U.S. patent application number 11/468415 was filed with the patent office on 2007-04-12 for combination plush slipper with integral dressable character.
This patent application is currently assigned to BUILD-A-BEAR RETAIL MANAGEMENT, INC.. Invention is credited to Holly Wakefield.
Application Number | 20070079528 11/468415 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 37909943 |
Filed Date | 2007-04-12 |
United States Patent
Application |
20070079528 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Wakefield; Holly |
April 12, 2007 |
COMBINATION PLUSH SLIPPER WITH INTEGRAL DRESSABLE CHARACTER
Abstract
A slipper having a sole and a foot covering that transforms into
a toy play character by coupling the sole to the foot covering. The
toy character may take the form of an animal, a human figure, or an
imaginary, or abstract character, or other object. The transforming
slipper toy may be made of plush material and having a head and
torso extending upward from the foot covering. Conveniently, the
character can be dressable where the toy clothing item can be
coupled to the character using Velcro.RTM., button or snap
fasteners, hooks, a zipper.RTM. or string. The sole may also have a
pocket for receiving a heel portion of the sole whereby the sole
and the foot covering are united.
Inventors: |
Wakefield; Holly; (St.
Louis, MO) |
Correspondence
Address: |
BLACKWELL SANDERS PEPER MARTIN LLP
720 OLIVE STREET
SUITE 2400
ST. LOUIS
MO
63101
US
|
Assignee: |
BUILD-A-BEAR RETAIL MANAGEMENT,
INC.
1954 Innerbelt Business Center Drive
St. Louis
MO
|
Family ID: |
37909943 |
Appl. No.: |
11/468415 |
Filed: |
August 30, 2006 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
60712464 |
Aug 30, 2005 |
|
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|
Current U.S.
Class: |
36/112 ;
36/9R |
Current CPC
Class: |
A43B 3/0078 20130101;
A43B 23/24 20130101; A43B 3/24 20130101; A43B 3/30 20130101; A43B
3/101 20130101; A43B 3/242 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
036/112 ;
036/009.00R |
International
Class: |
A43B 3/10 20060101
A43B003/10; A43B 3/30 20060101 A43B003/30 |
Claims
1. A dressable slipper comprising: a sole portion; a foot covering
upper portion attached to the sole portion defining a cavity for
receiving a wearer's foot where the foot covering upper portion has
an opening for inserting a wearer's foot there through and into the
cavity; a character having a head and torso integrally attached to
the foot covering upper portion extending upward from a toe portion
of the foot covering upper portion and where said torso having
articulate appendages extending from said torso and articulately
attached to said torso; and a toy clothing item having a releasable
back seam and openings sufficiently sized to receive the appendages
there through, where said clothing item is draped and attached
about the torso by detaching the releasable seam, inserting the
appendages through the openings, draping the clothing item about
the torso from a front portion to a rear portion of the torso and
reattaching the releasable seam along the rear of the torso.
2. The slipper as recited in claim 1, where the character is a
stuffed plush animal.
3. The slipper as recited in claim 1, where the articulate
appendages extending from the torso are representative of arms and
the toy clothing item is a shirt.
4. A dressable slipper comprising: a sole portion; a foot covering
upper portion attached to the sole portion defining a cavity for
receiving a wearer's foot where the foot covering upper portion has
an opening for inserting a wearer's foot there through and into the
cavity; a character having a torso integrally attached to the foot
covering upper portion extending upward from a toe portion of the
foot covering upper portion and where said torso having articulate
appendages extending from said torso and articulately attached to
said torso; and a toy shirt clothing item having a releasable back
seam and openings sufficiently sized to receive the appendages
there through, where said clothing item is draped and attached
about the torso by detaching the releasable seam, inserting the
appendages through the openings, draping the clothing item about
the torso from a front portion to a rear portion of the torso and
reattaching the releasable seam along the rear of the torso.
5. The slipper as recited in claim 4, where the character is a
stuffed plush animal.
6. The slipper as recited in claim 4, where the articulate
appendages extending from the torso are representative of arms and
the toy clothing item is a shirt having decorative indicia.
