Patent Application
20250212974
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The disclosure relates to foot socks and more particularly pertains to a new foot sock for exposing the toes of the foot while insulating and cushioning a main portion of the foot.
Myriad foot socks are disclosed by the prior art which position the toes of the foot into different openings to expose them, such as for aesthetic purposes, to cool the toes, to facilitate wearing thong sandals or similar footwear, or the like. However, many such foot socks separate each toe into its own opening. Such a design places excess fabric in between the toes which can cause discomfort to the user and uses openings which are either sized to work only with particular toes or require elastomeric fabric or the like to adapt to other toes. More specifically, the most medial toe of the foot, commonly referred to as the big toe, is significantly wider than the other toes. Subsequently, a hole that accommodates the big toe may be ill-suited to accommodate any of the other toes comfortably or at least will require a fabric which is sufficiently stretchable to accommodate the big toe while being biased to a smaller size sufficient to comfortably receive one of the other toes. Such flexibility is desirable when making foot socks that are interchangeable between left and right feet. The foot socks of the prior art which use five openings would need to overcome the difficulties above to make a foot sock that is comfortable and functional for the user.
Another way to solve this problem is to have a sock with outer toe openings of same or similar size that can accommodate either the big toe or the two most distal toes from the big toe. The prior art fails to disclose such an apparatus, which would be advantageous in providing a foot covering which covers a main portion of the foot while leaving the toes of the foot exposed and which is interchangeably positionable on either the left or right foot of a user.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a tubular member which defines a foot-receiving space therein. The tubular member has a first opening at a leg end thereof and a second opening at a toe end thereof. Each of the first opening and the second opening is in communication with the foot-receiving space. The tubular member is sized and configured to contain a portion of a foot of a user when the foot sock is positioned in a use configuration. A pair of separating members is coupled to the tubular member. Each separating member is coupled to and extends between a dorsal portion of the tubular member and a sole portion of the tubular member at the toe end. The separating members are laterally spaced from each other and divide the second opening of the tubular member into a plurality of toe openings, each of which is configured to receive at least one toe of the foot when the foot sock is positioned in the use configuration. The toe openings are linearly arranged and include a pair of outer toe openings which are similar in size to each other. Each outer toe opening of the pair of outer toe openings is sized and configured to interchangeably receive either a first toe of the foot or a fourth toe and a fifth toe of the foot.
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
As depicted in the Figures generally and especially in
A pair of separating members 32 is coupled to the tubular member 12. Each separating member 32 is coupled to and extends between a dorsal portion 28 of the tubular member 12 and a sole portion 30 of the tubular member 12 at the toe end 18. The separating members 32 are laterally spaced from each other and divide the second opening 22 of the tubular member 12 into a plurality of toe openings 34, each of which is configured to receive at least one toe 44 of the foot 42 when the foot sock 10 is positioned in the use configuration 24. Each separating member 32 has a V-shape or U-shape and is oriented and configured to conform to a crotch between an adjacent pair of toes 44 of the foot 42. The pair of separating members 32 is integrally formed with the tubular member 12. The tubular member 12 and the separating members 32 comprise one or more fabric materials.
For the purposes of this disclosure, the toes 44 of the foot 42 will be referred to as first through fifth toes. The toes 44 are numbers in ascending order from the most medial toe to the most lateral toe. In other words, the first toe 46 refers to the most medial toe, also referred to as the big toe or the hallux, and the fifth toe 54 refers to the most lateral toe, also referred to as the pinky toe or little toe; the second, third, and fourth toes 48, 50, 52 are positioned in ascending order from the first toe 46 to toward the fifth toe 54. There are three toe openings 34 which are linearly arranged to each other and include a pair of outer toe openings 36 and a central toe opening 38. The outer toe openings 36 are of similar size and are each sized and configured to interchangeably receive either the first toe 46 of the foot 42 or the fourth and the fifth toes 52, 54 of the foot 42. The central toe opening 38 is sized and configured to receive the second toe 48 and the third toe 50 of the foot 42. In some embodiments, there may be three separating members 32 which divide the first opening 20 of the tubular member 12 into four toe openings 34. In such cases, the outermost toe openings of the set of four toe openings 34 will remain similar in size to each other.
In use, the foot sock 10 is positioned in the use configuration 24 on the foot 42, and the toes 44 of the foot 42 extend through the toe openings 34 defined by the separating members 32. The toes 44 of the foot 42 are exposed to the surrounding air which may allow heat to dissipate from the toes 44 rather than insulating them as in a traditional sock. Sandals which have structures designed to be placed between adjacent toes 44 of the foot 42, such as thong sandals, may be worn on the foot 42 without stretching any fabric in between the adjacent toes 44. The separating members 32 engage the foot 42 to prevent the foot sock 10 from riding up on the foot 42 away from the toes 44. Because the separating members 32 are spaced laterally to each other, they also serve to prevent twisting of the foot sock 10 around the foot 42 by engaging adjacent toes 44.
Existing toe socks often have sleeve portions which would surround the toes 44 at an area near the distal ends of the toes 44, which are often the widest parts of the toes 44. However, the foot sock 10 disclosed herein does not place fabric or other materials in these areas, which may cause discomfort to the user 40 by causing pressure on the toes 44 or urging the toes 44 to spread apart from each other. The V-shape of the separating members 32 may facilitate distributing any forces caused by pulling the separating members 32 against the crotches between the toes 44 over a wider area compared to similar socks which have substantially planar separating members 32, thereby reducing a likelihood of the separating members 32 cutting into the skin of the foot 42. Because the outer toe openings 36 are similar in size and configured to accommodate either the first toe 46 or the fourth toe 52 and the fifth toe 54, the foot sock 10 may be interchangeably placed in use configurations 24 on either a left foot or a right foot of the user 40. Further, this interchangeable placement can be done without stretching the fabric material of the foot sock 10 substantially more on one foot than the other, which may be the case for similar socks configured to receive only one toe 44 into each toe opening 34.
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.
