FOOTWEAR WITH AN ADJUSTING VAMP

Abstract

An article of footwear is provided and includes a sole, an upper attached to the sole and a vamp attached to the upper, wherein the vamp stretches in at least one direction during contact of the sole with an underlying surface.

Description

BACKGROUND

The present application relates generally to footwear, and more particularly, to an article of footwear having an upper with a vamp that stretches in multiple directions to adjust to a shape and size of a user's foot and flex during movement to reduce stress on the user's foot.

Footwear typically includes a sole and an upper attached to the sole where the upper includes a front end with a vamp. The vamp is the portion of the upper that generally covers the top surface of a user's foot. Typically, the vamp is made with a material or combination of materials that support the top and front portions of a user's foot and provides lateral stability to the foot during movement. In most shoes, the vamp is made with a material or materials that are minimally stretchable to provide lateral stability and balance to the front portion of a user's foot. During movement, and more specifically, during the toe-off phase of the gait cycle where the toe portion of user's foot contacts the ground, the conventional vamps do not flex or minimally flex, which results in minimal splaying of the toes of the foot resulting in an injury and/or swelling of the user's foot.

Some shoes use an integrated tongue attached to the upper where the tongue extends from a front portion of the upper to the foot opening. The tongue is made of a material or materials that flex to enable the sides and front portion of the upper to flex during movement to accommodate the splaying of the toes of the foot during contact with the ground. The flexing of the tongue also adjusts the fit and stability of the shoe during movement, which can be uncomfortable and/or cause injuries to other parts of the foot.

It is therefore desirable to provide an article of footwear having an upper and a vamp that is made with a material or materials that is located on the front portion of the shoe and that flexes during movement to maintain stability while helping to reduce injuries and/or swelling of the foot.

SUMMARY

The present invention is for an article of footwear, and more specifically, to a shoe having an upper for, where the upper includes a vamp that is made with at least one material that stretches in at least one direction during contact of the shoe with an underlying surface to promote natural splaying of the toes of a user's foot and help reduce injury and/or swelling of the user's foot during movement.

In an embodiment, an article of footwear is provided and includes a sole, an upper attached to the sole and a vamp attached to the upper, wherein the vamp stretches in at least one direction during contact of the sole with an underlying surface.

In another embodiment, an article of footwear is provided and includes a sole, an upper attached to the sole, the upper including a front end, a rear end and medial and lateral sides extending between the front end and the rear end, the upper including a central opening having a foot opening and a forefoot opening, a tongue attached to the upper and positioned in the forefoot opening and at least partially into the foot opening and a vamp attached to the upper, wherein the vamp is separated from the tongue and stretches in at least one direction during contact of the sole with an underlying surface.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a right side view of an embodiment of an article of footwear including the adjusting vamp.

FIG. 2 is a left side view of the article of footwear of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a top view of the article of footwear of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a bottom view of the article of footwear of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a top view of another embodiment of the article of footwear.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention is for an article of footwear, and more specifically, a shoe having an upper including a flexible vamp that enables the front portion of the upper to flex during use to help reduce injury to user's foot.

Referring to FIGS. 1 to 4, an embodiment of an article of footwear 20, such as a shoe, is shown where the article of footwear 20 includes a sole, generally indicated as 22, where the sole 22 is attached to an upper 24. The sole 22 may be an integral, molded component made of a material having a designated hardness value or made with different materials having the same or different hardness values. As shown in FIG. 1, the upper 24 is attached to the sole 22 by sewing the upper on the sole by stitching with a suitable thread or threadable material. The upper 24 may also be attached to the sole 22 using an adhesive, attached by molding the upper to the sole or at least partially molding the upper within the sole or using any suitable attachment method or combination of methods, such as attaching the upper to the sole using an adhesive and stitching. In the illustrated embodiment, the sole includes a midsole 26 and an outsole 28 where the outsole 28 is attached to a bottom surface of the midsole 26 by an adhesive or by molding. In an embodiment, the midsole 26 is made of ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) and the outsole 28 is made of rubber, where it is contemplated that the sole, i.e., the midsole and the outsole, may be made out of any suitable material or combination of materials. In the illustrated embodiment, the outsole 26 includes a plurality of tread members 30 that are configured to grip an underlying surface, such as the ground, during movement. In another embodiment, the article of footwear 20 does not have an outsole, where the bottom surface of the sole 22, and more specifically, the midsole 26, directly contacts an underlying surface. In this embodiment, the sole 22 or midsole 26 has one or more tread members 30 on a bottom surface of the sole or midsole.

In an embodiment, the upper 24 includes a front end 32, which has a closed toe portion 34, a rear end 36, which extends around the heel of a user's foot, and medial and lateral sides 38 and 40 that each extend between the front end and the rear end. As shown in FIG. 3, the upper 24 includes a central opening 42 defined by a foot opening 44 and forefoot opening 46 that are formed in a top surface 48 of the upper 24. A tongue 50 is attached to the upper 24 by stitching or other attachment method, and extends from a front end 52 of the central opening 42 and at least partially into the foot opening 44. The tongue 50 is made with a fabric material but may be made with any suitable material or combination of materials. A closure mechanism such as the lace 54 shown in FIG. 3, is inserted through eyelets 56 on opposing sides of the central opening 42. The lace 54 is tightened to cause the opposing sides 38, 40 of the upper 24 to move toward each other or loosened to cause the opposing sides 38, 40 of the upper 24 to move away from each other.

