OVER-THE-SHOE DANCE TAP ATTACHMENT

Abstract

An over-the-shoe tap plate carrying accessory slipper for tap dancers is a unitary molded slipper made of a stretchable elastic material having a top strap held relative to a sole by upright straps, and being stretchable to fit over a street shoe. The accessory slipper carries heel and toe tap plates that are removably affixed to the bottom of the sole of the accessory slipper, and which are attached with screws that are threaded into embedded nuts in the sole.

Description

This application refers to and claims benefit of priority on U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/045,707, File Apr. 17, 2008, the content of which is incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure relates to a dance tap plate attachment slipper that is placed over a shoe, such as an athletic shoe, street shoe, or other footwear. The attachment is an over-the-shoe slipper that has a sole and an open upper formed of joined straps. The slipper is stretchable to fit over more than one size of shoe, and which has securely attached but removable dance tap plates at both the heel and the toe.

Various types of attachable dance taps have been advanced, but the existing over-the-shoe removable taps tend to shift and are not positively located, and/or are useful only in connection with separate attachments at the toe and the heel. An example is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,288,930.

Tap shoes, which are meant to be worn directly on the foot, with a sock over the foot, also have been advanced with removable taps. However, the present over-the-shoe slip-on dance tap attachment disclosed herein is very secure, lightweight, and permits practice dancing using very comfortable shoes that the student or dancer selects.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

A stretchable over-the-shoe dance tap plate attachment slipper is made out of elastomeric material and fits over the toe, against the heel and along an upper of a street shoe worn by a dancer, and carries dance tap plates at both the toe portion and the heel portion. The stretchable over the shoe dance tap attachment slipper is very lightweight and is formed with molded straps with large open sections around the sides, toe and heel of the upper. The slipper has thicker sole portions at the toe and heel. The sole has an open space between the heel and the toe sole portions. This makes the over-the-shoe slipper attachment sole stretchable so that it can be used with more than one size of shoe, and thus is relatively easy to put on, because the midsections of the sides of the upper of the attachment will stretch readily, and then contracts to fit tightly against the rear of the heel and over the forward end of a toe of a street shoe, such as an athletic or running shoe, or other street shoe as desired.

In addition, the sole heel and toe portions carry nuts that are flush with or recessed below the upper sole surface and locked in place, or they may be embedded into the sole material. The nuts are secured so they will accept attachment screws for attaching conventional tap plates to the heel and toe of the sole. The tap plates can be removed and replaced when desired.

The arrangement thus provides for a low cost interchangeable shoe attachment for holding dance taps in a proper position on a street shoe, athletic shoe or the like.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of an over-the-shoe dance tap accessory slipper made according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a bottom plan view thereof;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view thereof;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view thereof showing the dance tap accessory slipper in place on an athletic shoe; and

FIG. 5 is a bottom perspective view with the dance tap accessory slipper shown in place on an athletic shoe.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS

The over-the-shoe dance tap accessory slipper is illustrated generally at 10, and it includes a sole 16 attached to a slipper type upper 12 made as an integral molded unit of elastomeric material. The upper has a top rim strap member 14 that encircles a shoe 30 (FIG. 4) from the toe, along the sides and around the back of the heel. The top strap 14 is supported along the sides of the upper 12 with straps 18. The straps 18 are separated by large openings 20. The slipper is preferably molded as one piece.

At the heel there are side panels 19 that extend upwardly from the sole 16, and a heel strap 22 that is an extension of strap 14 at the heel is separated from panels 19 by an opening 24. The panels 19 form a lower heel strap 25 which also wraps around the heel of the shoe 30. A rear upright heel strap 26 joins the lower heel strap 25 and is also molded to the rear of the sole 16. The rear heel strap 26 and lower heel strap 25 are engaged by the heel of the standard shoe 30 shown in FIG. 5 for example, and urge the toe portion 36 of the upper 12 to firmly engage the toe of the street shoe. This illustrates that the shoe 30 worn by a dancer using the present attachment slipper can wear athletic shoes for comfort while practicing.

The sole 16 of the attachment slipper has a large center opening 32, to form a sole toe portion 16A and a sole heel portion 16B and to again reduce the weight of the upper 12. The opening 32 also provides for a reduced cross section in the in-step area of the sole that makes stretching the slipper easier. The toe 36 of the upper 12 has a front toe strap 38 joined to the sole and extending forwardly and then curved upwardly to attach to the top strap 14. There are openings 40 along the opposite sides of the front strap 38.

