Abstract: Footwear includes a sole and an upper comprising an unlaced shaft for covering a portion of the lower leg of the wearer. The shaft includes a forward and rearward portions secured together at substantially vertically extending seams at lateral sides of the upper. An expansion joint is provided in the shaft and is adapted to expand a local circumference of the shaft at the expansion joint when the wearer's foot passes through the shaft at the expansion joint to ease putting the footwear onto the wearer's foot and removing the footwear from the wearer's foot. The illustrated expansion joint includes a substantially vertical slit located along the seam between the forward and rearward portions and an elastic material secured to an inner side of the shaft and covering the slit for preventing passage of undesirable solid materials through the slit.

Abstract: Footwear includes a sole, an upper secured to the sole for covering a portion of a foot of a wearer, and a heel. The heel includes a heel base secured to and downwardly extending from a rearward end of the sole and a heel lift located at a bottom of the heel base. The heel lift includes a bottom surface and a bevel is formed at the bottom surface and at a rear end of the heel lift so that the wearer has a normal or near normal stride. A top surface of the heel lift has a step so that a rear portion of the top surface is raised above a forward portion of the top surface and the wear life of the heel lift is not reduced by the provision of the bevel and the weight of the footwear is not substantially increased.