In the illustrated embodiment, a vamp 58 is attached in a forefoot area 60 of the upper 24 by stitching or other suitable attachment method. As shown in FIG. 3, the vamp 58 has a first end 62 attached to the upper 24 adjacent to the central opening 42 and an opposing second end 64 attached to the front end 32 of the upper 24. The opposing sides 66 and 68 of the vamp 58 are respectively attached to the medial and lateral sides 38 and 40 of the upper 24. In this embodiment, the vamp 58 is made with a stretchable material, such as a stretchable fabric material or a textile material. The material used for the vamp is any material that offers a two-way stretch (two directions) or four-way stretch (four directions) via a mechanical stretch achieved by the construction of the material. In an embodiment, the material includes fibers within a textile or fabric material that allows the material to stretch. The two-way stretch may be medial to lateral, lateral to medial, toe to heel, heel to toe or any combination of these stretches. The four-way stretch includes both medial to lateral/lateral to medial and toe to heel/heel to toe. It should be appreciated that that vamp may be any suitable material or combination of materials. Furthermore in the above embodiment, the vamp 58 has multiple sides forming a polygonal shape. It should be appreciated that the vamp may have a rectangular shape, a hexagonal shape, a square shape or any suitable shape and size. In this embodiment, the portions of the upper 24 surrounding the vamp 58 are made with a material or combination of materials that are static, i.e., that minimally flex or stretch, to provide additional support to the areas of the upper 24 surrounding the vamp 58 to enhance lateral stability and balance during movement. It should also be appreciated that the vamp 58 may be made with the same material or a different material from the portions of the upper surrounding the vamp.

During use, the vamp 58 stretches in at least one direction when the shoe contacts the ground in a toe-off phase of a gait cycle, i.e., when the toe portion of a user's foot contacts the ground while the remaining portion of the foot is away from or raised above the ground. When the toe portion of the shoe contacts the ground, the vamp 58 stretches in a medial direction (towards the medial side of the upper), in a lateral direction (toward the lateral side of the upper), in a front direction (toward the front end of the upper), in two or more of the medial direction, lateral direction and the front direction, or in each of the medial direction, the lateral direction and the front direction, i.e., in all directions. The stretching or flexing of the vamp 58 during the toe-off phase in one or more of the above directions enables the toes of a user's foot to splay (spread) naturally during contact with the ground, which helps to reduce injuries and swelling of the user's foot.

Referring to FIG. 5, in another embodiment, the vamp 70 includes a first section 72 and a second section 74 that are separated from each other by a portion of the upper 24. In this embodiment, the first section 72 is on the medial side 38 of the upper 24 and the second section 74 is on a lateral side 40 of the upper 24. The first section 72 and the second section 74 may be each made with the same material or the first section 72 and the second section 74 may be made with different materials. Further, the first and section sections 72 and 74 may have the same size and shape or different sizes and/or shapes. It should be appreciated that the vamp 70 may include two sections as shown in FIG. 5, or include a plurality of sections, i.e., three or more sections.

In other embodiments, the vamp described above may be attached to an upper in an article of footwear described in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 18/180,562 and 18/298,284 and U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/598,508, which are all incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

While particular embodiments of the present article of footwear are shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes and modifications may be made thereto without departing from the invention in its broader aspects and as set forth in the following claims.

Claims

1. An article of footwear comprising: a sole;an upper attached to said sole; anda vamp attached to the upper, wherein said vamp stretches in at least one direction during contact of the sole with an underlying surface.

2. The article of footwear of claim 1, wherein said vamp is made with a stretchable material.

3. The article of footwear of claim 1, wherein said vamp is a piece of material attached a front end of the upper and adjacent to a central opening formed in the upper.

4. The article of footwear of claim 1, wherein the vamp has a polygonal shape.

5. The article of footwear of claim 1, wherein the upper includes a tongue attached to a portion of the upper and the vamp is separated from the tongue.

6. The article of footwear of claim 1, wherein the vamp is made with a material that stretches in at least two directions when the sole contacts the underlying surface.

7. The article of footwear of claim 1, wherein the vamp includes at least two sections that are separated from each other.

8. An article of footwear comprising: a sole;an upper attached to said sole, said upper including a front end, a rear end and medial and lateral sides extending between the front end and the rear end, the upper including a central opening having a foot opening and a forefoot opening;a tongue attached to the upper and positioned in the forefoot opening and at least partially into the foot opening; anda vamp attached to the upper, wherein said vamp is separated from the tongue and stretches in at least one direction during contact of the sole with an underlying surface.

9. The article of footwear of claim 8, wherein said vamp is made with a stretchable material.

10. The article of footwear of claim 8, wherein said vamp is a piece of material attached a front end of the upper and adjacent to a central opening formed in the upper.

11. The article of footwear of claim 8, wherein the vamp has a polygonal shape.

12. The article of footwear of claim 8, wherein the vamp is made with a material that stretches in at least two directions when the sole contacts the underlying surface.

13. The article of footwear of claim 8, wherein the vamp includes at least two sections that are separated from each other.