Ornamental upper sandal straps for the display of logos or text

Abstract

An ornamental sandal, with cut outs of text, symbols, logos, or designs on the upper strap to allow penetration of the exposed cut out areas of the epidermal skin on the foot surface to the sun's ultraviolet rays to produce a temporary tanned tattoo-like effect on the skin after the sandals are removed from the feet. The user of the sandal has the option to choose the type of text, symbol, logo, or design when purchasing the sandal. Alternatively, the user may interchange upper straps to display preferred text, symbol, logo, or design of choice to suit the occasion, or have sandals custom made to the user's specifications.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to ornamental sandals. More particularly, the invention relates to ornamental sandals capable of displaying text, symbols, logos, or designs, on the epidermal layer of the skin on the foot surface after wear and exposure to the sun.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The ancient art of tattooing to decorate and display designs, pictures, text, and logos on various parts of the human body as a means of personal expression has been practiced for centuries. However, tattooing one's body is a painful process that involves the use of needles made of various metals to pierce through the epidermal and dermal layers of the skin and leaves a permanent impression and scar on the body surface that can only be removed by other equally painful procedures.

Over the years, other, less painful methods to mimic the tattooing effect on the human skin have been developed. These include stencils of various designs for application of skin staining dyes such as Mehndi as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,836,998 and self-tanning compounds as disclosed in Intl. Appl. No. PCT/GB2005/000271 used to produce a tattooing effect on the skin. Another popular means of achieving the desired tattooing effect on the human skin without the use of dyes and sun-tanning compounds is through the use of sun blocking masks as in U.S. Pat. No. 2,851,805, sun blocking tattoo stickers as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,811,108, skin templates as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,418 and selective irradiation of skin with UV light according to a defined pattern such that the pattern becomes visible as a result of the skin being selectively and locally tanned as disclosed in International. Intl. Appl. No. PCT/AT2008/000178. The masks and tattoo stickers of various designs when impressed upon the skin in the desired body areas and exposed to the sun's rays for a period of time, serve as sun blocks and when removed, produce temporary tattoo-like images on the skin. In the case of templates and stencils with a central opening and an outline with the desired image, placement on the skin and exposure to the sun's rays causes the skin within the central opening of the template or stencil to tan to the image of the template or stencil, with the surrounding skin remaining un-tanned, creating a tattoo effect on the skin.

Although these methods when practiced create only a temporary tattooing effect, the advantage of these methods besides avoiding the painful skin piercing of conventional tattooing is that the wearer of the tattoos has the choice of switching between different designs, pictures, text, and logos within a short period of time when these temporary tattoos wear off and fade away.

Prior art relating to the display of temporary sun-tanned tattoo's on the skin created by apparel and accessories has been limited thus far to clothing apparel and accessories such as head gear as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,970,516 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,652,959. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 5,656,959 discloses a head wear with a sizing band that functions as a stencil in one embodiment of the invention. This sizing band worn over the forehead has a stenciled design that creates a tattoo-like pattern on the forehead when exposed to ultraviolet radiation from the sun.

Sandals with ornamental straps displaying various designs and colors accessorized with beads, tassels and other decorative accoutrement are well known in the art. More recently, sandals displaying team logos on the straps as well as on the insoles have become popular. U.S. Pat. No. D472,368 S discloses an ornamental design for a sandal with a team logo displayed on the upper strap and the insole. U.S. Pat. Appl. No. 2007256325 discloses a flip-flop sandal with the team logo inscribed on the inner sole of the sandal. There is a need in the art for a sandal that is capable of displaying a tattooed text, symbol, logo, or design of one's choosing on the surface of the foot for a period of time after the sandal is removed by the user.

The present invention fulfills the need for a sandal that creates a tanned, tattoo effect of text, symbol, logo, or design on the foot surface when worn and the feet are exposed to the sun for a sufficient period of time as for instance when on the beach, by the pool, sunbathing, lounging, strolling and similar activities, and removed during or after such activities.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a foot wear such as a sandal or open toe shoe with upper straps that have cut outs of text, symbols, logos, or designs of various kinds which when worn by the user allows the ultraviolet rays of the sun to selectively penetrate the exposed skin under the cut outs on the strap producing a tanning effect on the exposed skin in the shape of the cut outs such that when the wearer removes the sandals, the cut out text, symbols, logos, or designs remain on the skin surface akin to tattoo's for a period of time.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the user selects a sandal according to the present invention that has an upper strap with a cut out of a text, symbol, logo or design of the user's choosing in order to display a tattoo of that text, symbol, logo, or design after the user's feet is exposed to the sun's ultraviolet rays for a period of time and then removed from the user's feet.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the user may choose to buy a set of upper straps having cut outs of different text, symbols, logos, or designs and interchangeably use them on the same sole of the sandal according to what befits the occasion or is to the user's liking.

