WO2002052969A1

WO2002052969A1 - Sports footwear having a protective structure with a plurality of articulation

Info

Publication number: WO2002052969A1
Application number: PCT/IT2000/000550
Authority: WO
Inventors: Gabriele Mazzarolo
Original assignee: Alpine Stars SpA
Current assignee: Alpine Stars SpA
Priority date: 2000-12-28
Filing date: 2000-12-28
Publication date: 2002-07-11
Anticipated expiration: 2003-06-28

Abstract

A shoe comprises as structural components as shell (1) composed of three parts (11, 12, 13) hinged with each other, and a leg-piece (2) connected to the shell by means of at least one connecting member (4) which is capable of withstanding elastic twisting forces due to extreme movements of the foot. The pivoting axes (XS, XI) of the connecting member (4), which are respectively above and below the nominal axis of the malleoli, and the axes (ZA, ZP) of mutual articulation of the parts of the shell are parallel to each other and perpendicular to the longitudinal middle plane. Use: Sport shoes like motorcycling boots and similar. Advantage: complete protection extending from the foot to the knee of the user.

Description

"Sports footwear having a protective structure with a plurality of articulation"

DESCRIPTION The present invention relates to a sports shoe, for example a motorcycling boot, ski-boot or linear skate, provided with a protective structure for the user's foot. The most widespread type of protective structure - see for example EP-A-0 780 062 - consists of a shell made of a rigid polymeric material which, at its uppermost part and towards the rear of the shoe, is hinged on a leg-piece, which is also rigid, along an axis which is perpendicular to the longitudinal middle plane of the shoe and located more or less at the height of the malleoli. In this way the user's leg has a certain possibility of flexing forwards and backwards, absorbing some of the stresses received by the foot. The shoe also comprises an inner shoe - made of relatively softer and more flexible materials to improve comfort - which is sometimes attached to the shell for example by gluing. However, a shoe of this type is not capable of offering adequate protection in the case of extreme movements (for example during a fall by the user), or when the stresses received by the foot are transferred sharply to the knee ligaments which could consequently be badly damaged in the case of severe twisting.

A ski-boot is also known - see TJS-A-5 127 171 - in which the leg-piece consists of a front part and a rear part, the latter being hinged, on each side of the foot, to the underlying shell by means of a first connecting member which is directed towards the heel and upwards and is hinged to said front part by means of a second connecting member which is directed towards the toe of the foot almost horizontally. This design certainly makes the insertion and extraction of the foot easier but, in terms of user safety, does not represent a significant improvement compared to the previous design since, when the shoe is ready for use, the lower edges of the front and the rear part of the leg-piece rest against the shell.

Lastly, in a shoe for linear skates - see US-A-5 848 796 - it is known to manufacture the bottom part of the shell using a semi-rigid polymeric material in the form of two sections spaced longitudinally from each other and connected by means of a flexible inner sole, the first section being formed by the heel and by an ankle-piece and the second by a toe-piece. The ankle-piece has, hinged on it, a leg-piece which has limited possibility of movement both laterally and longitudinally and is joined to the toe-piece, in the region of the upper part of the foot, by a soft inner shoe. However, the longitudinal spacing between the two sections of the shell offers completely unsatisfactory lateral protection for the user's foot, despite the other indisputable advantages of this shoe.

It would be desirable, and therefore forms the principal object of the invention, to have a sports shoe of the type indicated above, capable of guaranteeing the user, for example a competition motorcyclist, not only good comfort but also and above all complete protection extending from the foot to the knee even in the case of extreme movements.

This object and others can be achieved by means of a sports shoe with the characteristic features claimed hereinafter.

So as to explain more clearly the advantages of the invention, the description of a motorcycling boot is provided hereinafter, solely by way of example, with reference to the attached drawing where:

- Figure 1 shows a first embodiment of the shoe viewed from the outer side of the foot and partially transparent;

- Figure 2 shows a three-dimensional view, from above, of only the rigid structural parts of the shoe in Figure 1, suitably assembled;

- Figure 3 shows only the rigid structural parts of the shoe in a view similar to that of Figure 1, but relating to a second embodiment. As illustrated, a motorcycling boot consists essentially of a shell, denoted in its entirety by reference number 1, and a leg-piece 2, which constitute the structural components of the shoe, both being made of rigid materials, and an inner shoe 3, made of relatively soft and flexible materials. The leg-piece 2 is limited to the front part of the boot - see Figure 2 - while, according to a first characteristic feature of the invention, as better explained below, the shell 1 is made as three parts each hinged together, i.e. a rear part 11 which comprises the heel 112 and the ankle-piece 113, a front toe-part 12 and a middle part 13.