7. A dressable slipper comprising: a sole portion; a foot covering
upper portion attached to the sole portion defining a cavity for
receiving a wearer's foot where the foot covering upper portion has
an opening for inserting a wearer's foot there through and into the
cavity; a character having a head and torso integrally attached to
the foot covering upper portion extending upward from a toe portion
of the foot covering upper portion and where said torso having
articulate appendages extending from said torso and articulately
attached to said torso and frontal articulate appendages extending
from a front portion of the toe portion and articulately attached
to the front portion with frontal articulating joints; and a first
toy clothing item having a releasable back seam and first openings
sufficiently sized to receive the appendages there through, where
said first clothing item is draped and attached about the torso by
detaching the releasable seam, inserting the appendages through the
first openings, draping the clothing item about the torso from a
front portion to a rear portion of the torso and reattaching the
releasable seam along the rear of the torso; and a second toy
clothing item having second openings sufficiently sized to receive
the frontal appendages there through, where said second clothing
item is draped and attached about the frontal appendages by
inserting the appendages through the second openings.
8. The slipper as recited in claim 7, where the character is a
stuffed plush animal.
9. The slipper as recited in claim 7, where the articulate
appendages extending from the torso are representative of arms and
the first toy clothing item is a shirt and the second toy clothing
item is a pair of pants.
10. A dressable slipper comprising: a sole portion; a foot covering
upper portion attached to the sole portion defining a cavity for
receiving a wearer's foot where the foot covering upper portion has
an opening for inserting a wearer's foot there through and into the
cavity; a character having a head and torso integrally attached to
the foot covering upper portion extending upward from a toe portion
of the foot covering upper portion and where said torso having
first articulate appendages extending from said torso and
articulately attached to said torso and second articulate
appendages extending from the head of the character and
articulately attached to the head with head articulating joints;
and a first toy clothing item having a releasable back seam and
first openings sufficiently sized to receive the appendages there
through, where said first clothing item is draped and attached
about the torso by detaching the releasable seam, inserting the
appendages through the first openings, draping the clothing item
about the torso from a front portion to a rear portion of the torso
and reattaching the releasable seam along the rear of the torso;
and a second toy clothing item having second openings sufficiently
sized to receive the head appendages there through, where said
second clothing item is draped and attached about the head
appendages by inserting the head appendages through the second
openings.
11. The slipper as recited in claim 10, where the character is a
stuffed plush animal.
12. The slipper as recited in claim 10, where the articulate
appendages extending from the torso are representative of arms and
the first toy clothing item is a shirt and the second toy clothing
item is a cap.
Description
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional
application Ser. No. 60/712,464, filed Aug. 30, 2005, the
disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
[0002] 1. Field of Invention
[0003] This invention relates generally to plush toys and plush
clothing items such as plush slippers and, more particularly, to
dressable plush slippers.
[0004] 2. Background Art
[0005] Novelty slippers may take on the shape or part of the shape
of an animal or other character. These slippers may bear the face
along with floppy ears or other features of the character.
Typically novelty shoes of this category include the main body of
the slipper where the foot of the wearer is inserted and on the top
portion of the toe portion of the slipper, the head portion of a
plush toy teddy-bear character or other character is integrally
stitched thereon. These type of novelty slippers can be designed
for use as an actual house-slipper for a child or an adult. Such a
novelty slipper can also be designed to be placed on the foot
portion of a plush toy character so that the owner of the toy can
dress the toy character. Alternatively the slipper may take the
body shape of the entire character and the foot of the wearer is
inserted into that character body. Typically, the wearer's foot
will be inserted into the back of the character's body.
