SHOE RACK AND SHOE RACK KIT

Abstract

A shoe rack includes a rigid frame and a net defining a plurality of openings. The net is attached to the rigid frame such that the net is supported by the rigid frame in a substantially planar configuration at an offset dimension from a support surface, the plurality of openings are configured to allow a shoe or pair of shoes to be at least partially positioned within each of the plurality of openings so that the net at least partially supports the shoe or pair of shoes relative to the support surface.

Claims

1. A shoe rack comprising: a rigid frame; and a net made of an elastic material defining a plurality of openings, the net being attached to the rigid frame such that the net can be supported by the rigid frame in a substantially planar configuration at an offset dimension from a support surface, the plurality of openings being configured to allow a shoe or pair of shoes to be at least partially positioned within each of the plurality of openings so that the full weight of the shoe or pair of shoes need not be supported by the net and the rigid frame alone but a percentage that is less than 100% of the full weight of the shoe or pair of shoes can be supported by the support surface via contact between the shoe or pair of shoes and the support surface.

2. The shoe rack of claim 1, wherein the shoe rack being configured to allow a portion of weight of the shoe or pair of shoes to be supported by the support surface allows the net to be made with less elastic force than would be needed if the net were required to support the full weight of the shoe or pair of shoes.

3. The shoe rack of claim 1, wherein the net remains in a stretched configuration while the net is attached to the rigid frame.

4. The shoe rack of claim 1, wherein the plurality of openings are deformable to conform to the shoe or pair of shoes when the shoe or pair of shoes is positioned within each of the openings of the plurality of openings.

5. The shoe rack of claim 1, wherein the shoe rack is configured to allow a percentage of weight of the shoe or pair of shoes positioned within the plurality of openings to be supported via contact between the shoe or pair of shoes and the support surface while the rigid frame is resting upon the support surface under the force of gravity alone.

6. The shoe rack of claim 1, wherein the rigid frame includes a perimeter portion that defines a plane and the net is held parallel to the plane by the rigid frame.

7. The shoe rack of claim 6, wherein the shoe rack is configured to orient the plane horizontally.

8. The shoe rack of claim 6, wherein a standoff structure includes four legs, with each of the four legs being attached near a corner of the perimeter portion.

9. The shoe rack of claim 1, wherein the elastic material is bungee cord.

10. The shoe rack of claim 1, wherein the rigid frame measures between 12 inches by 12 inches and 12 inches by 48 inches.

11. The shoe rack of claim 1, wherein the shoe rack is configured such that the offset dimension measures between 4 and 10 inches.

12. The shoe rack of claim 1, wherein the planar configuration is about parallel to the support surface.

13. The shoe rack of claim 1, wherein the rigid frame is tubular.

14. The shoe rack of claim 1, wherein the plurality of openings are substantially rectangular in shape when the net is in an unstretched configuration.

15. The shoe rack of claim 3, wherein the net is attached to the rigid frame with fasteners.

16. A shoe arranging apparatus, comprising: a frame; and a net being made of a fully elastic material being attachable to the frame in a stretched configuration such that the net is supported in a plane about horizontally at an offset dimension from a support surface relative to which the frame is configured to rest under the force of gravity alone, the net further being configured to at least partially support at least one shoe within each of a plurality of openings defined by the net such that one but no more than one part of the at least one shoe contacts the support surface.

17. A shoe rack kit, comprising: a plurality of members configured to be assembled to form a rigid frame; and a net made of an elastic material defining a plurality of openings, the net being attachable to the rigid frame such that the net can be supported by the frame in a substantially planar configuration and offset from a support surface, the plurality of openings being sized to allow a shoe or pair of shoes to be at least partially positioned within each of the plurality of openings so that a first percentage that is less than 100% of the full weight of the shoe or pair of shoes is supportable via contact between the shoe or pair of shoes and the support surface while the net and/or the rigid frame supports at least a second percentage that is less than 100% of the full weight of the shoe or pair of shoes.

18. (canceled)

19. The shoe rack kit of claim 17, wherein the rigid frame is configured to rest upon the support surface under the force of gravity alone such that the planar configuration of the net is oriented about horizontally.

