The present disclosure relates generally to a traction device and assembly which may be attached to conventional footwear without traction to provide stability on wet or slippery surfaces.
The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventor, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Various activities, such as fly-fishing or mining for example, require a person to walk over wet or slippery surfaces or wade through water when traveling to a desired destination. Such surfaces, such as rocks, may be covered with algae or other similar materials and may be slippery. Thus, generally, a person engaging in such activities requires footwear with traction to provide stability on the wet or slippery surfaces.
Some conventional footwear for these types of terrains include shoes with rubber or felt soles. However, shoes with rubber soles are not effective in gripping or securing contact with slippery or wet surfaces. While shoes with felt soles provide moderate traction on slippery or wet surfaces, the use of felt soles may carry pathogens from one body of water to another. Thus, felt soles cannot be used in all instances as they are banned in many rivers, for example.
Conventional traction on footwear may include a plurality of sharp, pointed, or convex spikes or studs which extend outwardly from a bottom surface of the footwear. These studs are generally made of a hard metal and are added to rubber or felt soles for traction. These stud spikes are often integrated with the bottom of the footwear such that they are not removable. This often requires a person to have multiple pairs of shoes, such as a pair of shoes without spikes and a pair of shoes with spikes. Further, the spikes on this conventional footwear are often not changeable or rearrangeable depending on a person's desired use. In addition, since the spikes or studs are made of a hard metal and protrude sharply from the bottom surface of the footwear, the spikes or studs often may cause damage to some surfaces, such as a floor of a boat for example. Further, these spikes may be a safety hazard because may be easy to trip or stumble on small objects on the ground while walking in shoes with spikes.
Other conventional footwear with traction includes a removable device, such as a crampon, which is attached to a person's shoe by wrapping around an entire shoe in multiple places or by wrapping around at least an outer circumference of the shoe. Such traction devices are often cumbersome and bulky and may detach or break easily. Also since the removable device wraps around the shoe, it often is relatively limited in shape and size. Thus, a person is not able to easily change the traction configuration to fit more than one specific shoe.
The present disclosure provides a universal traction assembly kit which contains one or more traction devices each having a non-sharp surface which are attachable to a bottom of a shoe and removable therefrom such that the one or more traction devices may be arranged in a plurality of configurations depending on the desired use.
Through the multiple embodiments, the universal traction assembly kit provides a simple and easy device which may be attached to a conventional shoe to provide traction on slippery or wet surfaces. The universal traction assembly kit, for example, reduces the costs of materials and cost of assembly, and improves stability of conventional footwear by adding traction to grip wet or slippery surfaces. Example embodiments of this application may address one or more of the above identified issues. However, an embodiment of this application need not solve, address, or otherwise improve on existing technologies.
One embodiment disclosed includes a traction device for attaching to a shoe. The traction device has a disc having an outer circumference and an inner circumference, the inner circumference forming an inner hole. The disc has at least two surfaces, a first surface configured to face and directly contact the shoe, in an assembled state, and a second surface opposite the first surface which is entirely flat. A securing device is configured to be received by the inner hole and attach the disc to the shoe in an assembled state. Further, in an assembled state a distal end of the securing device is flush with the second surface of the disc.
According to another aspect of the disclosure, a universal and customizable traction kit for attaching a plurality of traction devices in varying configurations to footwear of varying sizes is disclosed. The kit includes at least one first traction device having a first outer circumference, and at least one second traction device having a second outer circumference. Further, the outer circumference of the first traction device is larger than the outer circumference of the second traction device, and the at least one first traction device and the at least one second traction device are attachable to the footwear at a plurality of locations.
According to another aspect of the disclosure, a universal traction kit is provided in which the at least one first traction device is configured to be attached to a bottom of a shoe at first location and the at least second traction device is configured to be attached to a bottom of a shoe at a second location such that the at least one first traction device and the at least one second traction device form a first configuration. Further, the at least one first traction device is configured to be attached to a bottom of a shoe a third location and the at least second traction device is configured to be attached to a bottom of a shoe at a fourth location such that the at least one first traction device and the at least one second traction device form a second configuration. Also, the first location, second location, third location, and fourth location are all located at different positions on the bottom of the shoe.
