Athletic shoe for aerobic exercise and the like
AssigneeWolverine World Wide, Inc.
InventorDaniel J. Richard
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An athletic shoe having an inner, forefoot-enveloping and gripping, elastic slipper sock for encompassing the forepart of the foot, the bottom of the elastic slipper sock being anchored to the sole assembly and being independent of the shoe upper, to move simultaneously with the foot and keep the shoe in tune with the foot. An extended toe bumper has medial and lateral cutouts astraddle the metatarsalphalangeal joint line to form vertically narrower portions. These cooperate with flexible mesh interconnecting portions of a bifurcated vamp in the upper, to effect controlled forefoot independence.
Claims22
An athletic shoe for aerobic exercising and the like comprising:
- a sole assembly;
- an upper secured to said sole assembly, defining a foot-receiving cavity and having closure means for retention of the shoe on a foot;
- a forefoot-enveloping and gripping, elastic slipper sock in said cavity encompassing the forepart of said cavity, said elastic slipper sock having a bottom anchored to said sole assembly and free to grip onto a foot in said cavity independent of said upper;
- and
- an insole having a forward portion in said slipper sock on the inner upper surface of said slipper sock bottom.
An aerobic exercise shoe comprising:
- a sole assembly;
- an upper secured to said sole assembly, defining a foot-receiving cavity and having closure means for retention of the shoe on a foot;
- a forefoot-enveloping and gripping, elastic slipper sock in said cavity encompassing the forepart of said cavity, said elastic slipper sock having a bottom anchored to said sole assembly at the heel and the remainder of said elastic sipper sock being unattached to said upper to be free to contract onto and move with a foot in said cavity, to stretch and move relative to said upper;
- said elastic slipper sock having a rearwardly and upwardly oriented, foot-receiving opening defined by a peripheral edge of said slipper sock which tapers upwardly-forwardly from the heel region at said bottom to the instep region;
- and
- an insole having a forward portion in said slipper sock on the inner upper surface of said slipper sock bottom.
An athletic shoe comprising:
- a sole assembly including an outer sole, a midsole and an inner sole;
- an upper secured to said sole assembly, defining a foot-receiving cavity and having closure means for retention of the shoe on a foot;
- a toe bumper along said midsole and the lower part of said upper around the toe and rearwardly along both sides of said shoe past the widest metatarsal-phalangeal joint line portion of the shoe to the narrower instep region, said toe bumper having vertically narrower portions astraddle said widest portion to add independence to the toe portion of said sole assembly.
An athletic shoe comprising:
- a sole assembly including an outer sole, a midsole and an inner sole;
- an upper secured to said sole assembly, defining a foot-receiving cavity and having closure means for retention of the shoe on a foot;
- said upper has a vamp bifurcated by a U-shaped gap extending across the upper, and extending downwardly-rearwardly along both sides of the shoe, and a porous mesh connector extending across said gap and interconnecting said two vamp portions.
An athletic shoe comprising:
- a sole assembly including an outer sole, a midsole and an inner sole, and having a metatarsal-phalangeal joint line portion;
- an upper secured to said sole assembly, defining a foot-receiving cavity and having closure means for retention of the shoe on a foot;
- said outer sole having a transverse resilient gum rubber section underlying said joint line portion, the bottom thereof being substantially at the same level as the bottom of said outer sole.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.