GB2551651A - A shoe comprising at least one artificial lace - Google Patents

Abstract

A shoe comprises at least one artificial lace 20 releasably attached thereto. The at least one artificial lace including a central portion 60 and a tab 40 at each end, wherein each tab 40 is attached to the central potion by a waist portion 50. The shoe includes at least two holes 30 for accepting a waist portion of the artificial lace. The shoe further comprises two recessed potions (31, fig. 4) on the inside surface (25, fig. 4) of the shoe, one adjacent each hole. Each recessed portion is arranged to accept a tab portion such that it lies substantially flush with the inside surface of the shoe or within the recess. This improves comfort for the wearer as the tab does not protrude into the inside of the shoe. The invention is of particular use with moulded plastics shoes.

Description

A shoe comprising at least one artificial lace

The present invention relates generally to a shoe comprising at least one artificial lace and finds particular, although not exclusive, utility in moulded plastics shoes.

Workwear shoes are known which may comprise moulded shoes having rather basic features due to the limitations of the moulding process. Aesthetically, these shoes are sometimes found lacking by certain individuals. It is desirable to make these, and other types of, shoes look more aesthetically pleasing. This may be achieved by including artificial laces. However, it is technically difficult to add laces to some types of shoe, for instance moulded shoes, such that they can be replaced if broken, or be changed to have a different colour. Also, when added, such laces can cause discomfort to the wearer due to the way in which they are attached to the shoe.

It is desirable to have a shoe and an artificial lace which may be releasably attachable to the shoe.

In one aspect, the invention provides, a shoe comprising at least one artificial lace releasably attached thereto, the at least one artificial lace including a central portion and a tab at each end thereof, wherein each tab is attached to the central potion by a waist portion, the shoe including at least two lace holes, one each for accepting a waist portion, the shoe further comprising two recessed portions on the inside surface of the shoe, one adjacent each lace hole, each recessed portion arranged to accept a tab portion such that with the artificial lace fitted the central portion appears on the outside of the shoe in the position of a typical lace, and an outer face of each tab lies substantially flush with, or behind the inside surface of the shoe.

In this manner, the tabs sit inside the recessed portions and are flush with, or at least lie within, and do not project into the inside of the shoe from, the inside surface of the shoe so that they cannot be felt by the wearer, in use.

The term “artificial” may mean that the lace is not used to hold the shoe on the foot, in use. In other words, it may not be under tension and may therefore not provide any gripping force on a wearer’s foot, in use. Rather, the artificial lace may have aesthetic properties only.

The artificial lace may be arranged to be attachable to the shoe by insertion of the tabs through each lace hole. The tabs may be pushed through from the outside of the shoe to the inside of the shoe.

The shoe may be at least partially manufactured using an injection moulding process. The shoe may be a moulded plastics shoe. The shoe may comprise ethylene vinyl acetate. The artificial lace may comprise thermoplastic rubber, rubber, silicone, and/or silicone rubber.

The central portion of the artificial lace may comprise a planar portion. This portion may be flattened such that the relatively larger planar surface lies substantially parallel against the outer surface of the shoe. Other cross-sectional shapes for the central portion are contemplated such as circular.

Each lace hole may include a frustoconical portion with the larger end being on the outside of the shoe and the smaller end being adjacent the recessed portion.

The waist portions may be arranged to allow them to bend so that the major plane of the tabs may lie approximately parallel to the longitudinal axis of the central portion.

The shoe may include five artificial laces so as to have the appearance of a sports shoe.

It may be important that the end of the artificial lace is configured to secure it into position so that it will not easily come out of position.

The above and other characteristics, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate, by way of example, the principles of the invention. This description is given for the sake of example only, without limiting the scope of the invention. The reference figures quoted below refer to the attached drawings.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a shoe;

Figure 2 is a close-up view of a portion of the shoe of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a perspective view of an artificial lace; and

Figure 4 is a cross-sectional view through a lace hole.

