Structure of a sports footwear for roller skates or ice skates

Abstract

The present invention refers to a structure for a footwear for roller skates or ice skates. The footwear comprises a soft upper (4), a rigid support (5) provided with a plate (7), from which a pair of arms (8a, 8b) extend upwards to embrace and support laterally the upper (4); the footwear (3) is adapted to be associated to a flame (2) supporting two or more rollers or an ice-skating blade. The footwear further comprises an insole (6), which is made of a substantially rigid material and is contained within the soft upper (4).

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention refers to a structure for a sports footwear intended for roller skates or ice skates. BACKGROUND ART [0002] The boots that are currently used in association with the skates of the most widespread kinds available on the market, such as ice skates or in-line roller skates for sports, leisure or fitness purposes, can be divided substantially into two main categories: in the first one of these categories, the footwear is comprised of an outer rigid structure, which is constituted by a lower shell of plastic material, and possibly a cuff of the same material, and contains a soft inner boot; the second category involves a footwear composed of a soft upper supported, in correspondence of the sole and the side zones of the leg, by a rigid structure of limited dimensions such as to leave exposed most of the upper; this latter is connected to the rigid structure in such a manner as to enable the skater to control the skates correctly. [0003] The Eu...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0010] It therefore is a main object of the present invention to overcome the above-cited drawbacks of prior-art solutions by providing a structure of footwear for roller skates or ice skates, which is capable of being easily assembled and manufactured.

[0012] A further purpose of the present invention is to provide a footwear for skates, in which the various component parts are capable of being easily and conveniently replaced, without any need arising for destructive actions to be taken on any of said component parts to that purpose.

[0013] Finally, another equally important purpose of the present invention is to provide a footwear for skates capable of being manufactured at fully competitive costs with the use of readily available, largely known tools, machinery and techniques.

Problems solved by technology

A major drawback that is encountered in such kinds of boots lies in the fact that the presence of these containment elements has the effect of heavily limiting the possibility to use the same rigid support, or at least the same rigid base, in conjunction with uppers of two or more contiguous sizes.

Similarly, also the possibility to use the support in conjunction with uppers having different aesthetical, structural or functional characteristics is limited, owing to the difficulties to adapt the rigid support to uppers in which the zones interfacing with said rigid support do not match.

A further drawback derives from the need for the sole of the upper to be fixed in a stable manner all along the peripheral zone of the rigid base, to the purpose of preventing the upper itself from moving with respect to the support or rigid base; such an attachment, which can be carried out with the aid of mechanical fastening means, such as rivets, or by other means or processes, such as stitching, bonding, gluing or welding, serves the purpose of providing the required stability of the upper with respect to the rigid support to allow a precise control of the skate during the related sports activity.

This anyway involves not only longer operations in the assembly of the skate, due to the need of providing said stable attachment, but also a definite difficulty in replacing, in the case of breakage or wear, the component parts of the footwear, i.e. the upper or the rigid support, without destroying or, anyway, heavily damaging the remaining component parts.

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