Patent Application
20110258878
This disclosure relates to an overshoe traction device, or crampon, which can be attached to walking shoes to aid in walking on slippery surfaces such as ice and snow.
Overshoe traction devices have been proposed which facilitate walking on ice and snow. Such devices may include metal cleats attached to one or more straps formed of an elastically flexible material, like rubber, that fit over a shoe, such that the cleats are held in a downwardly facing state beneath the shoe.
In some cases, the cleats are formed integrally with metal plates, and the plates may be bonded to an elastically flexible material. Among the issues facing such devices is a tendency for snow or ice to become packed along the undersides of the plates, especially near the front of the foot, which diminishes the traction provided by the device.
It would be desirable to provide an improved overshoe traction device which provides traction when walking in ice and snow.
It would also be desirable to provide an improved overshoe traction device which resists the packing of snow and ice on the underside thereof.
An overshoe traction device comprises an elastically flexible strap configured to be attached over a shoe; and a front cleat member and a rear cleat member attached to the strap and adapted to be disposed beneath a shoe when the strap is attached thereto. The front cleat member is disposed ahead of the rear cleat member and spaced therefrom. The rear cleat member includes at least one rear plate formed of a rigid material, with rear cleat elements extending downwardly from an underside of the rear plate The front cleat member includes a fore plate, an aft plate, and an elastically flexible material molded to, and interconnecting, the fore and aft plates. The fore and aft plates are formed of a rigid material. The aft plate includes a front edge spaced rearwardly from a rear edge of the fore plate to form a gap between the fore and aft plates. Fore and aft cleat elements extend downwardly from the underside of each of the fore and aft plates. The front edge of the aft plate includes an aft opening extending to the gap, and the rear edge of the fore plate includes a fore opening extending to the gap and facing the aft opening. The fore and aft cleat elements extend around the fore and aft openings. The elastically flexible material extends: (a) through the gap between the fore and aft plates, (b) across respective upper sides of the fore and aft plates, and (c) through the fore and aft openings. Thus, the elastically flexible material of the front cleat member forms a topside and a central region of the underside of the front cleat member and defines a horizontal pivot zone along the gap for enabling the fore and aft plates to pivot up and down relative to one another.
Depicted in
The device 10 includes an elastically flexible strap 12 of a generally oval shape (see
The front chains 18a-f are connected to a front cleat member 20, and the rear chains 18g-j are connected to a rear cleat member 22 which is spaced rearwardly from the front cleat member. The chains 18a and 18b extend from a front side of the strap; the chains 18i and 18h extend from a rear side of the strap; the remaining chains extend from either of two sides of the strap. The front and rear cleat members 20, 22 are not directly connected to one another, but rather are indirectly interconnected through the strap 12. Thus, the front and rear cleat members are freely movable relative to the strap and to one another in a horizontal plane when being worn. When the device is worn, the cleat members are arranged to be disposed beneath the user's shoe S.
The rear cleat member 22 includes a rear plate 30 and an elastically flexible material 32 attached thereto. The rear plate 30 can be formed of a relatively stiff material, such as aluminum or hardened steel, for example, and portions of the outer edge of the plate are bent downwardly and sharpened to form pointed rear cleats 34. The rear plate 30 is shown as being of generally rectangular shape, and the cleats 34 are formed at each of respective four corners of the plate. The plate could be of other suitable shapes, and any number of cleats could be provided. The rear plate forms a generally centrally disposed rear opening 36 extending therethrough, and the rear cleats 34 extend in a pattern around that rear opening. The cleats need not be disposed at the outer edge of the rear plate, but rather cleats 34′ could be disposed slightly inwardly therefrom (shown in
The elastically flexible material 32, such as thermoplastic rubber (TPR), for example, is preferably directly molded to the rear plate 30 so that a portion 32a thereof forms a layer overlying extending across an upper surface of the rear plate (see
The front cleat member 20 includes a pair of front plates, i.e., a fore plate 40a and an aft plate 40b, and an elastically flexible material 42 attached to both of the front plates 40a, 40b. The plates 40a, 40b can be formed of any suitable rigid material, such as aluminum for example, and portions of the outer edge of the fore plate are bent downwardly and sharpened to form pointed front cleats 44a. Each of the fore and aft plates 40a, 40b is shown as being of generally U-shaped shape (see
Portions of the outer edge of the aft plate are bent downwardly and sharpened to form pointed rear cleats 44b.
The cleats 44a are formed at each of respective four corners of the fore plate 40a, and the cleats 44b are formed at each of two rear corners of the aft plate 40b. The fore and aft front plates 40a, 40b could be of other suitable shapes, and any number of cleats could be provided. The cleats need not be at the outer edges of the fore and aft plates; instead, cleats 44a′ and 44b′ could be located slightly inwardly of those edges, as shown in
The aft plate 40b includes a U-shaped front edge 50 spaced rearwardly from a U-shaped rear edge 52 of the fore plate to form a gap 54 between the fore and aft plates (
The elastically flexible material 42, such as thermoplastic rubber (TPR), is molded to , and interconnects, the fore and aft plates. That material 42 includes a portion 60 which extends through the gap 54 (see
Through-holes 70, 72 extend through respective plates 40a, 40b, and through the portions 60, 62 and 64 of the material 42, for connection with respective chains 18a-f. Those through-holes extend in a pattern around the central region of the fore and aft plates.
As a user wearing the devices walks on ice or snow, the accumulation of ice or snow in the central region of the undersides of the front and rear cleat members 20, 22 (i.e., the region around which the cleats and the holes extend), will be resisted by the presence of the portions 32c and 64 of the materials 32 and 42, respectively, to which ice/snow does not readily adhere. Furthermore, any ice/snow which manages to accumulate in the central region of the underside of the front cleat member 20 will tend to be expelled therefrom as the fore and aft plate members 40a, 40b pivot relative to one another about the pivot axis defined by the portion 60 of the material 42 (see
The portions 62 and 32a of the elastically flexible material 42 which form the topsides of the fore and aft cleat members, respectively, frictionally engage the bottom of the wearer's shoe to resist relative sliding movement therebetween as the user walks.
Although the present invention has been described in connection with preferred embodiments thereof, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that additions, deletions, modifications, and substitutions not specifically described may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.
