US2673650A - Shoe rack - Google Patents

Description

R. A. OLSON SHOE RACK March 30, 1954 Filed NOV. 25, 1949 INVENTOR. EUEB EN 4 OLSON IIE 2 Patented Mar. 30, 1954 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SHOE RACK Reuben A. Glson, Oakland, Calif.

Application November 25, 1949, Serial No. 129,337

4 Claims. (Cl. 21135) This invention relates to rack elements for supporting footwear and adapted for mounting in closets, dressing rooms and the like chambers.

An object of the invention is to provide a shoe rack which is adapted to be readily mounted on a vertical wall or door surface in such a position as to eliminate the need for stooping on the part of the user in the acts of placing shoes therein or retrieving the shoes therefrom.

Another object of the invention is to provide a rack in which shoes may be clamped in supported position so that they may not thereafter be easily dislodged by vibrational or shock forces imposed on the rack or by accidental brushing thereagainst of an arm or other parts of the users body.

A further object of the invention is to provide a rack of the character described in which shoes may be supported in their best display posi tions.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a device of the class referred to which, when not in use is capable of automatically collapsing to a considerable extent to reduce the prominency of the device.

An additional object of the invention is to provide a rack of the type described which is universally adaptable to either mens or womens shoes and to a wide variety of heel shapes and sizes.

It is another object of the invention to provide a rack, capable of supporting shoes in an elevated position, in which the inclusion of stretchers or other shape-preserving elements in the shoes, will not interfere in the least with the proper support of the shoes in the rack.

The invention possesses other objects and fea tures of advantage, some of which, with the foregoing, will be set forth in the following description of the preferred form of the invention which is illustrated in the drawing accompanying and forming part of the specification. It is to be understood, however, that variations in the showing made by the said drawing and description may be adopted within the scope of the invention as set forth in the claims.

Referring to the drawing:

Figure 1 is a frontal perspective view of the shoe rack of my invention with a pair of shoes, shown in dotted lines, in supported position therein.

Figure 2 is a front elevational view of the structure of Figure 1 showing the rack in collapsed condition. A portion of the view is broken away so as to more clearly show internal details of construction.

Figure 3 is a vertical sectional view taken in the plane indicated by the line 3-3 of Figure 2.

In the form in which I have chosen to illustrate my invention, I provide a frontal base plate 4 which may comprise a rectangular section of wood having secured to the rearward face thereof a plurality of vertically disposed strips 5 which are relatively horizontally spaced so as to form separate vertically elongated channels I closed along their rearward sides by a back plate member 8 preferably coextensive in area with the frontal base plate A and secured to one or more but preferably all of the strips 6. If desired the portions of the structure comprising the strips 5 may be made as integral parts of the frontal base plate 4 or the back plate member 8. Simplicity and economy of manufacture are afforded by constructing the base unit of wood or a combination of wood and composition board of a suitably rigid nature but, if desired, the entire base unit may be formed as an homogeneous mass of molded resinoid material. The upper horizontal edge of that portion of the base unit shown as the frontal base plate 4 is forwardly and upwardly curved to provide a vertically protruding lip 9 preferably having a coating ll of friction material such as rubber or a compound thereof deposited or otherwise secured thereon. Mounting of the base unit, preferably on a vertical wall or door surface where it may be easily reached by the user, may be effected in any suitable manner such as by wood screws or other equivalent attachment devices which may be passed into the wall or door through appropriate accommodation openings l2 provided at one or several points in the base unit.

