3~L22 FOOTWEAR
1 The invention relates to footwear comprising a sole unit with a binding sole and a wearing sole and an upper part fixed thereto.
Hitherto known shoes of that kind are supplied with a sole that is more or less elastic. This is effected mainly by means of a pad between the binding sole and the wearing sole. The pad is preferably made of foam plastic~ which functions as a sort of shock absorber for the foot which has to transfer the weight from the body when the foot touches the ground in a cycle `~ of movements.
Such pads work like passive shock absorbers whose on-ly purpose is to protect the bones and joints of the foot and the leg and the blood cells, which are ex-posed to a heavy pressure, especially when the heel meet~ the ground.
This passive damping system gives a good contact be-tween the sole of the foot and that of the shoe, as the foot will sink a little into the sole of the shoe, the surface pressure being the least possible.
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1 It is the purpose of the invention to improve this sole, keeping its good characteristics as eOg. a low surface pressure and a suitable shock absorpti~n, and where~ however, the compression of the sole is utilized in the take-off as a contribution to the energy, which furthermore has an improving effect on the circulation in the foot.
This purpose is fulfilled when the sole unit is sup-plied with elastic ribs that are running transverse-ly to khe centre line of the shoe, and placed between the binding sole and the wearing sole, if any, and running obliquely backwards against the binding sole ; in the p~oceeding direction-of the shoe. By means of ~5 these elastic ribs the shock absorbing and contact creating characteristics of the sole are maintained, but,''~furthermore, a kind of spring effect is achieved from the ribs, however, as they give an obliquely up-wards and forwards oriented pressure against the foot during their straightening out, which pressure helps while taking-off, i.e. during the so-called taking-off phase. Thus the compression of the ribs is not a ; passive shock absorption but an accumulation of ener-gy that is released durin~ the taking-of~. In this way the energy is utilized to the greatest possible extent to the benefit o~ the user. ~esides, a succes~
sive undulation from the heel part against the upper part is generated by the straightening out or the re-lease o~ the ribsg which undulation has an improving effect on the circulation of the foot.
When gi~ing the ribs an inclination of approx. 40, which is mentioned in claim 2, a very good elastic ~unction is obtained~
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1 By, as referred to in claim 3, casting together the ribs and the wearing sole, a coherent unity with great production advantages is achieved.
By, as referred to in claim 4, separating the ribs from the wearing sole, an effective elasticity is achieved.
By, as referred to in claim 5, limiting the placing of the ribs to the area near the ball of the heel, a soft and pleasant resiliency is achieved.
As mentioned in claim 6 the ribs can be dimensioned according to the placing in the sole so that you can adapt the ribs to the most convenient shock absorp-tion an~ elasticity.
Finally~ it is advantageous to make the sole of apolyurethanic material on the basis of ether, as de-scribed in claim 7. Then a viscous surface of the ribs is created, which increases the elastic charac-teristics of the ribs.
The invention will now be ~urther described with reference to the drawin~, where Fig. 1 shows the left sole unit from above, Fig. 2 shows a sectional ~iew II-II in Fig~ 1, and 3o Fig. 3 shows a sectional ~iew III~III in Fig. 1 and 2.
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1 As shown in Fig. 1, which represents a left sole o~
the shoe, seen from above, the outer outlines of the sole are shaped according to the nature Or the ~oot.
Longitudinally to the sole runs its centre line a-a, and the zones, where the foot presses against the sole are shown hatched, i.e. at the back, the ball of the heel 5, in ~ront the ball of the big toe 8 and the ball of the ~oot 7, and finally the connection between these zones, the so-called isthmus 6.
Across the centre line a-a a number of parallel ribs 1 are running either in the full length of the shoe or in part of it, as indicated with a dot-and-dash line. Finallyg the proceeding line 4 of the foot is indicated with a strong dot-and-dash line. This line 4 runs from the ball 5 o~ the heel via the isthmus 6, across the ball 7 of t~e big toe, and through the ball 8 of the toe.