The present invention will be described with respect to certain drawings but the invention is not limited thereto but only by the claims. The drawings described are only schematic and are non-limiting. Each drawing may not include all of the features of the invention and therefore should not necessarily be considered to be an embodiment of the invention. In the drawings, the size of some of the elements may be exaggerated and not drawn to scale for illustrative purposes. The dimensions and the relative dimensions do not correspond to actual reductions to practice of the invention.

Furthermore, the terms first, second, third and the like in the description and in the claims, are used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a sequence, either temporally, spatially, in ranking or in any other manner. It is to be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable under appropriate circumstances and that operation is capable in other sequences than described or illustrated herein.

Moreover, the terms top, bottom, over, under and the like in the description and the claims are used for descriptive purposes and not necessarily for describing relative positions. It is to be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable under appropriate circumstances and that operation is capable in other orientations than described or illustrated herein.

It is to be noticed that the term “comprising”, used in the claims, should not be interpreted as being restricted to the means listed thereafter; it does not exclude other elements or steps. It is thus to be interpreted as specifying the presence of the stated features, integers, steps or components as referred to, but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps or components, or groups thereof. Thus, the scope of the expression “a device comprising means A and B” should not be limited to devices consisting only of components A and B. It means that with respect to the present invention, the only relevant components of the device are A and B.

Reference throughout this specification to “an embodiment” or “an aspect” means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment or aspect is included in at least one embodiment or aspect of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment”, “in an embodiment”, or “in an aspect” in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment or aspect, but may refer to different embodiments or aspects. Furthermore, the particular features, structures or characteristics of any embodiment or aspect of the invention may be combined in any suitable manner, as would be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art from this disclosure, in one or more embodiments or aspects.

Similarly, it should be appreciated that in the description various features of the invention are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure and aiding in the understanding of one or more of the various inventive aspects. This method of disclosure, however, is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed invention requires more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Moreover, the description of any individual drawing or aspect should not necessarily be considered to be an embodiment of the invention. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive aspects lie in fewer than all features of a single foregoing disclosed embodiment. Thus, the claims following the detailed description are hereby expressly incorporated into this detailed description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment of this invention.

Furthermore, while some embodiments described herein include some features included in other embodiments, combinations of features of different embodiments are meant to be within the scope of the invention, and form yet further embodiments, as will be understood by those skilled in the art. For example, in the following claims, any of the claimed embodiments can be used in any combination.

In the description provided herein, numerous specific details are set forth. However, it is understood that embodiments of the invention may be practised without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, structures and techniques have not been shown in detail in order not to obscure an understanding of this description.

In the discussion of the invention, unless stated to the contrary, the disclosure of alternative values for the upper or lower limit of the permitted range of a parameter, coupled with an indication that one of said values is more highly preferred than the other, is to be construed as an implied statement that each intermediate value of said parameter, lying between the more preferred and the less preferred of said alternatives, is itself preferred to said less preferred value and also to each value lying between said less preferred value and said intermediate value.

The use of the term “at least one” may mean only one in certain circumstances. The use of the term “any” may mean “all” and/or “each” in certain circumstances.

The principles of the invention will now be described by a detailed description of at least one drawing relating to exemplary features of the invention. It is clear that other arrangements can be configured according to the knowledge of persons skilled in the art without departing from the underlying concept or technical teaching of the invention, the invention being limited only by the terms of the appended claims.

In Figure 1 a shoe 10 is depicted comprising what appears to be laces 20. These are, however, not laces in the traditional sense having a continuous cord which is laced through a sequence of holes and tied with a bow or knot to tighten the shoe around a wearer’s foot. Rather, they are artificial laces in the sense that they have the appearance of laces but may not affect the tightness of the shoe.

In Figure 2 the laces 20 are more clearly visible. The lower three laces 20 are shown having been fitted or installed into holes 30 within the shoe. The upper two laces 30 are shown as being adjacent the holes 30, ready to be fitted or installed.

