Patent Application
20100320102
The present invention relates to an article of footwear, and more particularly to an article of footwear including footwear with at least one paintable surface and erasable paintings. The erasable paintings are used to paint a design on the paintable surface of the footwear. The erasable paintings are insoluble in water and thus can withstand substantially any weather conditions. The paintings are sustainable under normal use of the article also non-crackable and flexible to fit flexible surfaces and prevent breaking, cracking, chipping or peeling of the painting, when bending. The article of footwear may also include a paint erasing solvent, a spray and/or liquid to make the paint permanent and/or an instrument for painting, e.g. paintbrush.
Often as children, we enjoyed sketching and painting a design on our own shoes. Furthermore, a person would have enjoyed designing, sketching, and/or painting his own footwear, with an option of redesigning the recent design by erasing the recent design and painting a new design.
But footwear such as boots, shoes, sandals, flip-flops etc. are not designed to be sketched, coated or written on. If a user does paint on a footwear item it will be either not erasable from the footwear or not sustainable on the footwear.
There is therefore a need for and it would be highly advantageous to have footwear such as boots, shoes, sandals, flip-flops, crocs look alike shoes etc., and other articles such as belts, bags, umbrellas, handbags, purses, lunchboxes, furniture, hair-bows, coats, shirts, pants, other fashion wear and fashion accessories, leather articles, plastic or polymeric articles, etc., on which a person can sketch, paint and/or write. The articles will be provided with erasable paints and erasing solvent as a single article of manufacture. The person can than use the paints supplied to paint on the footwear a design the person desires. The person can also erase the design using a supplied erasing solvent and paint a new design.
The term “permanent marker” as used herein refers to a commonly used marker which is not erasable from a commonly used white board by a dry eraser or water.
According to the teachings of the present invention there is provided a method of manufacturing an article such as footwear, the article having a surface, the method including the steps of:
According to the teachings of the present invention there are further provided methods to manufacture colored paintings that can be coated on the paintable surface, the painting being insoluble in water or salt water, but erasable by solvents provided by the present invention. The painting of the present invention is at least as flexible as said paintable surface, sustainable under normal use of the article, resistant to breaking, cracking, peeling and chipping. The present invention provides several example painting mixtures that are capable to provide characteristics described.
According to the teachings of the present invention there are provided kits including articles such as footwear, and one or more erasable paints according to embodiments of the present invention. The kits may further include an erasing solvent that when applied to a painted paintable surface, the erasable paint of the present invention is removed from the paintable surface and the paintable surface can then be recoated with an erasable paint of the present invention.
The kits may further include a powder or solvent that when applied onto a painted paintable surface, the powder/solvent makes the painted paintable surface permanent and non-erasable, including not by the erasing solvent of the present invention.
The kits may further include a painting instrument for applying the erasable paint onto the paintable surface, the painting instrument selected from the group of instruments including of a painting brush, a marker, a painting fabric, a painting sponge, pen and/or pencil.
The kits may further include an accessory selected from the group of accessories consisting of a sticker, a sticker that can be painted on by the erasable paints of the present invention, a removable sticking stencil having figures and shapes cut off them (such that when painted in side and the stencil is removed, the cut off shape or figure remains painted on the article), items that can be glued on the footwear item, the items selected from the group of items including beads, buttons, dots, powder/sand, zippers, shoelace, fur or fur alike, pompons, belt, eyes, moustache, ears and so on, pieces of fabric, internal and external linings, color glue or attached by a tic-tac or any other attachments know in the art, or any other accessory. All stickers are weather proof and sustainable to normal abuse such as when walking. All stickers can be peeled with or without hot water.
Footwear or other article, according to embodiments of the present invention, having paintable surface, may further include a design which can be colored with paints of the present invention. The painting remains on the design unless removed by an erasable solvent, according to embodiments of the present invention, and can then be recoated with paints of the present invention. The design can be permanent or erasable.
Footwear or other articles, according to embodiments of the present invention, can be made of material selected from the group of materials including rubber, plastic, leather, fabric, foam, polymers, PVC, EVA, PU, Croslite, sky, nylon or any kind of polymer coated textile or natural opaque materials or any other material used in the art.
The term “paintable article” as used herein refers to articles being part of an article kit, according to embodiments of the present invention.
The term “erasable paintable” as used herein refers to paintings that when applied to a surface can be substantially removed from the surface by erasing solvent.
The term “paintable surface” as used herein refers to a surface of an article which can be painted on by an erasable painting, according to embodiments of the present invention.
The term “permanent” as used herein refers to a painting or a design being non erasable, resistant to common solvents, including the erasing solvent.
