US2165427A - Shoe sole and heel construction - Google Patents

Description

July 11, 1939. A. VIGORITH ET AL SHOE SOLE AND HEEL CONSTRUCTION Filed Dec. 28, 1956 W? Wm 52 j W m n QM Patented July 11, 1939 UNITED STATES SHOE SOLE AND HEEL CONSTRUCTION Anthony Vigorith, Ernst J. Story, and John M.

Delaney, Cincinnati, Ohio, assignors to United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Paterson, N. 1., a corporation of New Jersey Application December 28, 1936, Serial No. 117,726

3 Claims.

The present invention relates to a new and improved shoe sole and heel construction.

An object of the invention is to provide a novel means of attaching a sole to a heel, with a mate- 5 rial saving of time, labor and expense.

. Another object of the invention is to provide means for the purpose stated, whereby the connection between a sole and heel is effected neatly and quickly with a saving of leather, and with increased durabilityandstrength at the juncture of the parts.

Another object of the invention is to accomplish the advantages above stated, without necessitating changes in the shoe manufacturing machinery presently in use. i

The foregoing and other objects are attained by the means described herein and disclosed in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a novel shoe sole embodying the invention.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a heel such as may be attached to the sole of Fig. 1 in accordance with the teaching of the present invention.

Figs. 3 and 4 are views of other types of heels that may be associated with the novel sole referred to.

Fig. 5 is a central longitudinal sectional viewof a shoe assembled in accordance with the invention, the lining and other non-essential elements being omitted. I

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of a modification of the sole of Fig. 1. I

To practice the invention, there is first provided a flat-formed shoe sole 1 of leather or the like, which is skived or chamfered as at 8 along both sides and around the toe portion, for the purpose ofthinning the sole edges. This results in maintaining the full sole thickness inwardly of the chamfered or skived marginal portion of the sole. The chamfered or skived marginal portion of the sole subsequently will support the shoe upper, in accordance with common practice.

At the heel end 9, the sole is to be split along a plane parallel to the plane of the sole, from one chamfered edge to the other, so as to provide flap edges or cuts l and I2 which lie within the chamfers. The thin upper flap i3 thereby formed at the flesh side of the sole, cooperates with the anchor portion ll at the grain side of the sole, to furnish a pocket or groove I of a depth indicated by the broken line 18 of Fig. 1. It should be noted that the sole edge It is not split, reduced in thickness, or in anyway marred or defaced by the splitting operation just described.

The thickness of the flap l3 preferably is much less than that of the anchorportion it which is adapted tosupportthe sole on a heel. After having performed the splitting operation, the anchor portion of the sole is cut off as shown by the straight, transverse dotted line in Fig. 1,

which determines the length of the shoe.

At this point, it is desirable to call attention to the fact that the cutting off of the anchor portion of the sole along the above-mentioned transverse line is performed before the building of the shoe, that is, before the arch brace, the upper and the insole are attached to the sole 1. This is a distinct advantage of the present invention over the old method of building a shoe, for the reason that it is difficult to perform the cutting off of the anchor portion along the desired line after the upper has been applied to the sole. Moreover, any mistake made in the cutting off operation before the upper is applied, is not as serious and expensive as would be such a mistake made after the major portion of the shoe has been built upon the sole.

In prior shoe constructions employing a sole. of less than full length, the operators were faced with the disadvantage of having no spotting hole such as l8 for maintaining the sole in position upon the sole-laying machine during building of the shoe. In the present construction, however, the flap [3 serves as an extension at the rear of the sole, to provide the material necessary to the formation of a spotting hole or perforation l8.

Persons skilled in the art to which the invention relates will readily understand the use of spotting holes and cooperative pegs on a sole-laying machine.

Under certain known methods of manufacture, it was necessary for the proper assembling of a shoe, to use a full length sole in order to determine the position to be assumed by a heel to be applied to the shoe. In other words, the upper peripheral edge of the heel was fitted onto the sole so that the periphery of the'heel end of the sole coincided with the upper edge of the heel. This being the only necessary function of the heel end of a full length sole, the practice was necessarily wasteful of sole material. In the present construction, the extreme rear end of the sole, that is, the flap I 3, terminates at substantially the center of the heel. This is indicated at I; in Fig. 5.. In quantity production, this saving of sole material effects an enormous saving of manufacturing cost.

The shoe sole constructed as explained above is adapted for application to various types of heels. For example, Fig. 2 shows a heel having.

an upper attaching face or foot supporting portion is, which is preferably concave,- and which has formed thereon a tongue or extension 20 that overhangs the breast portion 2'! of the heel. The forward face of the breast has a groove 22 cut therein for reception of the anchor portion ll' of the shoe sole. The groove referred to is preferably curved and its opposite ends terminate in the upper face close to the edges 23 and formed between the flap i3 and the anchor porshoe.

tion id of the sole-is adapted to receive the tongue or extension while the flap overlies the tongue and part of the upper face of the heel,

the anchor portion M being snugly received in the curved slot 22. These various parts may be securely fixed in the stated relation, by applying an adhesive to the tongue 20, groove 22 and the. upper face of the heel, before sliding the heel 'into'position relative to the sole. It is conceivable, of course, that other .known methods of flxing the heel relative to the sole may be resorted to.