According to an important characteristic feature of the invention, shown in Figure 1, the bottom edge 21 of the leg-piece 2 is located at a certain distance D (which is preferably in the region of a few millimetres) from the top edge 111 of the rear part 11 of the shell 1 and hinged on the same rear part 11, at the outer side and at the inner side of the shoe respectively, by means of a single pair of connecting members 4 and 5 - see Figure 2 - which are preferably constructed of materials having appreciable mechanical characteristics, that is, better than those of the structural components of the shoe connected by them.

For fixing the connecting members 4, 5, pairs of associated holes are provided on the ankle- piece 113 and on the leg-piece 2 - such as those indicated in Figure 2 by reference numbers 6 and 7 at the outer side and by reference number 8 at the inner side of the shoe - for wide-headed rivets which do not need specific explanations and illustrations insofar as they are already widely used for the traditional system for articulating the leg-piece on the shell. So as to allow a certain lateral movement of the ankle, the holes of at least one of said pairs of holes 6, 7 and 8 can be elongated, with the greater axis being vertical, rather than round.

According to a further characteristic feature of the invention, the lower pivoting axis XI of the connecting members 4 and 5 is located below the nominal level M of the malleoli, while the upper pivoting axis XS is located above said level M, the axes XI and XS thus defining, in a shoe ready for use (i.e. as illustrated in Figure 1) an essentially vertical plane which is perpendicular to the longitudinal middle plane of the shoe.

Compared to a traditional design, during use a shoe according to the invention has, thanks to the characteristics described above, the advantage of allowing not only a far wider mutual hinging movement - shown by arrows Rl and R2 in Figure 1 - between the shell 1 and the leg-piece 2 thanks to the distance D, but also guaranteeing protection extending from the foot to the knee. The connecting members 4 and 5, since they are able to withstand an elastic twisting action, are in fact capable of absorbing or at least dampening the sudden stresses received by the foot in the event of extreme movements, without transmitting them directly to the knee through the leg. The shape, dimensions and manufacturg materials of the connecting members are preferably defined in such a way as to maximise the degree of elastic torsion which can be withstood, until more or less all the fibres of the material from which the connecting members are made are subject to a tensile stress.

As anticipated above, rather than a single piece or, at most, two pieces as in traditional shoes, the shell 1 of a shoe according to the invention is composed of three parts which are separate, but hinged together, i.e. the rear part 11, the front toe-part 12 and the middle part 13. As shown in

Figure 2, the middle part 13 consists of an inner sole portion 131 and of an upwardly curving portion 132 on the outer side of the foot which is provided with longitudinal lugs 133, 134 extending towards the front and towards the rear of the shoe, respectively. The lugs 133, 134 have such a shape and dimensions as to overlap slightly the adjacent surfaces of the front toe-part 12 and the rear part 11, respectively, so as to form a double articulation system along the axes ZA and ZP - see Figure 2 - of the middle part 13 with respect to the other two parts 11 and 12 of the shell 1, as indicated by the arrows SI and S2 in Figure 1. The axes ZA, ZP of this double hinging system are obviously parallel to the abovementioned pivoting axes XI and XS of the connecting members 4 and 5. The advantage of this design of shell 1 consisting of three parts hinged with each other lies in an improved comfort and better protection for the user's foot, thanks also to the inner sole portion 131 and the upwardly curving portion 132 of the middle part 13.

^"Where necessary, it is possible to add small transverse pins (not shown) on the lugs 133 and 134 along said axes ZA and ZP in order to improve the abovementioned double hinging movement of the middle part 13.

