Flexible Metatarsal Guard

Abstract

A metatarsal guard is provided which is adapted to have improved flexibility while maintaining adequate protection for the metatarsal region of a user's foot. The guard may include a flexible section spanning the width of the guard in a medial-lateral direction and comprising a pattern of perforations extending entirely or partway through the thickness of the metatarsal guard. In some aspects, the pattern of perforations may allow for expansion along the medial and lateral edges of the guard, while resisting deformation caused by outside impact.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application claims the benefit of the filing date of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62 / 747,766 filed Oct. 19, 2018, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]Aspects of the present invention relate, in general, to protection devices for use in shoes, and specifically to metatarsal or other protection devices for shielding a user's foot from injury. Protection devices for use in shielding other areas of a user's foot, other portions of the body, or in alternate applications beyond bodily protection are also contemplated.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Protection devices for shielding the metatarsal area of the foot from injury are widely used in various sectors of the footwear industry. Typically, these protection devices are referred to as metatarsal guards, and may be employed as an external guard or integrated into the shoe itself (e.g., an internal guard). Common scenarios in ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present technology introduces a metatarsal guard for the foot that offers enhanced flexibility while still providing adequate protection to the metatarsal area. The guard has a flexible section spanning the width of the guard, with patterns of perforations extending throughout its thickness. The guard is positioned within a shoe and acts as a protective barrier against falling objects or impact events, without compromising flexibility and comfort for the wearer during a stride.

Problems solved by technology

Common scenarios in which such metatarsal guards may be necessary are in construction applications, in mining, or in other like fields where the foot may be susceptible to injury due to impact with extraneous objects (e.g., falling rocks, lumber, puncture via nails, etc.) In some cases, while the aforementioned metatarsal guard(s) may provide adequate protection from injury, such guard(s) may restrict comfortable movement of the foot due to the rigidity of the guard(s).

Even these protective mechanisms, however, may suffer from several defects and therefore lack comfort in use.

For example, some protective devices are unnecessarily rigid and, thereby, do not adequately absorb the shock resulting from an impact or other injuring event.

Stated differently, since such protective devices are unduly rigid, force generated from an impact can travel through the device and be translated to the user, resulting in injury to the user from the impact.

Such rigidity also decreases comfort, and sometimes results in the protective device being overly heavy.

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