20. The shoe rack kit of claim 17, wherein the elastic material is bungee cord.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0005] The following descriptions should not be considered limiting in any way. With reference to the accompanying drawings, like elements are numbered alike:

[0006] FIG. 1 depicts a perspective view of a shoe rack disclosed herein;

[0007] FIG. 2 depicts a partial side view of the shoe rack of FIG. 1 with a plurality of shoes being supported thereby;

[0008] FIG. 3 depicts a perspective view of an alternative embodiment of a shoe rack disclosed herein;

[0009] FIG. 4 depicts a perspective view of yet another alternative embodiment of a shoe rack disclosed herein; and

[0010] FIG. 5 depicts a shoe rack kit disclosed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0011] A detailed description of one or more embodiments of the disclosed apparatus is presented herein by way of exemplification and not limitation with reference to the Figures.

[0012] Referring to FIG. 1, a shoe rack 10 includes a rigid frame 14, and a net 18 defining a plurality of openings 22. The net 18 is attached to the rigid frame 14 such that the net 18 is supported by the rigid frame 14 in a substantially planar configuration offset a dimension 26 from a support surface 30 relative to which the rigid frame 14 is positionable, such as by the force of gravity, for example. The plurality of openings 22 are sized and configured to allow a shoe 34A or pair of shoes 34B (shown only in FIG. 2) to be at least partially positioned within each of the plurality of openings 22 so that the net 18 at least partially supports the shoe or pair of shoes 34A, 34B relative to the support surface 30. The shoes 34A, 34B being at least partially positioned within the opening means that the shoes 34A, 34B extend through the openings 22 such that portions of the shoes 34A, 34B extend beyond a plane defined by the net 18 in both directions. It should further be understood that the term shoe, when used in this document, refers to any and all devices meant to be worn on a foot, such as, boots, sandals, slippers, moccasins, etc.

[0013] In one embodiment the net 18 is elastic, such that it can be resiliently stretched, after which it will return essentially to its unstretched shape upon removal of a load that caused the stretching. The net 18 may be made of bungee cord, also sometime referred to as shock cord, for example, as well as rubbers and elastomers and other resilient materials. While the openings 22 in the illustrated embodiment are rectangular in shape (when the net 18 is in an unstretched configuration), it is contemplated that the openings 22 may have any selected shape, such as round, triangular, trapezoidal, etc. Upon stretching of the net 18, the shapes of the openings 22 will likely be altered depending upon the direction and the magnitude of the stretching loads. The size and shape of the openings 22 are selected to allow a shoe 34A or pair of shoes 34B to be positioned therewithin. One orientation for the shoes 34A, 34B is with a toe 38 of each shoe 34A, 34B pointing in a generally downward direction. In such an orientation, the net 18 may allow only one part of the shoes 34A, 34B, such as the toe 38 for example, of each shoe 34A, 34B to be in contact with the support surface 30. Alternatively, just the toes 38 of some, but not all of the shoes 34A, 34B within the shoe rack 10, may be able to contact the support surface 30, while some of the toes 38 of some of the shoes 34A, 34B remain suspended above the support surface 30. Allowing the toes 38 to contact the support surface 30 permits the net 18 to maintain the shoes 34A, 34B in the orientation they were generally placed without having to support the full weight of the shoes 34A, 34B. As such, a percentage of the weight of the shoes 34A, 34B is supported by the support surface 30. The foregoing allows the net 18 to be made with less elastic force than would be needed if the net 18 were required to support the full weight of all the shoes 34A, 34B. The resilient nature of the net 18 also allows the shoes 34A, 34B to easily move relative to one another so as to readily accommodate various sizes and shapes of the shoes 34A, 34B as they are inserted into the rack 10.

[0014] A low elastic force in the net 18 also allows the openings 22 to deform and adjust to the size and shape of the shoes 34A, 34B, rather than the shoes 34A, 34B being required to deform and adjust to the size and shape of the openings 22. By not requiring deformation of the shoes 34A, 34B the rack 10 can prevent shoe damage that might occur with conventional racking systems.

[0015] The net 18 can be made from a single continuous strand of cording by tying a knot 40 at each of the intersecting points that define each of the openings 22. Doing so may require double or even triple layers of the cording between some of the adjacent knots 40. While it is not required that the net 18 be made from a single strand doing so may have cost benefits to other methods of construction.

[0016] The net 18 is maintained in a stretched configuration by a perimeter portion 42 of the rigid frame 14. In one embodiment, securement points 46 on the perimeter portion 42 define where the net 18 is attached to the rigid frame 14. These securement points 46 define a plane 50 (shown in FIG. 2 only) that the net 18 is substantially oriented parallel to, or even coplanar with, when stretched and attached to the rigid frame 14. The plane 50 may also be set to be parallel or nearly parallel to the support surface 30. In the embodiment of FIG. 1, fasteners 52, shown as hooks (made of metal or plastic, for example), attach the net 18 to the perimeter portion 42 at the securing points 46 of the perimeter portion 42. While the securing points 42 in the illustrated embodiment are positioned at corners of the perimeter portion 42, other locations for locating the securing points 42 are also contemplated. Alternate fasteners besides the hooks 52 are contemplated for attaching the net to the perimeter portion 42, including no fasteners at all in embodiments wherein the net 18 is attached directly to the rigid frame 14, for example.

