Patent Application
20230116171
The present application claims priority to Korean Application No. 10-2021-0135178 filed on Oct. 12, 2021, which application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The present disclosure relates to a functional shoe and, more specifically, to a functional shoe enabling a user to selectively use a shoe function and a flipper function.
In general, during marine leisure activities such as scuba diving or swimming, commonly known flippers are used.
These flippers have a flat-panel fin portion extending in a toe direction of a foot wearing part having a shape of a shoe to allow a user's foot to be inserted and fixed therein, that is, a structure spread widely like a webfoot.
After wearing the flippers as described above, if the user kicks up and down in the water, a strong driving force may be obtained in the water so that it is possible to move far and quickly with little force.
However, the flippers like the above are helpful for scuba diving or swimming but are inconvenient when walking on the ground or in water. Therefore, it is inconvenient to separately prepare and wear shoes in addition to the flippers and to wear the flippers when necessary.
Considering this point, the need for a new concept functional shoe with a flipper function has emerged.
In consideration of this point, functional shoes that may be used for both the flipper function and the shoe function have been proposed, such as Korean Patent Registration No. 10-1862290.
However, the conventional functional shoes as described above have a configuration in which a flipper unit is installed in a foldable manner with respect to a shoe main body and used only when needed, but a configuration of such a foldable flipper unit is very complicated, so there is a limit to its application to actual shoes.
In particular, due to the characteristics of long-time use in water, when the flipper unit with a complex structure is applied, there are problems such as easily breaking down, not operating normally, and the like, and there are problems such as a complicated manufacturing process, an increase in manufacturing cost, and the like.
In addition, the flipper unit must have the strength to withstand the resistance of water in an unfolding state. However, in the case of the conventional functional shoes, since the flipper unit protrudes from the shoe main body in a plate-like structure, the flipper unit may be easily deformed by the resistance of water, so there is a problem that the flipper function is not performed normally.
In addition, Korea Patent Registration No. 10-2084736 applied and registered by the present inventor solves the above problems, but there is a problem that when the shoes are used as the flipper function in the water, a strap does not adhere to a user's feet due to the resistance of water and the shoes come off easily.
The foregoing is intended merely to aid in the understanding of the background of the present disclosure, and is not intended to mean that the present disclosure falls within the purview of the related art that is already known to those skilled in the art.
Accordingly, the present disclosure has been made keeping in mind the above problem occurring in the related art, and the present disclosure is intended to provide a functional shoe with an improved structure to increase water resistance to enhance a flipper function while having a simple structure and be adhered to a user's foot to be prevented from coming off when used in water.
To solve the objectives, the functional shoe of the present disclosure may include: a shoe body; a flipper member configured to be extended in a plate shape from an end of the shoe body to be used as a flipper function, and be deformed upward to be folded so as to cover an upper surface of the shoe body; a fixing part configured to fix the flipper member to allow the flipper member to be maintained in a state of being deformed to be folded on the upper surface of the shoe body; and a strap configured to closely adhere the shoe body to a rear side of a user's foot to prevent the shoe from coming off, wherein the strap is selectively folded or unfolded to adjust a contact area with the user's foot.
The strap may include: a main strap configured to allow both ends thereof to be selectively and respectively fixed on side surfaces of the shoe body; and a sub strap configured to be selectively folded to the main strap.
Accordingly, a shoe function and a flipper function are applied to one shoe to be conveniently used, a contact area with the user's foot may be increased to prevent the shoe from coming off when used in the water, and the strap may be folded to increase convenience when used outside the water.
The sub strap may include: an upper sub strap configured to selectively folded at an upper end of the main strap; and a lower sub strap configured to be selectively folded at a lower end of the main strap.
Accordingly, the upper or lower strap or both the upper and lower straps are selectively folded or unfolded according to user convenience, so that the contact area with the foot may be adjusted according to the user.
Moreover, it is desired that the main strap may include a plurality of strap pins to which a strap hole of the sub strap is fit and fixed.
Accordingly, a folding state is stably maintained during folding, so that user convenience may be increased.
On the other hand, according to a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure, the lower sub strap has a groove part formed in a central portion thereof and the upper sub strap is formed in a shape corresponding to the groove part when folded.