The sole unit is shown on Fig. 2 in a sectional view of the sole of Fig. 1, seen in the direction II-II
on a somewhat enlarged scaleO At the top the sole is supplied with a bindin~ sole 3, which can be made of leather or the like. ~nder this binding sole there is a wearing sole 2 that is supplied with a number of transverse recesses at the top side, which recesses create the transverse mutually parallel ribs 1. These ribs have an inclination o~ approx. 40 to the bind-ing sole, but this angle can be ~aried which is to be explained la~er. Finally a wearing sole 2 can be ~ ~astened to the rib-sole.
Fig. ~ shows a sectional view across the sole in the direction III~III on Figs. 1 and 2. It appears that the wearing sole 2 proceeds upwards, round the ribs 1 . .
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the whole way round the sole, along the outside 10, as shown on Fig. 3.
~urthermore the ribs 1 are separated from the sides of the wearing sole by means of longitudinally extending interstices 9. By this the ribs 1 are ab]e to be resilient individually and besides, the ends of the ribs, which are in direct contact with the sides of the wearing sole, give a good control and a tendency to center the foot in proportion to the sole.
The wearing sole and the ribs are preferably made by moulding of polyurethane on the basis of ether. Then the surface of the ribs gets a viscous membrane with an improving effect to the elasticity of the ribs, - which will be explained later.
As the air space between the ribs is compressed and increased in this way an effective ventilation of the shoe can be obtained, when the space or the spaces 9 are supplied with one or more channels or openings 11, cf. Fig 2, which pass the binding sole 3, as the air will be pressed up under the foot sole by means of the compression of the ribs. These ventholes can be arranged evenly distributed in the whole sole or in defined zones as required.
~here there are solely ribs in the area of the ball of the heel 5, channels in continuation of the spaces 9 can be made to continue forward belo~ the area of the ball of the foot 7 where the outsides 11 in the birlding sole may be placed.
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1 The inclination of the ribs results in the fact that they can be compressed by the downwards and backwards turned pressure, and then in the phase of take-off be released like a kind of spring effect.
This compression of the ribs - and thus the accumula-tion o~ energy, will be released in the phase of take-off of the foot and will contribute to the energy of the take-off which will not end until the rib returns to its unloaded position.
The ribs are compressed in a successive movement from the heel tO the toe causing a kind of undulation in the binding sole with an improving effect to the cir-culation in the foot sole.
When dimensioning the ribs you have to take the pro-ceeding line of the foot into consideration, as the height of the ribs is one of the things that define the elasticity. Other factors are the distance be-tween the ribs and their angle aO Finally the elas-ticity of the material is of importance.
This can be utilized in order to give the best pos-sible working conditions to the foot~ e.g. to support the torsional ~unction when starting and ending a step. This function means that the foot is guided through the proceeding line 4 which i8 indicated with a dot-and-dash line on Fig. 1. Thus the ~eight of the ribs can be larger in the right side than in the left side 10. This means that the ribs at the proceeding line may have a height o~ e.~. 18 mm whereas the general height of the ribs may be e.g.
15 mm. In this way a greater elasticity and sus-pension is achieved around the proceeding line than :.
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1 in the rest of the sole.
The sole has been constructed with a maximum contact surface between foot sole and shoe bottom causing the least possible surface pressure. The general elastici-ty of the sole by load results in a general increaseof the contact surface of the foot sole with the shoe bottom, as the foot will sink more or less down into the sole. Furthermore the ribs with their air space intensify the ability of compression of the sole, and the maximum energy is accumulated in the compressed ribs.
The ribs 1 may completely or partly form other angles with the centre line a-a of the shoe in order to ; 15 fulfil special needs. In this way you can e.g. com-pensate for sideways loads of different strengths and directions.
According to the invention this sole creates the con-ditions according to the best utilization of the sprlng function of the muscles. This can be exploited by people with e.g. a stationary job where the body can be moved forwards and backwards in the ankle joint with active back and calf muscles and with full activity in the toes~ as the feet can "walk" in the sole.
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