SHOE WITH SOLE REMOVABLY ATTACHED TO UPPER
A shoe including an upper, a sole including slots formed in a bottom of the sole, and retention overlay. The sole is removably attached to the shoe upper via the retention overlay, which is provided within the slots formed in the bottom of the sole.
This application claims priority from U.S. provisional application No. 63/172,866, filed Apr. 9, 2021, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety therein.
BACKGROUNDThis disclosure relates generally to shoe, and more particularly to a shoe in which a shoe sole is removably attached to a shoe upper.
Conventionally, shoes have been manufactured by permanently fixing the shoe sole to the shoe upper. The sole is fixed to the upper by for example, stitching, cement, or other permanent assembly. However, with these construction types, assembly is difficult and time consuming. In addition the sole cannot be replaced if the sole has become worn or if the user wishes to change the tread pattern or other characteristics of the sole. Further, in a conventional shoe in which the parts are permanently fixed, at the eventual lifecycle of the shoe, it is difficult to recycle the shoe parts into their individual compounds.
Patent literature document KR 2020-0048892 A discloses a shoe including an upper that is attached to a sole via a mesh. However, the mesh of KR '892 is unable to sufficiently hold the upper and sole together. Patent literature document KR 2019-0037427 discloses a shoe including an upper that is attached to a sole via a strap member. Like KR '892, the strap member of KR '427 is unable to sufficiently hold the upper and sole together.
SUMMARYOne aspect is a shoe including an upper, a sole including slots formed in a bottom of the sole, and retention overlay. The sole is removably attached to the shoe upper via the retention overlay, which is provided within the slots formed in the bottom of the sole. The retention overlay is secured or tightened at a rear of the shoe. The aspect may allow for a simple shoe assembly and may also allow for removable assembly and disassembly of the upper and sole of the shoe.
Detailed embodiments of the claimed structures are disclosed herein; however, it can be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely illustrative of the claimed structures that may be embodied in various forms. Aspects of this disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the exemplary embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these exemplary embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete and will fully convey the scope of this disclosure to those skilled in the art. In the description, details of well-known features and techniques may be omitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the presented embodiments.
The single cord 34 is laced through the loops 32a. The cord 34 is provided in a substantially oval or round shape with the ends of the cord 34 extending to a rear of the shoe.
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A semi-rigid strobel board 70 may be provided between the upper 10″ and the sole 20″ to provide pressure dispersion.
The loop portions 38 are secured to slot portions 122 provided at the bottom of the sole 20″. The slot portions are areas of the sole 20″ that surround protruding portions 110 of the sole 20″.
The sides of the protruding portions 110 include small recesses 110a (i.e., voids in tread portion). The recesses 110a act as key locks that center the loop portions 38 and prevent the loop portions 38 from slipping.
The descriptions of the various aspects and embodiments have been presented for purposes of illustration, but are not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments disclosed. Even though combinations of features are recited in the claims and/or disclosed in the specification, these combinations are not intended to limit the disclosure of possible implementations. In fact, many of these features may be combined in ways not specifically recited in the claims and/or disclosed in the specification. Although each dependent claim listed below may directly depend on only one claim, the disclosure of possible implementations includes each dependent claim in combination with every other claim in the claim set. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope of the described embodiments. The terminology used herein was chosen to best explain the principles of the embodiments, the practical application or technical improvement over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodiments disclosed herein.
Claims
1. A shoe, comprising:
- an upper,
- a sole including slots formed in a bottom of the sole, and a retention overlay,
- wherein the sole is removably attached to the shoe upper via the retention overlay, which is provided within the slots formed in the bottom of the sole;
- wherein the retention overlay is secured or tightened at a rear of the shoe.
2. The shoe of claim 1, further comprising slots formed in lateral sides of the sole, wherein the retention overlay is provided within the slots formed in the lateral sides of the sole.
3. The shoe of claim 2, further comprising slots formed in a rear side of the sole, wherein the retention overlay is provided within the slots formed in the rear sides of the sole.
4. The shoe of claim 3, wherein the retention overlay extends to an upper surface of the upper.
5. The shoe of claim 1, wherein the retention overlay comprises a fingers and a cord, the fingers extending from the upper to a bottom of the sole, the cord is attached to the fingers, and the cord and fingers are provided within the slots formed in the bottom of the sole.
6. The shoe of claim 5, wherein each of the fingers includes a lace loop, and the cord is attached to the fingers via the lace loops.
7. The shoe of claim 5, wherein the cord is tied at the rear of the shoe.
8. The shoe of claim 5, further comprising a lace lock mechanism that tightens the cord at the rear of the shoe.
9. The shoe of claim 1, wherein the retention overlay comprises a snap fit member at the rear of the shoe that secures the retention overlay.
10. The shoe of claim 9, wherein snap fit member comprises a plurality of first snap fit portions that are snap fitted to a plurality of second snap fit portions.
11. The shoe of claim 9, wherein the retention overlay comprises loop portions that extend from the shoe upper to the bottom of the sole, the loop portions are secured to the slot portions at the bottom of the sole.
12. The shoe of claim 11, wherein the recesses are provided at sides of the slots formed in the bottom of the sole, the recesses act as key locks preventing the loop portions from slipping.
13. The shoe of claim 9, further comprising lace connecting one side of the retention overlay to another side of the retention overlay.
14. The shoe of claim 14, wherein the retention overlay is formed of a molded plastic resin.
15. A method of making a shoe, comprising:
- providing an upper and a sole within a retention overlay, the sole including slots formed in a bottom of the sole, and
- providing the retention overlay within the slots formed in the bottom of the sole; and
- tightening or securing the retention overlay at a rear of the shoe.
16. The method of claim 15, further comprising providing the retention overlay within slots formed in the lateral sides of the sole.
17. The method of claim 16, further comprising providing the retention overlay within slots formed in the rear sides of the sole.
18. The method of claim 15, wherein the retention overlay extends to an upper surface of the upper.
19. The method of claim 15, wherein the retention overlay comprises a fingers and a cord, the fingers extending from the upper to a bottom of the sole, the cord is attached to the fingers, and the cord and fingers are provided within the slots formed in the bottom of the sole.
Type: Application
Filed: Apr 11, 2022
Publication Date: Oct 13, 2022
Inventor: Henry L. HARDIGAN III (Siler City, NC)
Application Number: 17/717,595