The embodiment shown in Figure 3 differs from the preceding embodiment only in that both the connecting members (of which only one is shown with reference number 4a, i.e. only that at the outer side of the foot) have such a shape as to comprise at least two parallel pivoting axes instead of one, both in the region of the ankle-piece 113a which forms part of the shell la - indicated by references Al and BI - and in the region of the leg-piece 2a, indicated by references AS and BS. Corresponding to the axes AS and Al, which define another substantially vertical plane perpendicular to the longitudinal middle plane of the shoe, there are, at the outer side of the foot, pairs of associated holes 6a and 7a for rivets such as those mentioned above. Pairs of eyelets 19 and 29, curved along arcs of a circle, the centres of which coincide with said axes AS and Al, correspond to the axes BS and BI, being intended for smaller pins 9 which move along the eyelets during the hinging of the leg-piece 2a on the shell la. Said articulation system is thus guided and also to a certain degree limited, albeit in a different way from shoes of traditional design. A further variant of the invention (not shown in the attached drawing), characterized by an even lower manufacturing cost than the preceding variants, and involving a certain loss of performance compared to those described above, comprises a single connecting member at the outer side of the shoe with respect to the longitudinal middle plane.

Other variants and embodiments may be developed by persons skilled in the art without departing from the protective scope of the following claims.

Claims

CLAIMS 1. Sports shoe of the type which consists essentially of:

• a shell (1, la) comprising a front toe-piece (12, 12a) and a rear part (11, 11a) which joins as one piece a heel (112, 112a) and an ankle-piece (113, 113a) on which there is hinged, perpendicularly to the longitudinal middle plane of the shoe, a leg-piece (2, 2a) by means of at least one connecting member (4, 5, 4a), the shell (1, la) and the leg-piece (2, 2a) constituting the structural components of the shoe, and

• an inner shoe (3) made of less rigid materials than said structural components, characterized in that said at least one connecting member (4, 5, 4a) has the pivoting axes (XS, XI) located respectively above and below the nominal level (M) of the malleoli, so that it is capable of withstanding an elastic twisting action, which extends the protection also to the user's leg.

2. Sports shoe according to Claim 1, characterized in that the top edge (111,

Ilia) of the ankle-piece (113, 113a) is located at a distance (D) from the bottom edge (21, 21a) of the leg-piece (2, 2a) 3. Sports shoe according to Claim 1 or 2, characterized in that said at least one connecting member (4, 40) is made of materials with appreciable mechanical characteristics, i.e. better than those of the parts (11, 11a, 2, 2a) connected by them.

4. Sports shoe according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the holes of at least one of the pairs of holes (6, 7, 8; 6a, 7a) for the pivoting means of said at least one connecting member (4, 5, 4a) are vertically elongated.

5. Sports shoe according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that said at least one connecting member (4) is arranged at the outer side of the shoe with respect to the longitudinal middle plane.

6. Sports shoe according to any one of Claims 1 to 4, characterized in that it comprises two connecting members (4, 5), at the outer side and at the inner side, respectively, with respect to the longitudinal middle plane.

7. Sports shoe according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said at least one connecting member (40) comprises at least two parallel pivoting axes (AS, BS, Al, BI) in the region of at least one of the structural components (2a, 113a) connected by it and that connecting means (9, 19, 29) capable of guiding and limiting the articulation between said structural components (2a, 113a) are provided for a part of said axes.

8. Sports shoe according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that at least one middle part (13, 13a) connects together the front toe-part (12, 12a) and said rear part (11, 11a) of the shell (1) so as to form a mutual articulation system along a pair of axes (ZA, ZP) which are parallel and separate from the pivoting axes (XS, XI) of said at least one connecting member (4, 5, 40).

9. Sports shoe according to Claim 8, characterized in that said middle part (13, 13a) comprises an inner sole portion (131, 131a) and an upwardly curving portion (132, 132a) at the outer side of the foot, which is provided with longitudinal lugs (133, 134, 133a, 134a) having a shape and dimensions such as to slightly overlap the aαjacent outer surfaces of the rear part (11, 11a) and the front toe-part (12, 12a) of the shell (1, la), respectively.

10. Sports shoe according claim 8 or 9, characterized in that pins are provided along the said pair of axes (ZA, ZP) in order to improve the articulation of the middle part (13, 13a) on the front toe-part (12, 12a) and on the rear part (11, 11a) of the shell (1, la), respectively.