Shoe

Abstract

A shoe having an upper and a curved sole member, the sole member may be comprised of one unitary piece or a separate midsole and a separate outsole. The curvature results from the sole member tilting along a center of mass axis that extends through a point in the vicinity of the lateral side of the heel region of the sole member to a point in the vicinity of the medial side of forefoot region of the sole member. The center of mass axis runs diagonally along the entire length of the shoe. Due to the curvature, the sole member has a non-uniform thickness. The curvature of the sole member allows the user's foot to be guided in a more natural motion providing more movement efficiency and comfort.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]The present invention relates to athletic shoes, in particular, a shoe that promotes the natural motion of the user's foot, thus providing movement efficiency and comfort for the user. This motion is achieved by a uniquely curved sole member.[0003]2. Description of the Related Art[0004]Shoes arc designed for many purposes—from protection on the job, to performance during athletic activity, to everyday use. Shoes have also been used to promote physical health and activity. Increasingly, shoes have been designed to allow the user to walk more naturally. Prior art shoes attempt to achieve such motion by having rocker bottoms, specialized midsoles, etc.[0005]However, none of these prior art shoes are designed to account for the actual location on a person's heel that initially bears the load incurred when a person's heel first begins to make contact with the ground at the beginning of a step. That initial load bearing locat...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0012]The curvature results from the sole member following and tilting around an axis that follows the foot's true center of mass, referred to as the center of mass axis, which extends through a point in the vicinity of the lateral side of the heel region of the sole member to a point in the vicinity of the medial side of forefoot region of the sole member. The center of mass axis extends diagonally along the entire length of the shoe, rather than straight from the rearmost point of the shoe (centered directly between the medial and lateral sides of the shoe) to the frontmost point of the shoe (also centered directly between the medial and lateral sides of the shoe). Moving along the center of mass axis from the rear of the sole to the front of the sole, the tilt shifts from the lateral side to the medial side to form the curvature. The curvature is pronounced in the forefoot region, so that it appears to be curved upwardly towards the medial side of the shoe, the sole member progressively tilts until the heel region is curved upwardly towards the lateral side of the shoe. Due to the curvatures, the sole member has a non-uniform thickness. The areas in which there is an upward curvature are thinner relative to the areas in which there is no upward curvature. The unique curvature and resulting non-uniform thickness of the sole member allows the user's foot to be guided in a more natural motion that follows the center of mass axis, thus providing more movement efficiency and comfort.

[0019]The amount of curvature affects the thickness of the sole member. For any given sole member material, the thinner the sole member, the quicker the user's foot reaches full load bearing capacity and stops sinking toward the ground during each step. Furthermore, having less thickness results in the foot impacting lower to the ground relative to the thicker region. The construction of the sole member allows the invention to guide the user's foot and control the user's speed and motion. For any given sole member material, reduced thickness allows the user's foot to more quickly complete its compression of the reduced thickness region during each step compared to the thicker region which, due to its increased thickness, takes longer for the user's foot to compress.

[0024]In a preferred embodiment, due to the location of the apex on the center of mass axis, more material is placed towards the rear of the middle region on the medial side towards the start of the heel region. Thus, the additional material in the rear of the middle region towards the heel region creates a medial post to slow the rate of pronation and provide additional support.

[0025]In a preferred embodiment, the sole member may have a plurality of vertical incisions that go through a substantial portion of the sole. member. The incisions allow greater flexure of the shoe and easier flexure of the shoe. The added flexure due to the incisions allows the shoe to more readily conform to the natural movement of the user's foot along the center of mass axis.

[0027]As mentioned above, the natural motion is achieved by the rotation of the foot along or parallel to a center of mass axis that extends through a point in the vicinity of the lateral side of the heel region of the sole member to a point in the vicinity of the medial side of the forefoot region by tilting the sole member to follow that center of mass axis, thus forming a unique curvature. This, in turn, imparts various fitness benefits to the user such as increased movement efficiency and increased comfort.

Problems solved by technology

However, none of these prior art shoes are designed to account for the actual location on a person's heel that initially bears the load incurred when a person's heel first begins to make contact with the ground at the beginning of a step.

Similarly, none of the prior art shoes are designed to account for the actual location in a person's toe area that bears the load incurred when a person's foot begins to leave the ground at the end of a step.

The soles and midsoles of the prior art shoes, however, are not designed to account for these actual load bearing locations or the transfer of the load between them.

However, due to the shape of the entire midsole in prior art shoes, the heel cleft cannot effectively enable natural motion due to the entire shoe being flat.

Prior art shoes have not accounted for the natural movement of the foot from the lateral portion of the heel region during heel-strike to the medial region of the forefoot area during toe-off.

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