One end of each of the upper two laces is visible. It is seen that each lace 20 comprises a central portion 60 and a tab 40 in the form of a circular disc attached to the central portion by a waist portion 50.

An artificial lace 20 is shown more clearly in Figure 3. The central portion 60 is shown to be slightly curved along its length such that the two tabs 40 are raised above it. However, when initially manufactured the lace 20 may have the tabs lying in the same plane as the longitudinal axis of the central portion and the central portion may be planar. The curved nature of the lace shown in Figure 3 may be the result of having been fitted to a shoe and then removed; the resultant slightly curved shape being the result of permanent deformation. Alternatively, the slightly curved shape may be the result of manufacture.

The diameters of the tabs 40 are shown lying in a plane non-parallel to each other and to the tangent of the curve of the central portion 60. In use, with the lace having been fitted the diameters of the tabs 40 may lie in planes different to that shown in Figure 3. Rather, they may have been rotated about the waist portions 50 such that the diameters lie in planes substantially parallel to the side of the shoe in the region of the holes 30.

Figure 4 shows a cross-section of a lace 20 fitted into a hole 30. The hole is seen to have a recessed portion 31 on the inside of the shoe. This is a portion extending approximately halfway through the thickness of the shoe wall having a diameter slightly greater than the diameter of the tab 40 of the lace. The recessed portion may be circular. The hole 30 extends from the recessed portion 31 through the remainder of the shoe wall to the outside of the shoe. However, this outer portion 34 of the hole is narrower than the recessed portion 30 being only approximately half its diameter and being centrally placed with respect to the recessed portion 31.

This outer portion 34 increases in width such that it is frustoconical in shape with its narrower end adjacent the junction with the recessed portion 31 and its wider end on the outside surface 26 of the shoe.

This outer portion 26 and the waist portion 50 of the lace 20 are arranged such that the latter fits inside the former and allows the latter to bend such that the central portion 60 of the lace 20 may lie across the front of the shoe but the tab 40 may lie snugly inside the recessed portion 31.

In this way, the outer surface of the tabs 40 lie substantially flush with the inside surface 25 of the shoe such that they do not cause discomfort to a wearer.

The tabs 40 may be pushed through the outer portion 34 due to the nature of the materials comprising the shoe and/or the laces such that they may be squeezed and/or stretched slightly. The materials may be resilient.

Claims (10)

1. A shoe comprising at least one artificial lace releasably attached thereto, the at least one artificial lace including a central portion and a tab at each end thereof, wherein each tab is attached to the central potion by a waist portion, the shoe including at least two lace holes, one each for accepting a waist portion, the shoe further comprising two recessed portions on the inside surface of the shoe, one adjacent each lace hole, each recessed portion arranged to accept a tab portion such that with the artificial lace fitted the central portion appears on the outside of the shoe in the position of a typical lace, and an outer face of each tab lies substantially flush with, or behind the inside surface of the shoe.

2. The shoe of claim 1, wherein the artificial lace is arranged to be attachable to the shoe by insertion of the tabs through each lace hole.

3. The shoe of any preceding claim, wherein the shoe is at least partially manufactured using an injection moulding process.

4. The shoe of any preceding claim, wherein the shoe is a moulded plastics shoe.

5. The shoe of any preceding claim, wherein the shoe comprises ethylene vinyl acetate.

6. The shoe of any preceding claim, wherein the artificial lace comprises thermoplastic rubber.

7. The shoe of any preceding claim, wherein the central portion of the artificial lace comprises a planar portion.

8. The shoe of any preceding claim, wherein each lace hole includes a frustoconical portion with the larger end being on the outside of the shoe and the smaller end being adjacent the recessed portion.

9. The shoe of any preceding claim, including five artificial laces.

10. The shoe of any preceding claim, in which the shoe is a sports shoe or has the appearance of a sports shoe.