US 4,112,599 AGranted

Method of cushioning and ventilating a foot, and footwear including disposable slippers and insoles for practicing such method

OwnerJacob Krippelzinventor

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Abstract

A method of cushioning and ventilating a foot surface by providing footwear made from a cushioning and ventilating member which constitutes a new use for a known material sometimes called bubble wrap commonly used in shipping rooms for packaging. This material is of laminated construction, consisting of two very thin sheets of non-rubberlike, non-elastic plastics material such as polyethylene heat-sealed together, one of the sheets being formed with a plurality of separate and independent, spaced-apart pockets providing a plurality of independent, closed, individually sealed air cells at atmospheric pressure. Two embodiments of footwear for practicing the invention are disclosed, one being a complete slipper, the other being a separable insole or bottom liner for an existing slipper or shoe. In each case, because the material itself is packaging material, of little value, the footwear is extremely low in cost, cheap enough to be discarded after one use or a few uses, yet strong enough and durable enough for extended use if necessary or desirable.

Claims9

Dependent claims

In the method of cushioning and ventilating a foot, the improvement which comprises placing

a cushioning and ventilating member against a foot surface;
the cushioning and ventilating member being of laminated construction consisting of a cushioning sheet and a web sheet both of non-rubberlike plastics material having flexibility, low resilience, low extensibility, and high tensile strength characteristics comparable to polyethylene;
the cushioning sheet being formed with a plurality of separate and independent pockets of uniform depth having sidewalls extending in one direction from the web sheet toward the foot surface and having substantially coplanar top end walls engaging the foot surface;
the web sheet being sealed against the concave side of the cushioning sheet to close the open ends of the pockets to provide a plurality of independent, closed air cells with air sealed at atmospheric pressure therein;
said air cells having spaces between them enabling free circulation of air in said spaces while the foot surface is engaged with the top end walls of the pockets;
the material of said cushioning sheet being sufficiently thin and flexible that the normal weight of a person applied to said cushioning and ventilating member through said foot surface causes said top end walls of said pockets to lend themselves fleixbly, conformably, and flatwise to said foot surface.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.