According to another embodiment of the disclosure, a method for attaching a traction device to a shoe is disclosed. The method includes placing at least one disc having an outer circumference and an inner hole on a bottom surface of the shoe to directly contact the shoe, inserting a securing device into the inner hole of the disc such that a distal end of the securing device is flush with an outer surface of the disc in an assembled stated and the outer surface of the disc has an entirely flat surface. In a non-limiting embodiment, the placing a plurality of discs may occur only at a heel portion of the shoe, or only to the sole of the shoe.
In the following detailed description, reference will be made to the accompanying drawing(s), in which similar elements are designated with similar numerals. The aforementioned accompanying drawings show by way of illustration and not by way of limitation, specific example embodiments and implementations consistent with principles of an example embodiment. These implementations are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice an example embodiment and it is to be understood that other implementations may be utilized and that structural changes and/or substitutions of various elements may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of an example embodiment. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be construed in a limited sense.
Embodiments will be described below in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The following detailed descriptions are provided to assist the reader in gaining a comprehensive understanding or the methods, appearances, and/or systems described herein and equivalent modifications thereof. Accordingly, various changes, modification, and equivalents of the methods, apparatuses, and/or systems described herein will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. Moreover, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions may be omitted for increased clarity and conciseness.
The terms used in the description are intended to describe embodiments only, and shall by no means be restrictive. Unless clearly used otherwise, expressions in a singular form include a meaning of a plural form. In the present description, an expression such as “comprising” or “including” is intended to designate a characteristic, a number, a step, an operation, an element, a part or combinations thereof, and shall not be construed to preclude any presence or possibility of one or more other characteristics, numbers, steps, operations, elements, parts or combinations thereof.
As shown in a non-limiting embodiment of
As shown in
The number of different sizes of discs is not limiting, and there may be numerous discs used all having difference sizes. In a non-limiting embodiment, four disc sizes are contemplated, in which a first disc has an outer circumference of 1.24 inches, a second disc has an outer circumference of 1.04 inches, a third disc has an outer circumference of 0.96 inches, and a fourth disc has an outer circumference of 0.84 inches. That is, the change of size between the discs ranges from 0.10-0.20 inches. In another non-limiting embodiment, the discs have varying ranges such that the first disc is about the size of a nickel (0.835 inches or 21.21 mm), the second disc is about the size of a quarter (0.955 inches or 24.26 mm), and a third disc is about the size of a Susan B. Anthony dollar coin (1.04 inches, 26.5 mm). With the above sizes of the discs, the discs are large enough to provide sufficient traction, but do not take up unnecessary space on the surface of the shoe and they do not prohibit the shoe from being flexible.
The inner circumference of the disc is the same regardless of the size of the outer circumference of the disc, and is preferably 0.2-0.4 inches.
Disc 10 as shown in
In a non-limiting embodiment, disc 10 may be made out of a soft malleable metallic material such that the disc can grip the ground surface and provide traction on slippery surfaces. In a non-limiting embodiment, the metallic material is aluminum or another similar metal. A traction assembly kit 1 of aluminum discs 10 increases longevity of the shoe and may be worn on numerous occasions. For example, during testing the discs maintained high performance for approximately 70 fishing trips.
As shown in
Securing device 12 is configured to be inserted into inner hole 18 so as to be flush with an outer surface of disc 10. As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
The example embodiments discussed in this disclosure describe a single securing device corresponding to a single disc. However, this embodiment is not limiting as multiple securing devices may be used for a single disc and/or a single securing device may be used for multiple discs.
In a non-limiting embodiment securing device 12 is made of the same material as the disc 10, which may be a metal, such as aluminum for example. Having the securing device 12 and the disc 10 made from the same material improves the durability of the traction device.
