Snowshoe with contoured footbed
AssigneeAtlas Snow-Shoe Company
InventorPerry A. Klebahn
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A snowshoe has a front claw and shoe harness assembly including a molded, conclave footpad. The footpad has front-to-back concavity so as to cradle the ball of the user's foot, helping the user locate the foot properly and preventing slippage fore-and-aft and rotationally relative to the snowshoe. In preferred embodiments, the contoured footpad is of a rubbery, somewhat compliant material to further promote friction and cradling of the ball of the shoe.
Claims8
In a snowshoe having a frame, a deck supported by the frame, a front claw and a footwear harness assembly connected to the front claw for securing a ball portion of a user's shoe or boot to the snowshoe, the improvement comprising:
- the front claw being rigid and having an upper surface and having means for pivotally attaching said claw to said frame with a generally horizontal axis of rotation, and
- a footbed fixedly secured to the upper surface of the front claw, so that the footbed moves in unison with the front claw, the footbed having a contoured upper surface such that the footbed is concave in that a front end and a rear end of the footbed are higher than a central area of the footbed, so as to cradle the bottom of the user's shoe or boot at the ball of the foot, directly over the generally horizontal axis of rotation of the front claw,
- whereby the contoured upper surface of the footbed helps the user properly locate the ball of the foot on the footbed and on the front claw of the snowshoe, and whereby the contour of the footbed helps prevent slipping of the user's shoe fore and aft and in rotation relative to the snowshoe.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.