Accordingly, when the upper sub strap and the lower sub strap are folded, they do not interfere with each other, and thus user convenience may be increased.
In addition, the fixing part may include at least one fixing pin protruding from the upper surface of the shoe body, and it is preferred that a fixing hole formed in the flipper member is fitted and coupled to the fixing pin.
Accordingly, when not in use, the flipper member is folded and fixed on the shoe body so that the user may conveniently walk around in shoes.
Preferably, the flipper member may include: a flipper member body configured to be connected to an end of the shoe body in a plate shape; and a deformation restraining part configured to be formed on a lower part of the flipper member body to allow the flipper member to be deformed and bent upward and inhibit the flipper member from being deformed downward.
In addition, the deformation restraining part may include a plurality of cutout parts formed on a lower surface of the flipper member body.
Accordingly, when used as the flipper function, the flipper member may receive as much water resistance as possible so that efficiency may be increased, and when not used as the flipper function, the flipper member may be easily bent and deformed to be fixed to the shoe body.
According to the functional shoe of the present disclosure, a function of an aqua shoe and a flipper function may be implemented and used selectively in one shoe, and productivity is increased and manufacturing cost is reduced due to a simple configuration.
When the functional shoe is used in water, the strap fixed to the user's foot is extended to increase a contact area with the user's foot so that the shoe does not come off, and when used out of water, the strap may be folded to increase convenience.
The upper or lower strap, or both the upper and lower straps are selectively folded or unfolded according to user convenience, so that the contact area with the foot may be adjusted according to the user.
When the strap is folded, a folding state thereof may be stably maintained, and thus user convenience may be increased.
When the upper sub strap and the lower sub strap are folded, they do not interfere with each other so that a thickness of the strap is not great even in a folding state, and thus user convenience may be increased.
Therefore, there is no need to separately prepare and carry aqua shoes and flippers as in the prior art.
In particular, when not in use, the flipper member may be folded and fixed to the shoe body in the folding state, so that it does not interfere with walking, and the functional shoe may be conveniently used.
The above and other objectives, features, and other advantages of the present disclosure will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Hereinafter, a functional shoe according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Referring to
The shoe body 110 may be made of a synthetic resin material like general aqua shoes and may include a foot insertion part 111 configured to allow the user to put the user's foot therein to wear the functional shoe. In addition, a strap 113 is connected to the shoe body 110 to surround a rear part of the foot received in the foot insertion part 111 to support the functional shoe so that the functional shoe does not come off.
One end of the flipper member 120 is connected to the end of the shoe body 110 and is formed to extend to a predetermined length as a plate structure. The flipper member 120 is preferably formed of a material having elasticity so as to be deformed and restored in a direction covering and folded on an upper part, that is, an upper surface 115 of the shoe body 110 at a portion connected to the shoe body 110. For example, the flipper member 120 has a plate-shaped structure and is preferably formed of a synthetic resin material having elasticity. Of course, the flipper member 120 may be integrally formed of the same material as the shoe body 110 or may be separately manufactured and combined.
The flipper member 120 may include a plate-shaped flipper member body 121 and a deformation restraining part 123 that is easily bent in the direction covering the upper part of the shoe body 110 and prevents bending in the opposite direction. The deformation restraining part 123 may include a plurality of cutout parts 123b formed on a lower surface of the flipper member body 121 to spaced apart from each other.
The cutout parts 123b are formed by being cut to a predetermined depth from the lower surface of the flipper member body 121 and are preferably formed at predetermined intervals. In this way, when the cutout parts 123b are formed, it may be allowed that the flipper member 120 is bent upward and it may be restrained that the flipper member 120 is bend downward. In particular, since the cutout parts 123b are arranged at the predetermined intervals in the longitudinal direction of the flipper member 120, the cutout parts 123b are widened to allow the flipper member 120 to be deformed in a form of easily rolled in an upward direction and a rolling angle may be determined by the width of a wall portion 123a between the cutout parts 123b . According to such a configuration, the flipper member 120 may be deformed in a form that is easily rolled upward while the cutout parts 123b are widened. In the flipper member 120, cutout surfaces of the cutout parts 123b come in contact with each other in the opposite direction, that is an unfolding direction, and protrusion portions 123a receive a force suppressing a compressive deformation, and thus deformation in the opposite direction is prevented. Therefore, when used in water, the flipper member 120 may receive a maximum resistance of water and it is possible to suppress deformation in the downward direction by the resistance of water. Accordingly, the flipper member 120 is maintained in a shape to receive the maximum resistance from water, thereby being effectively used during swimming or scuba diving.