The unitary, elastomeric (rubber-like) upper 12 can be made shorter than the shoes on which it is to be worn and is stretchable longitudinally, since the narrow top strap 14 and the large openings 20 and 32 permit the stretching. This permits slipping the upper 12 over existing footwear easily and the over-the-shoe-slipper will be usable across two or three shoe sizes. The elastomeric material will tend to return to its non-stretched size to grip the shoe worn by the dancer tightly.

The sole 16 has a pair of removable, but fixed in place dance tap plates, including a toe tap plate 42 and a heel tap plate 44, both of which are metal. These tap plates 42 and 44 are fixed to the bottom of sole 16 with suitable screws 50 for the toe tap plate and screws 52 for the heel tap 44.

Screws 46 are threaded into suitable embedded nuts 46 for the toe tap, and nuts 48 for the heel tap, that are shown in FIG. 3. These nuts 46 and 48 can be entirely embedded in the sole material, so they are not exposed at the top, or can be formed by flange nuts that have prongs that will sink into the sole surface and are flush with the upper surface or inner side of the sole 16, as is illustrated for convenience.

Sole 16 is also capable of being stretched at least in the range of 10% of its length by pulling the toe section forward, and letting the upper strap 14 stretch, to ensure that the over-the-shoe dance tap accessory slipper can be placed onto more than one size of street shoe. The opening 32 reduces the cross section of the sole to permit stretching. Stretching is also made possible by the openings in the sides of the upper, as shown.

Once the over-the-shoe tap accessory slipper is placed onto a shoe as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the user is immediately provided with taps without changing shoes, and while wearing shoes that are comfortable for the user. The over-the-shoe tap accessory slipper stays firmly in place. There is no need for removing shoes, and putting on a separate tap shoes. The over-the-shoe tap accessory slipper is thus easy to use, economical, and provides for a wide range of uses by different dancers, for practice purposes, primarily.

The sole 16 includes the toe or ball of the foot portion 16A and the heel portion 16B which are unitary, in that the slipper parts are not separate pieces. The insertion of a shoe is easily done by stretching the elastomeric material upper and the upper straps and the sole elastically contract or letting is return to grip the user's shoe. The stretch fit ensures that the tap plates will be held in place on the shoe while tap dancing.

Because screws are used for retaining the tap plates in place in the embedded nuts 46 and 48, the tap plates are tightly held and yet can be removed and replaced as needed.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments, workers skilled in the art will recognize that changes may be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims

1. An over-the-shoe dance tap accessory slipper comprising a single flexible elastic slipper having a unitary toe portion and a heel portion, and a top strap held relative to the sole by spaced upright straps and extends from a heel to a toe, the top strap being stretchable such that the toe portion can be stretched relative to the heel portion to permit insertion of a standard shoe, the toe strap fitting over a portion of the toe of a standard shoe when in place, a toe tap plate and a heel tap plate positioned only at bottom of the toe portion and the bottom of the heel portion of the accessory slipper, respectively, and removable fasteners to removably secure the tap plates to the bottom of the heel portion and the bottom of the toe portion, respectively.

2. The accessory slipper of claim 1 wherein the removable fasteners for the heel tap plate and toe tap plate comprise screws threaded into embedded nuts in the sole of the accessory slipper.

3. The accessory slipper of claim 1 wherein said heel portion and toe portion are connected by the top strap, and upright side straps connecting the top strap to a sole of the slipper.

4. The accessory slipper of claim 1 wherein said accessory slipper has a sole and the sole has an opening defined therein between the heel portion and the toe portion to aid in stretching the heel portion and toe portion of the accessory slipper carrying the tap plates.

5. An over-the-shoe slipper comprising a unitary elastomeric sole and upper and being stretchable to fit over a shoe, a toe tap plate removably fixed to a bottom surface of a toe portion of the sole, and a heel tap plate removably fixed to a bottom surface of a heel portion of the sole.

6. The over-the-shoe slipper of claim 5, wherein the upper comprises a top strap extending from a toe of the upper, along sides of the upper and forming a wrap around heel strap, the top strap being joined to the sole with a toe strap and side straps.

7. The over-the-toe slipper of claim 5, wherein the heel tap plate and toe tap plate are held in place with screws threaded into embedded nuts in the sole of the slipper.