Footwear Kit with Adjustable Foreparts

Abstract

A footwear kit suitable for producing a pair of customized bowling shoes with appropriate sliding sole and a traction sole for right and left handed bowlers and optimizable for a variety of lane conditions is provided. A distal margin on the shoe matches a margin on a removable forepart to provide rapid alignment and orientation of the ground contact surface area of the forepart to the shoe. Foreparts provided are adjustable for use on either a left or right shoe.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) of U.S. Provisional Patent Application 61 / 819,249, filed on May 3, 2013, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Standardization of bowling shoes for a mass market results in bowling shoes with no difference in traction characteristics between different pairs, or in many cases even between left and right shoes, although the two feet are performing different functions. Improvements in bowling performance may be realized by adjusting the traction characteristics of the shoes based on the different functions of the two feet in bowling.[0003]The typical bowler will approach the foul line with the leading foot stopping just short of the foul line, and in many cases it is desirable to have a shoe for the leading foot having lower traction than the shoe for the trailing foot. For marketing, this requires providing pairs of shoes having d...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides a footwear kit with removable foreparts that can be customized for different surfaces and orientations. The forepart has a plurality of traction characteristics that provide varying patterns of traction across the forepart. The invention also provides a pair of bowling shoes that are suitable for either a left or right handed bowler and can be rapidly customized by the user. The forepart can be adaptable for use on either a right or left shoe of any size. The ground contact surface of the shoe displays a plurality of traction characteristics that are directional in nature, meaning a force applied parallel to the ground contact surface from one direction will result in one traction characteristic, while the same magnitude force applied parallel to the ground contact surface from a second direction will result in a different traction characteristic. Aligning the margin of the forepart to the distal margin of the forepart receiving area of the shoe establishes the directionality of the traction characteristic of the ground contact surface with respect to the shoe.

Problems solved by technology

In the extreme, it can be imagined that the perfect shoe for a single bowler on a particular lane may be unlike the perfect shoe for any other single bowler and less suitable for the same bowler on any other lane.

However, these recesses do not extend to the periphery of the shoe, and some portion of the ground contact surface of the shoe remains unchanged when replacing the slide pad, resulting in an uneven ground contact surface.

Although these designs may reduce the number of different shoes required in stock, that reduction is offset by the increasing number and complexity both of size and shape of the different ground contact surfaces required.

The sale of a pair of customized bowling shoes is typically a complicated process involving the selection of the shoes, followed by the selection of a slide pad in a size and handedness to match the sliding sole and a traction pad in a size and handedness to match the traction sole, and possibly the selection of additional slide and traction pads in the appropriate size and handedness to alter the shoes to fit differing lane conditions.

The ability of the manufacturer to provide and the retailer to stock a variety of foreparts having differing traction characteristics is limited by the necessity to stock each forepart in left and right handed configurations and in a multitude of shoe sizes.

To reduce the complexity of the transaction and provide a single pair of shoes to be used by either a right or left handed bowler, a footwear kit may be provided including both a left and right slide pad and both a left and right traction pad, but this results in the waste of at least two inserts.

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