Patent Application
20250089846
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The disclosure relates to shoe guards and more particularly pertains to a new shoe guard for guarding a heel of a shoe.
The prior art describes several shoe guards for protecting a heel of a shoe when resting the shoe against a floor surface. Such guards are notably used when driving a motor vehicle, when the heel of the shoe may rest on the floor of the motor vehicle for extended periods of time, thus leading to damage to the shoe. However, the prior art fails to describe such a guard which relies on a clip to secure the shoe guard to the shoe.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a barrier having a base wall and a sidewall. The sidewall is coupled to and extends upwardly from the base wall. The sidewall also extends along a perimeter of the base wall and has a U-shape wherein a concave surface of the sidewall is configured to abut and extend around a heel of a shoe. The barrier is configured to be positionable to support the shoe over a floor surface. A clip is coupled to a top edge of the sidewall and extends from the sidewall over and toward the base wall. The clip is configured to extend into an opening of the shoe when the barrier is used to support the shoe to retain the sidewall against the heel.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.
The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:
With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to
As best illustrated in
A forward edge 22 of the sidewall 18 is oriented perpendicular to the base wall 14. The sidewall 18 has a length between the forward edge 22 and a rear end 26 such that the forward edge 22 is configured to be positioned forwardly with respect to a leg 38 of a user 36 wearing the shoe 44 when in the barrier 12 is used to support the shoe 44. The sidewall 18 also has a height between the base wall 14 and a top edge 24 such that the top edge 24 is configured to be positioned below a protruding ankle bone 40 of the user 36 when the barrier 12 is used to support the shoe 44.
A clip 28 is coupled to the top edge 24 of the sidewall 18. The clip 28 extends from the sidewall 18 over and toward the base wall 14. The clip 28 is configured to extend into an opening 50 of the shoe 44 when the barrier 12 is used to support the shoe 44 to retain the sidewall 18 against the heel 48. The clip 28 comprises a resiliently bendable material, such as a metal sheet or other suitable material, such that the clip 28 biases the sidewall 18 into abutment with the heel 48 when the clip 28 extends into the opening 50 of the shoe 44. The clip 28 comprises a first section 30, a second section 32, and a third section 34. The first section 30 is coupled to and extends upwardly from the top edge 24 of the sidewall 18. The second section 32 is coupled to and extends perpendicularly from the first section 30. The third section 34 is coupled to the second section 32 and is oriented perpendicular to the second section 32 when at rest.
In use, the third section 34 of the clip 28 is bent to insert through the opening 50 of the shoe 44 and move the barrier 12 around a sole 46 of the shoe 44. The barrier 12 is positioned with the base wall 14 lying in abutment with the sole 46 and the sidewall 18 in abutment with the heel 48, and the third section 34 of the clip 28 returns to rest. When the user 36 rests the heel 48 of the shoe 44 over the floor surface 42, the barrier 12 supports the shoe 44 over the floor surface 42, preventing damage to the shoe 44.
With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.
