressure on the insteps of the user.
Each of the soles includes the outer sole, the middle sole and the inner sole. An EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer) filled layer is disposed between the middle sole and the inner sole.
In the above mentioned construction, the sole and the vamp are manufactured independently. They are combined to form a whole shoe just prior to using. The combined shoes have such an advantage for a user that he only needs to buy dozens of pairs of vamps of dancing shoes and one pair of soles for a dancing shoe, and dozens of pairs of soles of sport shoes and one pair of vamps for a sport shoe. Thus, the cost may be reduced in half while the functions remain unchanged. At the same time, it saves a large amount of materials and work hours.
When the wearer enters a room, he should only remove the soles and still wear the vamps which now only have thin soles. In so doing, dirty soles will never enter the room while people still have shoes on their feet. Therefore, in the winter, the wearer has warm feet; in the summer, the diffusing of foot odor is avoided. To the whole society, public indoor use shoes are saved and a good traditional Japanese habit is revived. To compare the combined shoes with prior art, this combined shoe has the advantages of ease of use, large numbers of combinations and a cost reduction to as much as half.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an assembly drawing of finished product of the combined shoes;

FIG. 2 is a front view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a rear view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a bottom view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is A-A1 section view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is B-B1 section view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is C-C1 section view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 8 is D-D1 section view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 9 is E-E1 section view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 10 is a partial enlargement view per G-G1 of FIG. 8;

FIG. 11 is a partial enlargement view per F-F1 of sole tread; and

FIG. 12 is a sub-assembly drawing of the vamp of the new type combined shoes.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

The description of the embodiments will be carried out with drawings as follows. Firstly, refer to FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3 and FIG. 4; in which, FIG. 1 is an assembly drawing of finished product of the combined shoes; FIG. 2 is a top view of FIG. 1; FIG. 3 is a bottom view of FIG. 1; and FIG. 4 is A-A1 section of FIG. 1. In section A-A1 , it is shown that the combined shoe comprises a sole 10; a vamp 20; a front cap 16 located on front of the sole 10 for buckling the heel of the vamp 20; two pairs of matched anti-slide plates 13, each of them located on the half-soles/heels respectively for preventing relative sliding between the vamps and the soles; and a plurality of pressing means for pressing the vamps tightly on the soles. Each of the soles 10 includes an outer sole 11, a middle sole 12 and an inner sole 22. Between the middle sole 12 and the inner sole 22, there is a layer of EVA filling 18. In the drawings, 11 is the rubber outer sole; 12 is the EVA middle sole and 13 is the TPU (Thermoplastic Polyurethane) anti-slide plates integrated on the EVA middle sole, each of them located in the half-soles/heels, respectively. Various components are identified as follows: 14 designates a TPU insert of the outer sole 11; 15 designates a TPU hind cap; 16 designates a TPU front cap; 17 designates a TPU tight lace; 20 designates a vamp which can be manufactured of any kind of natural/artificial leather; and 22 designates an EVA filled sole for indoor use.
With reference to FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3, FIG. 4 and FIG. 9, the combined shoe uses many kinds of attaching means for connecting the vamp to the sole to form an integrated one. These attaching means including two pairs off anti-slide plates 13. Each of them has a plurality of denticle grains. Each of them is integrally manufactured on the contact portion of the vamp/sole. Usually, they are located on the half-sole/heel; this can be seen clearly in FIG. 4. In FIG. 9, there shows the matching of two upper and lower anti-slide plates by G-G1 section. As shown in FIG. 9, once two anti-slide plates are matched, there is no up and down relative movement.
In FIG. 5, the front cap 16 and the hind cap 15 on the sole 10 are used to fix vamp 20 to the sole 10. Tight laces 17 extend from the insert 14 of the outer sole 11 to tightly press the vamp 20 to the sole 10.
FIG. 11 is a sub-assembly drawing of the vamp of the new type combined shoes. In FIG. 11, vamp 20 comprises a vamp 21 made of natural/artificial leather; EVA filled indoor sole 22; and PTU anti-slide plates 13 integrally manufactured on the half-sole/heel. FIG. 11 shows that the vamp 20 may indeed be a perfect shoe in the sense that by removing the sole 10, vamp 20 can be worn indoors as a slip-on shoe.
FIG. 5 through FIG. 8 are sections of FIG. 4 in different positions. These drawings are used to show the sole 10 and the tight laces 17.
Though the combined shoes are described above in various embodiments, all embodiments and descriptions mentioned should not be used to limit the combined shoes. For example, in the above mentioned examples, the anti-slide plates have straight and parallel denticle grains referred to as a ladder-toothed plate. Its function is to avoid the vamp 20 sliding on the sole 10 forwardly and backwardly. Any person skilled in the art can easily change the straight denticle grains into V-shaped ones, and thus can avoid the vamp 20 sliding on the sole 10 in any direction.
Furthermore, the combined shoes adopt the simplest, least expensive, tight laces which extend around the instep of the user for causing the anti-slide plates of indoor sole 22 to tightly press the anti-slide plates 13 of the sole 10. To do so, the instep of the user may feel uneasy under the pressure. While any person skilled in the art can simply use such means as Velcro, etc., the vamp 20 can also be fixed on the sole 10 without any pressure on the instep.
A self-locking zipper can also be provided around the periphery of the sole 10 and the vamp 20, and used to pull them all together. In doing so, even if the user pulls them apart from each other, the zipper will not give way.

Claims

1. A combined shoe, comprising:

a vamp having a tip and a heel; and

a sole compacting the vamp along contacting surfaces comprising:

a front cap located in front of the sole for buckling the tip of the vamp;

a hind cap located in hind of the sole for buckling the heel of the vamp;

two pairs of matched anti-slide plates located on the half-soles/heels of both the vamp and the sole for preventing relative sliding between the vamp and the sole; and

a plurality of pressing means for tightly pressing the vamp on the sole.

2. The combined shoe of claim 1, wherein said anti-slide plates are a plurality of matched straight denticle grains integrally manufactured on the contacting surfaces of the vamp and the sole located on the half-sole/heel portions.

3. The combined shoe of claim 1, wherein said anti-slide plates are a plurality of matched V-shaped denticle grains integrally manufactured on the contacting surfaces of the vamp and the sole and located on the half-sole/heel portions.

4. The combined shoe of claim 1, wherein said pressing means are one or plurality of tight laces configured to extend around the instep of the user.

5. The combined shoe of claim 1, wherein said pressing means are Velcro fasteners between the contacting surfaces of the vamp and the sole.

6. The combined shoe of claim 1, wherein said pressing means are self-locking zippers which extend around the periphery of the vamp/sole and therebetween.

7. The combined shoe of claim 1, wherein said sole includes an outer sole, a middle sole and an inner sole, and a layer of EVA filling is disposed between the middle sole and the inner sole.