Disposed in each of the channels 1 and arranged to slide vertically therein are metal or other suitably weighted bars l3 having upper end portions bent rectangularly forwardly to provide clamp jaws l4 overlying the base unit lip 9 and further bent upwardly to provide tabular grips it at the distal extremities of the jaws. Preferably the outer end of each jaw l4, at the juncture of the latter with the grip I6, extends somewhat forwardly of the forward facial plane of the base unit. Mounting of shoes I! on the rack is effected by raising the jaws l4 vertically a sufiicient distance so that the shoe heels i 8, with the toes of the shoes pointing downwardly, may be readily inserted in the gaps provided between the elevated jaws and the subjacent lip 9 of the base unit. In this position the flat forward end of the'shoe heel overlies the lip 9 and engages the friction coating I I thereon while the clamp jaw l4 when released descends by gravity to bear against the rearmost surface of the heel and forcibly presses the heel into engagement with the aforesaid friction coating while the resultant force tends to press the sole of the shoe against the forward face of the base unit. When so held, the shoes cannot be easily dislodged from the rack by impact or sustained vibrational shocks or if persons in the immediate vicinity should happen to accidentally brush an arm or other body portion thereagainst; but deliberate dismounting of the shoes from the rack may be readily carried out by manually grasping and pulling the shoes forwardly so as to extricate the heels from between the lip and clamp jaws whereupon the latter will be gravitally returned to their collapsed and comparatively obscure positions as shown in Figures 2 and 3. In the act of returning the shoes to the rack, the forwardly projecting portions of the clamp jaws l4 serve the useful function of lifts capable of being engaged by the heel portion of a shoe held in the hand of the user and pushed upwardly by the shoe so as to widen the gap between the clamp jaw and lip sufficiently to permit the heel to be fully inserted therebetween. Thus, in the mamier described, the improved rack of my invention is capable of one-handed operation both in the placement of the shoes therein and in the subsequent removal of the shoes.

It will be seen that additional advantages in the type of rack described are afforded in that the rack is automatically adaptable, without adjustment of any kind, to receive and hold all sizes of shoes, whether they be of mens or womens types, that the shoes are supported in positions wherein they are displayed to best advantage, and wherein they may be readily recognized and selected, and that the support positions of the shoes permit the latter to be stored while bearing protrusive stretching or form-retaining devices without in any way interfering with the functional efliciency of the rack.

I claim:

1. A shoe rack comprising a base unit having a clamp member adjacent an edge thereof with which a heel portion of a shoe is engageable and provided with a facial surface engageable with a sole portion of the shoe, said base unit including a block of material having a vertically disposed slot extending therein, said clamp member having thereon a surface layer of friction material in engagement with said heel portion of the shoe, and an element including a clamp jaw carried by and movable in said slot and relative to the base member for clamping said heel portion of the shoe between said clamp jaw and the clamp member of the base unit.

2. A shoe rack comprising a base unit having a clamp member adjacent an edge thereof with which a heel portion of a shoe is engageable and provided with a facial surface engageable with a sole portion of the shoe, said base unit further having therein a vertically extending channel, a weighted bar member slidable in said channel and having a clamp jaw at its upper end overlying and movable with said bar member into selected spaced relation with the base unit clamp memher, and said clamp jaw engaging the heel portion of a shoe for clamping the latter between the clamp jaw and clamp member.

3. A shoe rack comprising a base unit having along an upper edge thereof a vertically rising lip over which a heel portion of a shoe may be placed, a layer of friction material on said lip and providing a non-slip clamp member with which said heel portion of the shoe may be engaged, vertically disposed guide means on said base member extending to the upper edge thereof, a weighted bar member engageable and movable in said guide means and being removable from said upper edge of the base member, and a jaw member carried by said bar member and overlying another portion of the heel of said shoe for clamping the latter between the bar jaw member and the said lip.

4. A shoe rack comprising a base unit having a clamp member adjacent an edge thereof with which a heel portion of a shoe is engageable and provided with a facial surface engageable with a sole portion of the shoe, guide means on said base unit, a weighted bar vertically movable on said guide means and having a jaw member overlying another heel portion of said shoe for clamping the heel between the jaw member and clamp member, and said jaw member having a portion thereof protruding beyond the facial surface of the base unit and engageable with a portion of a shoe which may be moved over said surface to effect upward movement of the bar in the guide means and the jaw member relative to the base unit clamp member.

REUBEN A. OLSON.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

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