Shoe Convertible from a Conventional Shoe into a Safety Shoe with a Casing

Abstract

A system for protecting the toes comprises a pair of shoes with certain adaptations so that a removable portable element with a casing can be fitted thereto and removed therefrom easily and quickly, by means of three lower tabstwo side tabs and one front tabwhich fit to the sole of the shoe, and two strapsan inner strap and an outer strapwhich fasten to the shoe. The characteristics the shoe and removable element mean that when the removable element is fitted, it does not extend beyond the limits of the footprint, and therefore comfort and aesthetics are not compromised when the shoes are worn. The system also has the flexibility of being able to have a wide range of standardized designs per model and size, which can then be interchanged with each other in order to increase the design options for the user.

Claims

1. A shoe convertible from a conventional shoe into a safety shoe with a casing and vice versa, further comprising the two components system, the first one is a removable element and the other one is the shoe with the necessary adjustments to host the said first element; this removable element has three tabs on its lower part, two of them on both sides, that is, one on the lateral lower inner part, the other on the lateral lower outer part and a third one on the front lower part: the lateral tabs that are folded to the inner lower part of the shoe and can fitted in a lower grove of the sole that goes along the periphery of the sole and has the purpose of hosting these flanges; the front tab is also folded to the lower inner part of the shoe that can fitted in the sole grove as planned for this purpose; besides these tabs, the removable element has a lower outer edge, which after being installed in the shoe fits completely or partially to the upper sole edge of the shoe, so the removable portable element can fit in the shoe, meaning that it does not extend beyond the limits of the footprint; this combination of the lower edge of the removable element over the upper edge of the shoe sole along with the lateral and front tabs, are the settings that avoid the removable element from moving backwards, upwards or downwards after being installed as a safety shoe and under regular use circumstances; the removable part has also two slots, one on the inner side part and the other one on the outer side part, every slot is used to set a strap that has already been assembled to the removable element thought this slot, each of these straps contains a male snap, a female snap is installed to another strap assembled to the shoe, which will guarantee that the removable part remains in place once fasten both male & female snaps; this one is the last step to follow to install the removable element with toe cap to the shoe which converts the conventional shoe into a safety shoe, avoiding any type of movement in any direction under regular use circumstances and thus after uninstalling this removable element, returns to be a regular shoe.

2. A shoe according to claim 1, further comprising the difference of connecting settings that fits best the removable element, whether it is a zipper, a buckle, Velcro, an elastic rubber strip or any other which can change the design by using different settings, positions or connections.

3. A shoe according to claim 1, wherein the removable element that contains this toe cap can be fully or partially lined on the outside or inside and it can be found in any material or combination of materials; such as leather, fabric or synthetic material and at the same time a variety of material designs such as textures, color, print, or a combination of them or without lining.

4. A shoe according to claim 1, wherein the removable element, including the safety toe cap, can be made out of any material, color, texture, a combination of these or even any set up of existing designs or yet to develop; as long as it complies the current standards for toe protection, based on the standards of the place where these shoes will be made.

5. A shoe according to claim 1, wherein the shape of the removable element that contains the safety toe cap can be found with different designs to partially or completely fit the shape of the shoe and it can be found with different settings so that the safety toe cap part covers just the minimum area of toe protection according to the regulations of the place of production, and the area that is not protected may not be in the shoe or it may contain a hole or holes to decrease the weight or according to the aesthetics design.

6. A shoe according to method of claim 1, wherein the removable elements with toe caps can be used with different designs as long as it follows the same shoe shape and feature to be able to connect and fit, and the removable parts could be standardized by the shoe model and size to be able to use different designs of removable elements for each shoe model and vice versa.

7. A shoe according to claim 1, wherein the removable element can be found without the safety toe cap which eliminates the toe protection feature, maintaining the feature of having different removable elements for a pair of shoes and vice versa, as long as they are the same size and footwear model.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0011] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the shoe with its removable part installed and positioned.

[0012] FIG. 2 is a lateral view that represents the internal or external side of the shoe with the removable part installed and positioned.

[0013] FIG. 3 is a top view of the shoe with the removable part installed and positioned, showing just the corresponding area of such part. In this view, the different sections are identified and further used to describe other figures mentioned below.

[0014] FIG. 4 is section A-A (shown in FIG. 3), it is a longitudinal section that goes through the mid part of the shoe with its removable part installed and positioned.

[0015] FIG. 5 is section B-B (shown in FIG. 3), it is a cross section of the shoe with its removable part installed and positioned, that goes through the side tab of the removable element.

[0016] FIG. 6 is section C-C (shown in FIG. 3), it is a cross section of the shoe with its removable part installed and positioned.

[0017] FIG. 7 is part of the sole section of the shoe with its removable part installed and positioned, shown from the bottom part (the part that touches the floor when walking), showing just the area of the removable part.