The present invention will become fully understood from the detailed description given herein below and the accompanying drawings, which are given by way of illustration and example only and thus not limitative of the present invention, and wherein:
The present invention is an article of footwear having at least one paintable surface, which is manufactured according to embodiments of the present invention, and at least one erasable painting. The erasable painting is used to paint a design on the at least one paintable surface of the footwear. The erasable paintings are insoluble in water and thus can withstand any weather conditions. The article of footwear may also include an erasing solvent to erase the at least one erasable painting. The article of footwear may also include a spray and/or liquid to make the painting permanent and/or a painting instrument.
Before explaining embodiments of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details set forth in the description or illustrated in the drawings.
Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art of the invention belongs. The methods and examples provided herein are illustrative only and not intended to be limiting.
By way of example, with no limitation upon other articles, the present invention is described through a footwear article, but the description of the present invention is applicable to many other articles such as beads, buttons, dots, powder/sand, zippers, shoelace, fur or fur alike, pompons, belt, eyes, moustache, ears and so on, pieces of fabric, internal and external linings, color glue or attached by a tic-tac or any other attachments know in the art, or any other accessory. All stickers are weather proof and sustainable to normal abuse such as when walking. All stickers can be peeled with or without hot water.
It should be noted that footwear or other articles, according to embodiments of the present invention, can be made of material selected from the group of materials including rubber, plastic, leather, fabric, foam, polymers, PVC, EVA, PU, Croslite, sky, nylon or any kind of polymer coated textile or natural opaque materials or any other material used in the art.
Paintable footwear 100 or other articles having a surface to be painted on made of materials containing rubber, is preferably manufactured according with a method of manufacturing, the method including the following steps:
a) CIS-1.4 polybutadiene rubber;
b) gasoline number 190; and
c) sulfur.
Typically, to coat paintable footwear 100 with the oil mixture, footwear 100 is dipped into a barrel that contains the oil mixture and is hanged until the gasoline evaporates. Footwear 100 is then put into the oven and when taken out, footwear 100 is left to cool down. Before painting, for best results, the footwear 100 is preferably washed with water and soap, rinsed dried.
The process provides a paintable surface for article 100 and leaves no marks or stains on article 100, nor does the process damage article 100 in any other way.
Preferably, paintable footwear 100 is made of natural rubber (caoutchouc) and/or synthetic rubber or contains rubber, but paintable footwear 100 can also be made of plastic, foam, PVC, EVA, PU, Croslite and/or other polymers and on which painting can be applied. Paintable footwear 100 can be made of about 50% caoutchouc, calcium carbonate, sulfur, zinc oxide and stearic acid. This was given be way of example only, with no limitation, and footwear 100 can be made of materials containing other percentages of caoutchouc or other ingredients.
For the sake of clarity, footwear 100 can be manufactured in any color or in multiple colors, whereas the color applied to a surface at manufacturing time, remains permanently on the surface.
Erasable paints 120 can be any suitable type of paint made of a mixture depending on the pigment used and on the material erasable paints 120 are applied to. Erasable paints 120 are non erasable by water or salt water and thus withstand substantially any weather conditions. Erasable paints 120 are sustainable under normal use of the article, non-crackable and flexible to fit flexible surfaces and prevent breaking, cracking, chipping or peeling of the painting, when bending. Thus, when painted on boots, for example, paints 120 withstand any bending of a boot surface and reasonable rubbing forces applied to a painted boot surface.
Examples of erasable paints 120, according to embodiments of the present invention, are given herein by way of example only:
The colorant type and quantities are given by way of example only. Blue, for example, can be Pigment Blue 29 (CAS-57455-37-5), Green may exclude the blue portion and so on. Other colors can be obtained by mixing certain colors, for example, a pink color can be obtained by mixing white and red.
Some ingredient are added or removed for a particular color. For example, BaSO4 is removed for a black color, lithopone is add to white and yellow colors, penetrating agent JFC is added to black, yellow red and green, and ethylene glycol can be substituted with propylene glycol.
Some ingredient can be substituted by another ingredient, for example acrylic resin can be substituted by butyl acrylate.
To enable easy peel-off of the painting, (for example, for footwear 100 made of Croslite) using a sharp object such as a finger nail, the following erasable painting 120, according to embodiments of the present invention, can be use:
It should be noted that the paining of example 3 has all other characteristics of the erasable paints of the present invention.
