Classifications

• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A43—FOOTWEAR
  • A43B—CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF FOOTWEAR; PARTS OF FOOTWEAR
  • A43B5/00—Footwear for sporting purposes
  • A43B5/14—Shoes for cyclists
  • A43B5/145—Boots for motorcyclists
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A43—FOOTWEAR
  • A43B—CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF FOOTWEAR; PARTS OF FOOTWEAR
  • A43B13/00—Soles; Sole-and-heel integral units
  • A43B13/14—Soles; Sole-and-heel integral units characterised by the constructive form
  • A43B13/141—Soles; Sole-and-heel integral units characterised by the constructive form with a part of the sole being flexible, e.g. permitting articulation or torsion
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A43—FOOTWEAR
  • A43B—CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF FOOTWEAR; PARTS OF FOOTWEAR
  • A43B5/00—Footwear for sporting purposes
  • A43B5/04—Ski or like boots
  • A43B5/0427—Ski or like boots characterised by type or construction details
  • A43B5/0452—Adjustment of the forward inclination of the boot leg
  • A43B5/0454—Adjustment of the forward inclination of the boot leg including flex control; Dampening means
  • A43B5/046—Adjustment of the forward inclination of the boot leg including flex control; Dampening means with the actuator being disposed at the lateral or medial side of the boot
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A43—FOOTWEAR
  • A43B—CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF FOOTWEAR; PARTS OF FOOTWEAR
  • A43B5/00—Footwear for sporting purposes
  • A43B5/04—Ski or like boots
  • A43B5/0427—Ski or like boots characterised by type or construction details
  • A43B5/047—Ski or like boots characterised by type or construction details provided with means to improve walking with the skiboot
  • A43B5/0472—Ski or like boots characterised by type or construction details provided with means to improve walking with the skiboot having a flexible toe portion; provided with a hinge at the ball of the foot
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A43—FOOTWEAR
  • A43B—CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF FOOTWEAR; PARTS OF FOOTWEAR
  • A43B5/00—Footwear for sporting purposes
  • A43B5/16—Skating boots
  • A43B5/1666—Skating boots characterised by the upper
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A43—FOOTWEAR
  • A43B—CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF FOOTWEAR; PARTS OF FOOTWEAR
  • A43B7/00—Footwear with health or hygienic arrangements
  • A43B7/14—Footwear with health or hygienic arrangements with foot-supporting parts
  • A43B7/18—Joint supports, e.g. instep supports
  • A43B7/20—Ankle-joint supports or holders