By referring to Fig.

is a continuation of the upper face of the slot or groove 22, so that the lower face 21 of the sole will present a perfectly smooth andv unbroken exterior from the breast of the heel to the toe of the shoe. The connection between the sole and the heel will not be discernible in the fln-' 1 ished product, due to the fact that the sole edge is continuous and of uniform thickness through- .out the arch portion of the shoe, and due further to the fact that the joints will appear only in the upper face of the heel rather than in the sides thereof. Application of the upper and the insole willof course conceal the joints and the flap I 3- completely.

In addition to the advantages above set forth, it should be noted that practically the full thickness of the sole at theanchor portion rests upon the heel at 22, resulting in a very rigid and durable connection that may not be readily severed by the application of weight to the arch of the It may here be repeated that the application of the heel is greatly facilitated by reason of the fact that the pocket formed between the cuts l0 and i2 which define the flap, is readily accessible for reception of the 'tongue20 even though the entire shoe has been built upon the sole I. In other words the. heelmay be easily applied after application to the sole I of Fig. 5, of the metallic'or other rigid arch brace 28, the upper 29, and the insole 30. The insole, of course, may be applied subsequent to fastening of the arch brace to the heel after attachment of the sole as exemplified in Fig. 5. The arch brace 29 is applied in theusual manner or by means of nails or'screws (not shown). In applying the character of sole disclosed in Fig. 1 to the type of heel shown in Fig. 3, the procedure is similar to that heretofore explained, except that the rear edge of the anchor portion i4 merely abuts the breast of the heel at substantially the elevation 3|. The plate 32 may be of metal, fiber, or any other suitable rigid material capable of entering the pocket of the sole and eifect a tongue and groove connection at the joint- The heel of Fig. 3 may be furnished with a groove such as 22 (Fig. or not, as desired.

The heel of Fig. 4 is quite similar to that of Fig. 2, except that the integral tongue 33 is wider, and is not associated with a groove such as 22. This type of heel is quite common, and should therefore require no further explanation, suillce it to say that the upper and lower faces of the tongue 33 are coated with adhesive before the tongue is inserted into the pocket formed by the 5, it will be noted the lower face 25 of the tongue or extension 29 enema? flap and. the anchor portion of the shoe sole. In a shoe construetion employing the heel of Fig. 4, the adhesive connection between the shoe sole and the tongue 331s depended upon for eflecting permanent attachment of the heel to the sole. In all cases, it is preferable to apply adhesive in such a manner that both the anchor portion l4 and the flap 13 will be adhesively fixed to the tongue and adjacent portions of the heel.

The particular manner in which the upper is attached to the sole, and the arch brace to the heel, is of no consequence due to the fact that those operations are well known, and are moreover, irrelevant to the present invention. Those details, therefore, are omitted from the drawing. As to the heel of Fig. 2, it should be understood that the tongue may be a separate element, as

\ disclosed at 32 of Fig. 3; and such modifications and changes in structural detail may be made,

within the scope of the'appended claims, without departing from the spirit-of'the invention.

The modification of Fig. 6 shows a sole of substantially the same character as that of Figs. 1 and 5, except for the provision of the corner notches 34 which facilitate entry of the sole portion into the groove 22 of the Fig. 2 heel. The

' abutments 35 clearly will abut the breast of the heel adjacent to the groove, to make a neat and inconspicuous joint. The sole of Fig. 6 is shown convexed, as it would generally be shaped prior to application of the heel.

What is claimed is:

heel, said rear portion including an anchoring edge and a flap, the flap being thinner than the anchoring edge and extending over and beyond said anchoring edge rearwardly of the sole, a heel including a tongue extended forwardly thereof, the tongue being received beneath the flap and extended over the-anchoring edge, anda shelf on the heel beneath the tongue, adapted to receive and support the relatively thick anchoring edge ofthe sole, said shelf being curved and having opposite ends terminating in the attaching face of the heel.

2. A short leather outsole split at its rear end to provide a pocket to receive a tongue projecting forward from a heel, the split being near the flesh face of the sole to provide a thick, short, anchor portion of the grain side of the sole to engage the breast portion of the heel and a thin flap portion of the flesh side of the sole projecting rearward beyond the anchor portion for a distance substantially less than the length of the attaching face of the heel and narrower than the anchor portion, whereby it may be entirely concealed by the heel.

3. A shoe having a tongued heel and a short leather outsole interengaged'therewith, the rear end of the outsole being split to provide a pocket in which the tongue of the heel is positioned, the end of the sole on the grain side of the split being thick and engaging the breast portion of the heel and on the flesh side of the split being thin, projecting back upon the attaching face of the heel, and being shorter and narrower than said attaching face whereby it is entirely concealed by the heel.

ANTHONY V'IGORITI-l. ERNST J. STORY. JOHN M. DELANEY.

'1. In a shoe construction, the combination of v a sole having a. rear portion for attachment to a

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