A method of attaching a traction assembly kit 1 to footwear or a shoe will now be described. A traction assembly kit 1 is a prepackaged kit having multiple traction devices 2, 3, for example. In a non-limiting embodiment, the traction assembly kit 1 will be provided with at least one or more first traction devices 2 and one or more second traction devices 3 where the first traction devices have larger circumferences than the second traction devices 3, respectively. As discussed above, the traction assembly kit 1 may have traction devices of varying sizes, and may have multiple different sizes, such as four different sizes for example.
The traction devices 2 may be attached directly to a bottom surface of a shoe to directly contact a bottom surface of the shoe. As shown in
Depending on a person's weight, shoe size, and desired use, a person can assemble the traction devices 2 in multiple configurations or arrangements on a shoe. For example, as shown in
After assembling the traction assembly kit 1 to the shoe, the traction devices 2 may also be removed from the shoe if desired and reattached at different locations on the bottom of the shoe or used on another shoe. During testing it was determined that the holes on the soles of the shoes that remain after the securing devices have been removed are miniscule and they do not deteriorate the sole. Further during testing, the holes previous put into the soles were able to be reused and utilized again. For example, a first traction device 2 may be attached to a bottom of a shoe at first location and a second traction device 3 may be attached to a bottom of a shoe at a second location to form a first configuration in an assembled-state. The first and second traction devices may be removed and the first traction device 2 may be reattached to a bottom of a shoe a third location and the second traction device 3 may be reattached to a bottom of a shoe at a fourth location to form a second configuration. In this non-limiting embodiment, the first location, second location, third location, and fourth location are all located at different positions on the bottom of the shoe. As the traction devices 2, 3 are screwed into the sole of the shoe, the traction devices may be attached anywhere on the bottom of the shoe that can receive the securing device 12, and may be placed in any arrangement or configuration as desired by the user.
Thus, the traction assembly kit 1 may be customizable based on the user's weight or size of shoe. For example, as noted above, the user may desire more traction devices at the ball of the foot as opposed to the heel as shown in
In a non-limiting embodiment, the traction assembly kit 1 is attached only to the sole of a sole such that there is no strap or other device wrapped around the circumference of the shoe. That is, there is no attachment on the top portion of the shoe. The shoe's traction device is only attached to the sole of the shoe which includes the bottom surface of the sole as well as the side surface of the sole as shown in
In a non-limiting embodiment, the traction assembly kit 1 may also be provided with a drill bit (not shown) for drilling a hole into a bottom surface of a shoe prior to attaching the securing device 12 to the shoe. While a drill is not needed, it may provide easier attachment of the traction device 2 to the shoe. As noted above, since the inner hole 18 of each traction device 2 is the same size and the same size screw may be used for each traction device 2 only one size drill bit is needed in the traction assembly kit.
With the traction assembly kit described above, a user may use the same traction assembly kit and the same traction devices for different activities. For example, if a user is going caving or spelunking it may be desirable for a user to have traction devices placed only at the heel of the show as shown in
Although a few example embodiments have been shown and described, these example embodiments are provided to convey the subject matter described herein to people who are familiar with this field. It should be understood that the subject matter described herein may be embodied in various forms without being limited to the described example embodiments. The subject matter described herein can be practiced without those specifically defined or described matters or with other or different elements or matters not described. It will be appreciated by those familiar with this field that changes may be made in these example embodiments without departing from the subject matter described herein as defined in the appended claims and their equivalents. Further, any description of structural arrangement of components or relationship there between is merely for explanation purposes and should be used to limit an example embodiment.
Aspects related to the example embodiment have been set forth in part in the description above, and in part should be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of embodiments of the application. Aspects of the example embodiment may be realized and attained using the elements and combinations of various elements and aspects particularly pointed out in the foregoing detailed description and the appended claims. It is to be understood that both the foregoing descriptions are an example and are explanatory only and are not intended to be limiting.
This is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 14/658,701 filed Mar. 16, 2015. The entire disclosures of the prior applications are considered part of the disclosure of the accompanying continuation application, and are hereby incorporated by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 14658701 | Mar 2015 | US |
Child | 16905437 | US |