More preferably, the flipper member 120 is formed of a flexible material as much as the depth at which the cutout parts 123b are formed, and a predetermined thickness of the upper part at which the cutout parts 123b are not formed may be formed of a synthetic resin material having a small deformation rate to suppress tearing and maintain a shape thereof. In other words, since the flipper member 120 is divided into an upper layer and a lower layer, the upper layer is stronger than the lower layer and is preferably formed of a material resistant to tearing.
The fixing part 130 is configured to fix the flipper member 120 in a state of being overlapped on the upper part of the shoe body 110 by being folded as illustrated in
A plurality of fixing holes 125 formed in the flipper member 120 are spaced apart from each other to correspond to the number of fixing pins 131 and are formed biased toward a free end part of the flipper member 120. Therefore, as illustrated in
On the other hand, the strap 150 according to a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure may be selectively folded or unfolded as illustrated in
Such a strap 150 may include a main strap 151 in which both ends are selectively fixed rotatably on a side surface of the shoe body 110 and a sub strap 152, 153 that is selectively folded or unfolded to the main strap 151.
The sub straps 152, 153 may preferably include an upper sub strap 152 formed to be selectively folded at an upper end of the main strap 151 and a lower sub strap formed to be selectively folded at a lower end of the main strap 151.
With such a three-stage strap 151, 152, 153 structure, the user may selectively extend only the upper sub strap 152, only the lower sub strap 153, or the upper and lower sub straps 152, 153 so that the strap may be applied according to the user.
On the other hand, according to a more preferred embodiment of the present disclosure, a groove part 153b is formed in a central portion of the lower sub strap 153 and the upper sub strap 152 is formed in a shape corresponding to the groove part 153b.
With such a configuration, even when the upper sub strap 152 and the lower sub strap 153 are folded on the main strap 151, they do not interfere with each other so that a folding structure may be implemented only with a thickness of a two-stage structure even if the folding structure has a three-stage folding structure, thereby increasing user convenience.
At this time, a plurality of strap pins 151a are formed in the main strap 151 to which the strap holes 152a, 153a formed in the sub straps 152, 153 are fitted and fixed, so that a folding state may be firmly maintained.
When folded or unfolded, the strap 150 configured in this way is elastically deformed toward the foot insertion part 111 without being interfered by the user's foot to be folded or unfolded when folding lines 155 and 157 are in a straight state. When the strap is in use, the user's foot is inserted into the foot insertion part 111 so that the folding lines 155, 157 of the strap 150 maintain a curved state rather than a straight line, and thus the curved state may be maintained without being folded or unfolded.
On the other hand, as illustrated in
As described above, the functional shoe according to the embodiment of the present disclosure may be worn in a state that flipper member 120 is folded and fixed to cover the upper surface of the shoe body 110 in normal times. In addition, during leisure activities such as swimming, scuba diving, and the like, the flipper member 120 may be used while being unfolded as illustrated in
Therefore, without separately preparing and carrying flipper members and shoes as in the prior art, a single functional shoe is modified according to use purpose to be conveniently used.
In the case of the present disclosure, the flipper member 120 has a configuration that is easily deformed upward in a state connected to the shoe body 110 and suppresses deformation toward a lower part, thereby receiving as much water resistance as possible when used as a flipper function.
In addition, a connection and coupling structure of the flipper member 120 and the shoe body 110 is simple and a configuration of the fixing part 130 for coupling the flipper member 120 to cover the shoe body 110 is also simple, thereby providing advantages of shortening a manufacturing process and reducing manufacturing cost.
In addition, the number of parts is small, thereby providing an advantage of fundamentally solving problems such as failure, inoperability, and the like.
In addition, a contact area between the strap and the foot is increased to prevent the shoe from coming off in the water and the strap is folded out of the water, and it is possible to minimize discomfort when walking.
Although the preferred embodiment of the present disclosure has been described for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2021-0135178 | Oct 2021 | KR | national |
