Patent Grant
6877257
This application is based upon French Patent Application No. 00.17126, filed Dec. 22, 2000, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference thereto in its entirety, and the priority of which is hereby claimed under 35 U.S.C. §119.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an at least partially impervious boot construction adapted in particular for use in winter.
2. Description of Background and Relevant Information
Various methods are known for making a shoe impervious, i.e., impervious to water penetration. They include, for example, providing an inner liner made of a breathable and impervious material; but this construction is costly because the breathable and impervious material is very expensive and all the seams must be made impervious by sealing joints added by gluing.
Another method is to immerse the finished boot into a latex or PVC bath, up to the desired level of imperviousness. This construction is also expensive to implement, because it requires a very long processing time and costly investments.
An object of the present invention is to propose a boot whose construction is simple and cost advantageous, while having the desired characteristics, especially in terms of comfort, heat, imperviousness.
This object is achieved in the present invention due to the fact that the boot includes a sole, an outer upper having an impervious portion, and an outer reinforcing element assembled to the upper by cementing, at least in the impervious portion thereof.
Indeed, the fact that the outer reinforcement is cemented and not sewn, as in the usual boot constructions, generally makes it possible to preserve the imperviousness of the boot and to avoid the use of expensive means to seal the seams which would have been generated.
The invention will be better understood from the description that follows, with reference to the annexed schematic drawings showing, by way of a non-limiting example, a preferred embodiment, and in which:
As shown in
In the illustrated embodiments, including that shown in
In the context of the invention, “impervious” means resistant to water penetration; one may wish this resistance to be more or less substantial depending on the use intended for the shoe.
Preferably, the reinforcement 20 is a polymeric material, such as flexible polyurethane, and has various stiffening zones depending on the desired effect. Thus, the reinforcement 20 is thicker in its rear portion 21 to ensure a good nesting and a good retention/protection of the heel. The heel reinforcement 21 and tightening flaps 22 assembly is also preferably molded to shape in order to obtain an adaptation to the foot and an optimum tightening.
According to a preferred construction, the reinforcement assembly 20/21/22 is assembled on the outer upper 10 by cementing, in a cementing zone extending from the outer sole 30 up to at least an upper cementing limit Δ extending substantially to mid-height of the upper. The cement is preferably a polyurethane-base cement.
This construction makes it possible to:
If necessary, the flexible upper 11 itself can be provided with a heel stiffener 13 assembled to the upper by a seam 14 which, as shown in
Depending on the height of the boot, complementary tightening means can be provided in the area of the ankle/lower leg. In this case, these tightening means are constituted by a strap 50 provided with Velcro-type self-gripping means adapted to bring the two wings 26 of a vertical extension of the reinforcement 21 closer together by forming a collar around the lower part of the leg. In any event, the only means 25, 50 for tightening the boot around the foot are located on the reinforcement portion 20 of the outer upper 10. A closure means, in this case a lace 16, can also be provided to close the opening 11 of the upper 10 and avoid any penetration of water, snow, etc., inside the latter. The inner liner 40 can have any construction.
Preferably, the inner liner 40 is detachable, so that it can be easily cleaned and dried, for example.
Advantageously, the liner is provided, at its lower end, with a preferably cemented thick sole 41 corresponding to a through middle, so-called cup, of a conventional outer sole.
This sole 41 is made of a shock-absorbing material such as a PU, EVA foam.
Providing this sole 41 on the liner, and therefore within the boot, has numerous advantages:
The embodiment of
The boot shown in
A detachable liner (not shown in FIG. 4), similar to the liner 40 of
The mid-height upper 110 is further provided with an inner tightening system constituted of two flexible flaps 115, respectively medial and lateral, extending in the instep zone of the boot. These two flaps 115 are fixed at their lower end 116 to the upper 110 and to the sole 130, in particular in the common assembly zone 112 of the latter called the lasting allowance.
These two flaps 115 are further fixed to the upper 110 in their rear zone by a seam 117. The role of the seams 117 is to reinforce the linkage of the flaps to the upper, on the one hand, and to facilitate the positioning of the liner; the flaps 115 fixed in their rear zone do not hinder its insertion.
The tightening flaps 115 are provided at their free upper end with keepers 118 receiving a lace 119 for tightening the user's foot inside the upper 110. The lace 119 can be closed by a knot, or by a blocking system 160 as known from the French Patent No. 2 706 743.
As in the preceding example, the upper reinforcement 120 is fixed to the upper 110 of the boot up to mid-height of the latter, i.e., from the outer sole 130 up to the upper cementing limit Δ. In the example of
As mentioned above, the shape of the upper reinforcement 120 is provided so as to cover and to seal, by its cementing, all of the seams 117, 114 of the upper 110 located in an impervious portion of the upper.
As a result, the only seams left to be made impervious are those 141 connecting the gaiter to the upper, these seams being made impervious in a known fashion by an application of cement or of an impervious film on the inner side of the upper 110.
Whether in the embodiment of
In the embodiment shown in
As in the preceding embodiments, a supplemental reinforcement 220 including a heel zone 221 is cemented at the rear on the heel stiffener 213, covering the seams 214 for assembling the stiffener to the upper, thus obtaining their imperviousness.
The only difference of this embodiment with respect to the preceding embodiments is that the reinforcement 220 is affixed to the outer sole 230, and is therefore cemented to the upper concurrently with the latter.
In this case, the reinforcement 220 is made of the same material as the outer sole 230. The sole 230 can also be obtained in two portions rather than one, that is, rather than being unitary with the reinforcement, namely a rigid and substantially non-flexible rear portion which is then affixed to the reinforcement 220, and a more flexible front portion, as described in the document FR 2 743 989.
The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described hereinabove, by way of non-limiting examples, but encompasses all similar or equivalent embodiments.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00 17126 | Dec 2000 | FR | national |
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/023,987, filed on Dec. 21, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,772,540 the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference thereto in its entirety, and the priority of which is hereby claimed under 35 U.S.C. §120.
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20040172854 A1 | Sep 2004 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 10023987 | Dec 2001 | US |
| Child | 10800702 | US |
