Adjustable Athletic Shoe Heel Pad for Injury Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Athletic shoes with cleats for football and similar sports have not evolved to meet the increasing demands of effort, speed, and distance covered by players, leading to high physical fatigue and risk of injury.
Innovation Solution
An athletic shoe with a removable heel pad that can be adjusted for different mechanical properties, such as damping and shock absorption, allowing users to customize the shoe to their physical attributes and reduce the risk of injury.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the shoe structure remains traditional and fixed, then the design is simple and reliable, but it cannot adapt to varying physical demands and increases injury risk
Solution Approach 1:
The heel pad is segmented as a removable component from the outsole, allowing it to be detached and replaced independently. This segmentation enables the shoe to adapt to different physical demands by swapping heel pads with varying thicknesses and mechanical properties, while keeping the rest of the shoe structure simple and unchanged.
Solution Approach 2:
The heel pad thickness is made dynamic and adjustable rather than fixed. Users can modify the heel pad thickness according to their physical attributes and performance needs, transforming the static shoe structure into a dynamic system that adapts to varying requirements.
2Reliability
If the heel pad thickness is increased to provide more support and reduce fatigue, then comfort improves, but the heel height increases which may affect balance and performance
Solution Approach 1:
The heel pad thickness parameter can be changed by selecting different heel pad options. This allows users to adjust the thickness parameter to optimize the balance between support (reducing fatigue and injury risk) and performance (maintaining proper heel height for balance).
3Productivity
If the shoe is designed with fixed mechanical properties, then manufacturing is simple and cost-effective, but it cannot meet the increasing demands of effort, speed, and distance
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the heel pad as a separate replaceable component, the manufacturing process remains simple for the main shoe structure while allowing specialized heel pads to be produced independently and swapped as needed, maintaining manufacturing efficiency while enabling performance optimization.
Solution Approach 2:
The standardized heel pad design with universal compatibility allows a single shoe model to serve multiple functions and performance levels by accepting different heel pad variants, making the shoe system multi-functional without complicating the base manufacturing process.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The shoe provides improved balance, reduced fatigue, and customized support, optimizing performance and reducing the risk of mechanical pathologies by allowing users to adjust the heel height and mechanical properties of the heel pad.
Implementation Method 1
the user can modify the technical characteristics of the shoe by putting in place another heel pad having different mechanical properties, in particular at the level of damping, shock absorption
Implementation Method 2
the user can modify the technical characteristics of the shoe by putting in place another heel pad having different mechanical properties, in particular at the level of damping, shock absorption
Data Source
AI summary
An athletic shoe having cleats, includes an upper and an outsole, wherein the outsole has a front portion capable of receiving the front of the foot, a central portion capable of receiving the middle of the foot, and a rear portion capable of receiving the heel. The rear portion of the outsole includes a hollow shell and a heel seat, the heel seat being removably arranged in a recess formed by the hollow shell, and the rear portion has a portion that is thickened relative to the front portion, the thickened portion being adjustable by modifying the thickness of the removable heel seat.