A backless house slipper including a soft, typically plush foot-receiving portion and an oppositely disposed hard, thick and heavy sole portion. The sole portion is typically at least 1 centimeter thick rubber truck tire, and more typically the sole portion is 2, 3, or 4 centimeters thick and weighs between 0.5 and 3 kilograms, more typically between 2 and 2.5 kilograms. The sole portion engages the ground with tread patterns at least about 1 centimeter deep, and is unsuited and impractical for outdoor wear as the treads will grippingly engage the ground while the slipper offers no back heel engagement, thus the slipper will become easily stuck in the ground and disengage from a wearer's foot when worn outdoors.

A bimodal heel counter apt for a rapid entry and release footwear devices, that includes a flexible hollow hemisphere portion, a heel tab, a secondary heel tab, a back sole base, an anchor system, and dependent fastening elements. The bimodal heel counter and dependent fastening systems are biased to one of two stable positions, which elastically morphs by stored potential energy with applied force from one position to the other, configured to collectively snap a footwear device between an open and closed position, for donning and doffing, or securing the foot as to enable active footwear use.

A sandal having releasable strap fastening, comprising a sole, at least one strap and at least one clamping buckle and/or at least one anchor buckle. According to the invention, the sandal is modularly constructed and can be easily assembled and disassembled. The sole and the at least one strap are connected to each other by guiding the at least one strap through eyes provided in the sole. The two ends of the at least one strap, which form two strap ends, are either fastened to the strap again by means of at least one of the clamping buckles so as to form a loop or are anchored to one of the eyes by means of at least one of the anchor buckles.

An article of footwear is configured to enclose and comfortably engage a forefoot of a user. The article includes a sole having a forefoot portion and a rearfoot portion, a closed-toe, open-heel upper configured to substantially prevent lateral and forward movement of the forefoot with respect to the forefoot portion, the upper with a lower perimeter attached to a forefoot perimeter of the forefoot portion and defining an interior configured to receive the forefoot of the user, and an inter-toe stanchion extending upwardly through the interior, the stanchion with a bottom attached to the forefoot portion of the sole and a top attached to the upper, wherein the stanchion is configured to extend between and engage adjacent toes of the user to substantially prevent movement of the forefoot with respect to the forefoot portion of the sole. A method of using the footwear with toe bar is also disclosed.

Provided are, among other things, shoes and shoe components, together with systems, methods and techniques for manufacturing the same. One representative embodiment involves a shoe that includes: a sole having a main structure; a strap anchor that has attachment points and is at least partially embedded within the main structure; and a strap that is attached to and/or looped through one or more of such attachment points and that is configured for strapping the shoe to a wearer's foot. Also, in this embodiment, the strap anchor includes a number of strap anchor components attached in a unit, each such strap anchor component including a number of the attachment points and being at least partially embedded within the main structure.

A shoe apparatus can including a base component with a sole, a strap component having a strap and a center connector, and a cover component comprising a material positioned between the base component and the strap and attached to the perimeter edge of the sole. The material has an aperture for receiving the center connector and a first opening positioned above a rearfoot portion of said sole for receiving a person's foot. The center connector is positioned through said aperture and connected to said forefoot portion of the sole. The strap component forms a second opening between the cover component and the strap for receiving a person's foot.

A shoe apparatus can including a base component with a sole, a strap component having a strap and a center connector, and a cover component comprising a material positioned between the base component and the strap and attached to the perimeter edge of the sole. The material has an aperture for receiving the center connector and a first opening positioned above a rearfoot portion of said sole for receiving a person's foot. The center connector is positioned through said aperture and connected to said forefoot portion of the sole. The strap component forms a second opening between the cover component and the strap for receiving a person's foot.

Footwear includes a shell including an outsole portion; and a sole body including a footbed portion. The footbed portion includes a shock absorbing portion formed of a three-dimensional mesh structure body so as to extend to a peripheral surface of the footbed portion. An engaged portion is disposed in an inner side surface of the outsole portion, and an engaging portion is disposed in a portion of the shock absorbing portion that corresponds to the peripheral surface. One of the engaged portion and the engaging portion is a protruding portion while the other one of the engaged portion and the engaging portion is a cutout portion provided as a recessed portion or a hole portion. An occupied volume ratio of a region including at least a portion defining the engaging portion in the shock absorbing portion is locally increased.

A slipper for drying between the toes of the user. The slipper includes a fan and warming element to dry the foot. The fan blows through air channels in the foot bed to dry between the toes. Separators and contours on the slipper separate the toes of the user to allow air to blow on the skin between the toes, drying the skin. The slipper includes a power switch to active the slipper. The slipper includes a power supply.