Athletic Cleat Toe Box Structure for Lateral Stability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional athletic footwear, including cleated footwear, often causes toe adduction due to tapered toe boxes, leading to reduced stability, energy loss, and increased risk of injuries during lateral movements, while lacking adequate lateral stability and traction improvements.
Innovation Solution
An athletic cleat with a widened toe box and support structures extending upwardly from the sole, providing lateral stability and preventing foot displacement, while maintaining natural toe positioning and reducing energy loss.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a tapered toe box is used in conventional athletic footwear, then the shoe structure is simplified and easier to manufacture, but it causes toe adduction leading to reduced stability and increased injury risk
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of tapering the toe box forward as in conventional footwear, the patent inverts the design by creating a widened toe box that extends forward beyond the forefoot section. This inversion allows toes to maintain natural alignment and prevents adduction, thereby improving stability while remaining manufacturable.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extends the toe box in the longitudinal dimension beyond the forefoot section, creating a multi-dimensional structure that accommodates toe alignment. This dimensional extension provides lateral stability and prevents foot displacement during athletic movements.
2Device complexity
If conventional cleat designs are used, then the structure remains simple, but lateral stability and traction are insufficient during lateral movements
Solution Approach 1:
The cleat is segmented into distinct functional sections: a base with heel, midfoot, and forefoot sections; upwardly extending support structures at lateral and medial sides; and a reinforced toe box. This segmentation allows each component to address specific stability requirements, improving lateral support during athletic movements.
Solution Approach 2:
Support structures are strategically positioned at specific locations (lateral and medial sides of forefoot and heel sections) rather than uniformly distributed. This local reinforcement provides targeted lateral stability where needed during lateral movements while maintaining overall structural efficiency.
3Stability of the object's composition
If the toe box is widened to prevent toe adduction, then natural toe positioning is maintained, but the overall shoe size and volume increase
Solution Approach 1:
The toe box is widened only in the specific region where toes require natural positioning, rather than increasing the volume of the entire shoe. This localized expansion maintains toe alignment while minimizing overall volume increase.
Solution Approach 2:
Rather than reducing toe box volume to minimize shoe size, the patent inverts the approach by strategically expanding the toe box forward beyond the forefoot section. This inversion places volume where it provides functional benefit for toe positioning rather than where it merely increases size.
Data Source
AI summary
An athletic cleat includes a sole structure that includes a base for receiving a user's foot. The base includes a top surface and a bottom surface opposed from the top surface. The base further includes a heel section, midfoot section, a forefoot section, and a plurality of studs extending downwardly from the bottom surface. The forefoot section includes a toe box configured to be positioned below toes of a user. The toe box includes a medial inner side edge configured to extend substantially along a length of a proximal phalanx of the user's great toe, the medial inner side edge of the toe box being aligned with a medial axis, and the medial axis being tangent to an inner side edge of the heel section.