[0018] FIG. 8 is detailed M shown in FIG. 2

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0019] The shoe convertible from a conventional shoe into a safety shoe with a casing, as referred to in this invention, is a system that has two components (1, 2), the first one is known as removable element (1), that can be attached to a part known as safety toe cap (3) and another one known as the strap for the removable element (26). The second one is the shoe (2) itself and it has the characteristics that will be described below to properly hold and host the first component. This removable element (1) can have a total or partial lining, on the outside and inside by fabric, leather, synthetic material or even a combination of these; and it can have any design, such as textures, colors, prints or a combination. This characteristic is known as outside lining (32) for the visible part of the shoe and inside lining (46) for the part that is not visible once the removable element (1) is installed to the shoe (2), the primary function of this inside lining (46) is to protect the shoe from getting in touch with the removable element when installing and uninstalling it; and it can also be found without outside lining (32) or inside lining (46).

[0020] The removable element (1) has three lower tabs (4, 5, 6); one on each side of the shoe, both internal and external, known as lateral lower inner tab (4) and lateral lower outer tab (5); and the third one in the front part known as lower front tab (6). Both, the lateral lower inner tab (4) and lateral lower outer tab (5), are folded to the inner part of the shoe, as shown in details (15 and 16), which have been named lower inner lateral folding (15) and lower outer lateral folding (16). These foldings can be fitted in a lower internal lateral groove (37) and lower external lateral groove (38) which can be found on the lower part of the sole (35). This groove goes along the outline of the sole (as shown in FIG. 7), on the points that connect the line (41, 42 and 43). Said foldings surround the outer side edge of the sole (18) and the inner side edge of the sole (19). It is the same as the front lower tab (6), it has a front lower fold (20) that can be fitted in the lower front groove of the sole (21) intended for this purpose; this fold surrounds the front edge of the sole (22) as shown in FIG. 4.

[0021] This removable element (1) has a lower outer edge represented by an external line that goes through the points (7, 8, 9 and 10) and another internal line that goes to points (11, 12, 13 and 14) named lower inner edge of the removable element. The surface of said edge will meet the upper sole edge, there for a couple of points (23 and 24) are shown in C-C section on FIG. 6. This fitting can also be seen in FIG. 1 (36), in which an imaginary toe cap section (33) of the removable element (1) has been represented for a better visualization. The previously described settings allow the removable element (1) to stay in place, avoiding upward, downward and backward movement. In addition to that, the removable element (1) has a slot (25) which is used to set the strap of the removable element (26) that has already been assembled to the removable element (1) thought the same slot (25), this is shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 8. The strap of the removable element (26) has a strap stitching (27) to allow it to be able to connect by itself and it is also assembled with a male part of a snap (28), which will be connected to the corresponding female part of the snap (34); already attached to another strap called shoe strap (29), seamed to the shoe (2) using a shoe stitching (30). This previously described assembling of the strap to the removable element (26) and the assembling of the strap to the shoe (29) has the function of avoiding the movement of the removable element (1) towards the front part of the shoe (2). Said setting makes the removable element (1) remains in the functional position when used as a safety shoe as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. There are other methods that could be used besides this fastening system described above, instead of using the female part of a snap (28) and the male part of the snap (34), including but not limited to: a Velcro hook and regular Velcro, buckle system, a zipper system that starts on the inner or outer part of the shoe (2) going through the upper part of the removable element (44). It could also be replaced by a strap with an elastic element stitched to the removable element (1) in the inner and outer part of the shoe (2) therefore in order to assembled in position, has to pull it back and place it on the rear of the shoe (45) with some tension from this elastic part, to ensure that this removable element (1) does not move to the front part of the shoe (2).

[0022] FIG. 2 shows that after installing the removable element (1), it is placed over the vamp of the shoe (31), using a dotted line to represent it that can also be seen in FIGS. 4, 5 and 6. This removable element (1) has the security toe cap (3) that will protect the toes. It is important to mention that, as part of the removable element (1), this toe cap (3) has been part of all the removable element (1) as shown in the drawings. However, settings can be adjusted so that the protection area covers from the smallest protection area of the toes according to the standards required for each place, to fully cover the removable element (1). The first scenario is drawn as an example using a dotted line called toe cap borderline (40); and the removable part (1) could have a hole or holes as shown in FIG. 1, identified as a non-toe cap area (39), to reduce weight or to be used as a setting for aesthetics. This removable element (1) can be available in variety of shapes and designs that are not shown on this method of claim, adapting completely or partially to the shoe shape, as long as it fits and can be adapted to the shoe (2) as it has been previously described. And even the removable element (1) can be standardized by shoe model and size; which make this removable element (1) can be available in different designs for each shoe (2) model and vice versa.

[0023] It has also been considered that the removable part (1) and the security toe cap (3) could be found in any material and design, such as color, texture or a combination of both. The security toe cap (3) can also be found in different developed settings as long as it meets the requirements of the safety footwear regulations for the corresponding area.

[0024] It is finally stated that the removable element (1) may or may not have the safety toe cap (3), and if it does not have it, the toe protection role would no longer be available; and the objective of the removable element (1) without the safety toe cap (3) would be to have a system that allows to have different shoe designs to adjust the standard removable element (1), by size and model, to the pair of shoes (2) and vice versa.