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a sports shoe, for example a motorcycling boot, ski-boot or linear skate, provided with a protective structure for the user's foot.
• the most widespread type of protective structure see for example EP-A-0 780 062 - consists of a shell made of a rigid polymeric material which, at its uppermost part and towards the rear of the shoe, is hinged on a leg-piece, which is also rigid, along an axis which is perpendicular to the longitudinal middle plane of the shoe and located more or less at the height of the malleoli. In this way the user's leg has a certain possibility of flexing forwards and backwards, absorbing some of the stresses received by the foot.
• the shoe also comprises an inner shoe - made of relatively softer and more flexible materials to improve comfort - which is sometimes attached to the shell for example by gluing.
• a shoe of this type is not capable of offering adequate protection in the case of extreme movements (for example during a fall by the user), or when the stresses received by the foot are transferred sharply to the knee ligaments which could consequently be badly damaged in the case of severe twisting.
• a ski-boot is also known - see TJS-A-5 127 171 - in which the leg-piece consists of a front part and a rear part, the latter being hinged, on each side of the foot, to the underlying shell by means of a first connecting member which is directed towards the heel and upwards and is hinged to said front part by means of a second connecting member which is directed towards the toe of the foot almost horizontally.
• This design certainly makes the insertion and extraction of the foot easier but, in terms of user safety, does not represent a significant improvement compared to the previous design since, when the shoe is ready for use, the lower edges of the front and the rear part of the leg-piece rest against the shell.
• FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the shoe viewed from the outer side of the foot and partially transparent;
• FIG. 2 shows a three-dimensional view, from above, of only the rigid structural parts of the shoe in Figure 1, suitably assembled;
• a motorcycling boot consists essentially of a shell, denoted in its entirety by reference number 1, and a leg-piece 2, which constitute the structural components of the shoe, both being made of rigid materials, and an inner shoe 3, made of relatively soft and flexible materials.
• the leg-piece 2 is limited to the front part of the boot - see Figure 2 - while, according to a first characteristic feature of the invention, as better explained below, the shell 1 is made as three parts each hinged together, i.e. a rear part 11 which comprises the heel 112 and the ankle-piece 113, a front toe-part 12 and a middle part 13.
• the bottom edge 21 of the leg-piece 2 is located at a certain distance D (which is preferably in the region of a few millimetres) from the top edge 111 of the rear part 11 of the shell 1 and hinged on the same rear part 11, at the outer side and at the inner side of the shoe respectively, by means of a single pair of connecting members 4 and 5 - see Figure 2 - which are preferably constructed of materials having appreciable mechanical characteristics, that is, better than those of the structural components of the shoe connected by them.
• pairs of associated holes are provided on the ankle- piece 113 and on the leg-piece 2 - such as those indicated in Figure 2 by reference numbers 6 and 7 at the outer side and by reference number 8 at the inner side of the shoe - for wide-headed rivets which do not need specific explanations and illustrations insofar as they are already widely used for the traditional system for articulating the leg-piece on the shell. So as to allow a certain lateral movement of the ankle, the holes of at least one of said pairs of holes 6, 7 and 8 can be elongated, with the greater axis being vertical, rather than round.
• the lower pivoting axis XI of the connecting members 4 and 5 is located below the nominal level M of the malleoli, while the upper pivoting axis XS is located above said level M, the axes XI and XS thus defining, in a shoe ready for use (i.e. as illustrated in Figure 1) an essentially vertical plane which is perpendicular to the longitudinal middle plane of the shoe.
• a shoe according to the invention has, thanks to the characteristics described above, the advantage of allowing not only a far wider mutual hinging movement - shown by arrows Rl and R2 in Figure 1 - between the shell 1 and the leg-piece 2 thanks to the distance D, but also guaranteeing protection extending from the foot to the knee.
• the connecting members 4 and 5 since they are able to withstand an elastic twisting action, are in fact capable of absorbing or at least dampening the sudden stresses received by the foot in the event of extreme movements, without transmitting them directly to the knee through the leg.
• the shape, dimensions and manufacturg materials of the connecting members are preferably defined in such a way as to maximise the degree of elastic torsion which can be withstood, until more or less all the fibres of the material from which the connecting members are made are subject to a tensile stress.
• the shell 1 of a shoe according to the invention is composed of three parts which are separate, but hinged together, i.e. the rear part 11, the front toe-part 12 and the middle part 13. As shown in
• the middle part 13 consists of an inner sole portion 131 and of an upwardly curving portion 132 on the outer side of the foot which is provided with longitudinal lugs 133, 134 extending towards the front and towards the rear of the shoe, respectively.
• the lugs 133, 134 have such a shape and dimensions as to overlap slightly the adjacent surfaces of the front toe-part 12 and the rear part 11, respectively, so as to form a double articulation system along the axes ZA and ZP - see Figure 2 - of the middle part 13 with respect to the other two parts 11 and 12 of the shell 1, as indicated by the arrows SI and S2 in Figure 1.
• both the connecting members (of which only one is shown with reference number 4a, i.e. only that at the outer side of the foot) have such a shape as to comprise at least two parallel pivoting axes instead of one, both in the region of the ankle-piece 113a which forms part of the shell la - indicated by references Al and BI - and in the region of the leg-piece 2a, indicated by references AS and BS.
• the axes AS and Al which define another substantially vertical plane perpendicular to the longitudinal middle plane of the shoe, there are, at the outer side of the foot, pairs of associated holes 6a and 7a for rivets such as those mentioned above.
• Said articulation system is thus guided and also to a certain degree limited, albeit in a different way from shoes of traditional design.
• a further variant of the invention (not shown in the attached drawing), characterized by an even lower manufacturing cost than the preceding variants, and involving a certain loss of performance compared to those described above, comprises a single connecting member at the outer side of the shoe with respect to the longitudinal middle plane.

Landscapes

• Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Physical Education & Sports Medicine (AREA)
• Epidemiology (AREA)
• Public Health (AREA)
• Footwear And Its Accessory, Manufacturing Method And Apparatuses (AREA)

Priority Applications (1)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=11133609

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (1)

Cited By (11)

Citations (7)

• 2000
  • 2000-12-28 WO PCT/IT2000/000550 patent/WO2002052969A1/it active Application Filing

Patent Citations (7)

Similar Documents

Legal Events