To prevent easy peel-off of the painting, even when using sharp objects such as a finger nail, the following erasable painting 120, according to embodiments of the present invention, can be use:
In other embodiments of the present invention, the following erasable acrylic painting 100 can be use:
It should be noted, that in this example (5), the acrylic resin can be substituted by butyl acrylate and glycol can be substituted by propylene glycol.
It should be noted that, for all example, the quantity of the ingredients may vary by ±40%, depending on the desired flexibility, desired adhesiveness, desired shade of the color, desired clarity of the color, the surface becoming glary or mat, the climate conditions, etc.
Erasing solvent 130 can be alcohol based, acetone based or/and other solvents the like known in the art. It should be noted that since erasing solvent 130 is typically supplied to be used by children, erasing solvent 130 should be safe for usage by children. Erasing solvent 130 may be supplied with pads to apply solvent 130 to a painted footwear item 100.
Examples of erasing solvent 130, according to embodiments of the present invention, are given herein by way of example only:
a) ethyl lactate (30-80%);
b) water or neutral ph materials (10-70%);
c) glycerin (optional) (5-25%);
d) preservative (optional)
e) bittering agent (optional)
f) Fragrance (optional).
g) Ethanol (optional)
a) methyl soyate (40-95%); and
b) ethanol (5-60%).
c) Preservative (optional);
d) bittering agent (optional); and
e) Fragrance (optional).
The solutions can be diluted with any neutral ph ingredient and glycerin can be added or any kind of moisturizing agent.
It should be noted that, for all example, the quantity of the ingredients may vary by ±40%.
It should be noted that, the wide range is needed to adapt to the material from which an article is made and to be suitable for use of children.
There are a number of optional kits that can be supplied with the footwear article of manufacture:
Footwear 100 will be provided with erasable paints 120 and/or erasable markers, and erasing solvent 130. A person can then use the erasable paints 120 supplied to paint or draw on footwear 100 a design 110 and keep design 110 as long that the person wants. The person can also erase design 110 and than paint a new design 110. This can be repeated to the person's liking. Optionally, erasing solvent 130 will be supplied separately.
Footwear 100 will be provided with erasable paints 120, paint brush 140 and erasing solvent 130. A person can then apply erasable paints 120 supplied to paint with the paint brush 140 on footwear 100 a design 110 and keep design 110 as long that the person wants. The person can also erase design 110 and than paint a new design 110. This can be repeated to the person's liking. Optionally, erasing solvent 130 will be supplied separately.
Footwear 100 will be provided with erasable paints 120 or markers. A person can then use erasable paints 120 supplied to paint or draw on footwear 100 a design 110. Once the person is satisfied with the design 110, the person sprays design 110 on footwear 100 with spray 150 that makes design 110 permanent. Spray 150 will be supplied with the footwear article of manufacture or obtained separately. Spray 150 is given by way of example and design 110 can be coated in any other way with a liquid or powder to make design 110 permanent.
In another embodiment, instead of spray 150, a liquid, powder or any other proper material in any form will be used to make the design permanent.
Footwear 100 will be provided with a design 110 permanently drawn on footwear 100 and with erasable paints 120 and optionally with erasing solvent 130. The design 110 can then be painted by the person with erasable paints 120 supplied, to his liking. For example: the shoe will have a design 110 of a teddy bear, smile flower, pooh the bear and so on so forth. A person just needs to fill it in, just like is done in drawing books for kids. Example designs 110 are shown in
For the sake of clarity, the present invention is not limited to the above four kit options, and other kits can be supplied as well.
For the sake of clarity, the present invention has been described in terms of a footwear article of manufacture, but it is not limited to paintable footwear 100. Instead of a footwear item, the article of manufacture can also be applied to items such as belts, handbags, purses, lunchboxes, furniture, crocs-look-alike shoes, hair-bows, coats, shirts, pants, other fashion wear and fashion accessories, leather articles, plastic or polymeric articles and other products that are made of natural materials, fabric and textile materials.
Kits may also include any of the following accessories:
Optionally, the kit can also include liquid or solvent that when coated on an article 100, then (after the liquid dries out) the user can paint on the dried surface his design 110. Alternatively, the kit can include a surface or sticker that attaches to an article 100, on which the user can paint his design 110.
In embodiments of the present invention erasable paints 120 are replaced by “permanent” markers, which are erasable by various erasable solutions 130 of the present invention.
In embodiments of the present invention, a substance that glows in the dark substance may be added to erasable paints 120.
The invention being thus described in terms of embodiments and examples, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/IL07/01292 | 10/25/2007 | WO | 00 | 4/20/2009 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60862775 | Oct 2006 | US | |
| 60864402 | Nov 2006 | US |