[0017] The perimeter portion 42 is positioned relative to the support surface 30 by a standoff structure 54. In the embodiment of FIG. 1, the standoff structure 54 consists of four legs, each of which are attached to the perimeter portion 42 near a corner of the perimeter portion 42, although other locations for attachment of the standoff structure 54 to the perimeter portion 42 are contemplated. In addition to the shoes 34A, 34B being supportable, at least in part, by the net 54, they can also be supported, at least in part, by the perimeter portion 42. Such a configuration might include having the shoes 34A, 34B positioned within secondary openings 56 defined between the perimeter portion 42 and the net 18 such as with a sole of each shoe 34A, 34B abutted against the perimeter portion 42 and a top of each shoe 34A, 34B facing toward and possibly in contact with the net 18.

[0018] The rigid frame 14 in the embodiment of FIG. 1 is tubular in nature. The rigid frame 14 consists of four 3-way elbows 58, one defining each corner of the perimeter portion 42. Four tubes 62 telescopically engage with the 3-way elbows 58 between adjacent corners, thereby forming the perimeter portion 42 into a rectangular shape (or square shape if all four of the tubes 62 are of equal length). The legs 54 (standoff structure) in this embodiment are also tubular shaped and they also telescopically engage with the 3-way elbows 58. A length of the legs 54 can be selected to define the offset dimension 26 desired for any particular application. For example, the offset dimension 26 can be set to be between about 4 and 10 inches. The foregoing components (the 3-way elbows 58, the tubes 62, the legs 54, the net 18 and the fasteners 52) allow the shoe rack 10 to be assembled in just seconds with no tools at all. The shoe rack 10 can also be disassembled just as easily since the components are not permanently attached to one another.

[0019] The resiliency force of the net also acts on the 3-way elbows 58 in a direction that holds the tubes 62 into telescopic engagement with the 3-way elbows 58, as well as urges ends of the fasteners 52 further into engagement holes formed in each of the 3-way elbows 58. Additionally, a weight of the perimeter portion 42 acts in a direction that urges the legs 54 into telescopic engagement with the 3-way elbows 58, thereby assisting in maintaining the shoe rack 10 in an assembled configuration without adhesives. Optionally, adhesives can be used to hold the legs 54 and the tubes 62 to the elbows 58 if so desired.

[0020] The rigid frame 14 can be made of any material or combination of materials that provide rigidity, including polymers, metals and wood, for example. While the tubes 62, the legs 54 and the 3-way elbows 58 could be easily fabricated from metal, making them from a polymer such as PVC, for example, may allow the shoe rack 10 to be lighter while also being naturally rust resistant.

[0021] As mentioned above, the fact that the shoes 34A, 34B are loosely held by the elastic cord of the net 18 means the shoe rack 10 can accommodate many sizes and shapes of the shoes 34A, 34B without requiring deforming the shoes 34A, 34B to fit them into pre-sized and un-flexible cavities as are typical of conventional wooden shoe racks that have rows and columns of rectangular box shaped cavities. Such wooden box type racks also usually have sharp comers that can damage shoes if the shoes are rubbed thereagainst while being installed or removed from the rack. The net 18 of the rack 10 also makes it easy to locate the shoes 34A in a pair of shoes 34B together in a side-by-side fashion or a sole-to-sole fashion (as illustrated in FIG. 2). The net 18 keeps the shoes 34A, 34B where they are put making finding the mate to one of the shoes in the pair 34B a simple task.

[0022] Since the shoes 34A, 34B are oriented with the toe 38 pointing downward in the shoe rack 10, the area of the support surface 30 below each shoe is much smaller than if the shoes 34A, 34B were oriented with the sole against the support surface 30. This orientation allows for a much increased packing density of shoes for a given area. In fact, studies have shown that the shoe rack 10 can store the same exact collection of shoes in an area of the support surface 30 that is less than one third that required to store them in a side-by-side fashion on the support surface 30 if placed thereon and packed as closely as possible without stacking them on top of one another. In one embodiment the rigid frame 14 measures between 12 inches by 12 inches and 12 inches by 48 inches, with dimensions of about 24 inches by 30 inches being well sized to support about 14 pairs of average sized men's shoes. The net 18 for this particular embodiment may have about 20 of the openings 22, while other sizes can vary such that they contain between about 10 and 40 of the openings 22. In one embodiment of the net 18, illustrated herein, there are 20 of the openings 22 distributed in 4 by 5 grid layout.