In yet another embodiment of the invention, the user may custom order sandals with straps that have cut outs of a particular message, text, symbol, logo, or design of the user's choosing.

These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become obvious to one skilled in the art when viewed in conjunction with the ensuing description of the drawings, detailed description of the invention, and the claims that follow.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The ensuing drawings are for illustrative purposes only and should not be construed to limit the scope of the invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates two perspective views of one embodiment of the present invention showing the upper straps of the sandals with placement of the cut outs of the text, design, logo, or symbols.

FIG. 2 illustrates an alternative design for the strap with the placement of the cut outs of text, logo, symbol, or design.

FIG. 3 illustrates examples of the tanned tattooed text, logo, or sample design on the surface of the feet after the sandals are removed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The object of the present invention is to provide ornamental sandals with cut out text, symbols, logos and other designs on the upper straps that permit the sun's ultraviolet rays to penetrate the epidermal skin on the surface of the feet of the user of the sandals creating a tattoo-like tanned impression of the text, symbols, logos, or designs on the feet after the sandals are removed.

Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown two perspective views of the ornamental sandal 10 with strap 12 and sole 14. The placement of the cutouts 16 on the upper strap of the sandal is shown for illustrative purposes. It is to be understood that a variety of texts, symbols, logos, or designs are envisioned for the cut outs 16 on the upper straps 12 and fall within the scope of the invention. The user would have a choice of straps with several pre-cut texts, symbols, logos, or designs which can interchangeably be used with the soles of the sandals according to the liking of the user. Custom ordered cut outs of text, symbols, logos, or designs are also envisioned within the scope of the invention. Materials to be used for the manufacture of the sandals including the soles and upper straps include, but are not necessarily limited to, Ethylene Vinyl acetate, Rubber, Cloth, Leather, Polyurethanes, Foam, Foamed rubber and Plastic. Specialized dies or molds for the texts, logos, symbols and designs may be used or alternatively, water jet cutting may be used to cut, punch, or mold the upper strap material to produce the desired text, symbol, logo or design.

FIG. 2, shows an alternative upper strap 12 design for the ornamental sandals with no toe inserts. The strap may have a cut out 16 of, either, text, symbol, logo, or design on their own or a combination of two types of cut outs on the same strap.

FIG. 3, illustrates the tanned, tattoo effect 20 of the text, symbol, logo, or design created on the feet 18 surface after wearing and removing the sandals of the present invention. The tanned effect 20 is created by the penetration of the skin epidermis by the sun's ultra violet rays through the cut out 16 openings on the upper strap of the sandals.

The foregoing description of the present invention through the figures and preferred embodiments should not be construed to limit the scope of the invention. It should be understood and obvious to one skilled in the art that the embodiments of the invention thus described may be further modified without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the claims that follow.

Claims

1. A sandal with cut outs on the upper strap to permit the sun's ultraviolet rays to penetrate the skin epidermis on the foot surface to create a tanned temporary tattooed effect on the skin

2. A sandal as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cut outs on the upper strap are one of either, a text, symbol, logo, or design.

3. A sandal as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sandal may be an open-toe shoe.

4. A sandal as claimed in claim 1, wherein, the upper strap with the cut outs of said text, symbol, logo, or design may be preferentially interchanged with the sole of the said sandal.

5. A sandal as claimed in claim 1, wherein the upper strap and sole of the sandal may be constructed of material including but not limited to, ethylene vinyl acetate, rubber, cloth, leather, polyurethanes, foam, foamed rubber, or plastic.

6. A sandal as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cutouts are produced from specialized dies or molds or by means of water jet cutting of the materials to produce the desired texts, symbols, logos, or designs.

7. A method of creating temporary tattoo's of text, symbols, logos, or designs on the epidermal skin of the foot surface, said method comprising the steps of:

wearing a sandal or open toe shoe with cutouts of text, symbols, logos, or designs on the upper strap of said sandals or open toe shoes;

exposing the feet to the sun's ultraviolet rays for a period of time so as to produce a tan on the exposed skin surface within the cut outs; and

removing the sandals or open toe shoes to reveal the tanned tattooed effect created by the cut out text, symbols, logos, or designs on the surface skin of the user's feet.