[0023] Referring to FIG. 3, an alternate embodiment of a shoe rack 110 is illustrated in a perspective view. The shoe rack 110 is similar to the shoe rack 10 so only the differences will be described hereunder. A perimeter portion 142 of a rigid frame 114 of the shoe rack 110 is made by welding together a plurality of wires 116, similar in fashion to the way industrial shelving is made but with the cross members that form the shelf surface of the industrial shelving removed. The wires 116 may be painted or coated with a rubbery coating to make them less likely to damage shoes when rubbed thereagainst. Legs 154 are attached to collars 156 welded to the wires 116 at the corners. The legs 154 are tubular with circumferential indentations 160 that allow them to be locked to the collars 156 at any one of the indentations 160 desired, thereby providing adjustability in the offset dimension 26 (FIG. 1 only). Two pieces of a split sleeve 164, often made of plastic, sandwich around the legs 154 and engage with one of the indentations 160 before the leg 154 and split sleeve 164 is inserted into the collar 156, provides axial retention between the leg 154 and the collar 156. These components are radially sized to cause a wedging action that strongly holds the legs 154 to the collars 156, while still being removable later to maintain future adjustability and portability.

[0024] Another embodiment of a shoe rack 210 disclosed herein is illustrated in FIG. 4. The shoe rack 210 has four pillars 213 that rigidly extend from a plate 217 to thereby define a rigid frame 214. In this embodiment, the support surface 30 is defined by the plate 217. The net 18 is attached to the four pillars 213 in a stretched fashion. The net 18 can be attached to the pillars 213 via the fasteners 52 or directly. Regardless, of how the net 18 is attached, it could be allowed to attach at different distances from the plate 217 thereby allowing for adjustability in the offset dimension 26 (see FIG. 1). In one embodiment, the four pillars 213 may be configured so that they can be detached and reattached to the plate 217, such as by being inserted within holes 220 in the plate 217, for example.

[0025] Referring to FIG. 5, all of the aforementioned embodiments of the shoe rack 10, 110, and 210 can come in the form of a shoe rack kit 310 (note, the shoe rack kit 310 is only illustrated with reference to the embodiment of the shoe rack 10 in the interest of brevity and to avoid redundancy). The shoe rack kit 310 allows the shoe racks 10, 110, 210 to be packaged and shipped in an unassembled arrangement thereby being more compact than when assembled to save on shipping costs, warehousing space and store shelf space, for example. As such, the components that define the rigid frames 14, 114 and 214, can alternatively be referred to herein as a plurality of members 312. To be specific, in the shoe rack kit 310 to construct the shoe rack 10, the rigid frame 14 is made of the following plurality of members 312 (the 3-way elbows 58, the tubes 62 and the legs 54). In a shoe rack kit to construct the shoe rack 110, the rigid frame 114 is made of the following plurality of members 312 (the perimeter portion 142, the collars 156, the split sleeves 164 and the legs 154). In a shoe rack kit to construct the shoe rack 210, the rigid frame 214 is made of the following plurality of members 312 (the plate 217 and the members 213). The shoe rack kit 310 also includes the net 18 (optionally with the fasteners 52 attached to the net 18). The shoe rack kit 310 can also include an assembly instruction sheet 315, and a bag 319 and/or a box 323 (to hold the net 18, the tubes 62, the elbows 58, and/or the instruction sheet 315), for shipping and storing purposes, for example.

[0026] While the invention has been described with reference to an exemplary embodiment or embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope of the invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the invention without departing from the essential scope thereof. Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited to the particular embodiment disclosed as the best mode contemplated for carrying out this invention, but that the invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the claims. Also, in the drawings and the description, there have been disclosed exemplary embodiments of the invention and, although specific terms may have been employed, they are unless otherwise stated used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation, the scope of the invention therefore not being so limited. Moreover, the use of the terms first, second, etc. do not denote any order or importance, but rather the terms first, second, etc. are used to distinguish one element from another. Furthermore, the use of the terms a, an, etc. do not denote a limitation of quantity, but rather denote the presence of at least one of the referenced item.