[0006] However, none of these known slippers allows the owner of
the slipper to vary the dress or costume of the integral character,
particularly in recognition of certain special events such as the
celebration of a birth date or holiday or to express various themes
or display slogans or other verbiage, thereby changing the outward
appearance of character for the given occasion or event or
theme.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF INVENTION
[0007] In accordance with this invention, there is provided a
dressable slipper toy having a sole and a foot covering and
integral character. The slipper has coupling means for uniting a
sole portion of the slipper with the foot covering portion of the
slipper where the foot covering portion can have an opening so that
a can foot access the interior cavity of the slipper that can be
closed like a low top shoe or a high top boot/bootie covering the
ankle of the wearer. The foot covering can also have the back
portion of the foot covering open with the heel portion of the sole
fully exposed to allow the foot of the wearer to easily slide into
the slipper. On the top portion of the toe portion of the foot
covering, a torso and head portion of a toy character can be
integrally connected thereto and the torso portion can project
upward above the foot covering and the torso portion of the toy
character can further include articulated appendages extending from
the torso of the toy character.
[0008] The torso and head portion of the toy character can be
designed to allow the owner to remove and change the toy clothing
of character such that the slipper is a dressable slipper or a
slipper with an integral dressable character. The articulated
appendages and toy clothing of the toy character can be the
designed such that the clothing has a releasable back seam and
openings operable for inserting the appendages there through. The
back seam of the toy clothing can be for example a releasable
Velcro seam such that the back of the toy clothing can be fully
opened and the clothing can then be draped about the toy character,
inserting the appendages through the openings of the toy clothing,
then reattaching the releasable seam. This type of replaceable doll
clothing can be readily understood by one skilled in the art area.
The Velcro releasable seam can be any other releasable seam such as
a zipper and still remain within the scope of the invention.
[0009] The head portion of the toy character can also be designed
with various appendages such as floppy ears or hair such that toy
head covering items can be removable replaced such as hats or
ribbons. For example, hats or caps can have openings for inserting
the appendages extending from the head there through. For example,
ribbons could also be attached to the appendages of the head.
[0010] One embodiment of the invention is a slipper having a sole
and a foot covering upper portion where a toy play character head
and torso extends upward from the foot covering. The toy character
may take the form of an animal, a human figure, or an imaginary, or
abstract character, or other object. The slipper may be made of
plush material or other appropriate soft pliable material. The
torso can have articulated appendages extending there from. This
novelty slipper invention has the advantage of allowing the owner
to dress their slipper or the slipper for a plush doll for a given
occasion or event.
[0011] These and other advantageous features of the present
invention will be in part apparent and in part pointed out herein
below.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0012] For a better understanding of the present invention,
reference may be made to the accompanying drawings in which:
[0013] FIG. 1 is a front-side perspective view of a dressable
slipper;
[0014] FIG. 2 is a front perspective view of a dressable
slipper;
[0015] FIG. 3 is a side perspective view of a dressable
slipper;
[0016] FIG. 4 is a top view of a dressable slipper;
[0017] FIG. 5 is a rear perspective view of a dressable
slipper;
[0018] FIG. 6 is a rear perspective view of a dressable slipper
without an ankle covering portion;
[0019] FIG. 7 is a bottom view of a dressable slipper;and
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION
[0020] According to the embodiment(s) of the present invention,
various views are illustrated in FIG. 1-16 and like reference
numerals are being used consistently throughout to refer to like
and corresponding parts of the invention for all of the various
views and figures of the drawing. Also, please note that the first
digit(s) of the reference number for a given item or part of the
invention should correspond to the Fig. number in which the item or
part is first identified.
[0021] One embodiment of the present invention comprising a slipper
and an integral dressable torso portion of a character teaches a
novel invention for a novelty house slipper that is variably
dressable in recognition of events of interest and to display
various themes. The dressable slipper comprising: a sole portion; a
foot covering portion attached to the sole portion defining a
cavity for receiving a wearer's foot where the foot covering
portion has an opening for inserting a wearer's foot there through
and into the cavity; a character having a head and torso integrally
attached to the foot covering portion extending upward from a toe
portion of the foot covering and where said torso having articulate
appendages extending from said torso and articulately attached to
said torso; and a toy clothing item having a releasable back seam
and openings sufficiently sized to receive the appendages there
through, where said clothing item is draped and attached about the
torso by detaching the releasable seam, inserting the appendages
through the openings, draping the clothing item about the torso
from front to rear and reattaching the releasable seam along the
rear of the torso.
[0022] The details of the invention and various embodiments can be
better understood by referring to the figures of the drawing.
Referring to FIG. 1, a front side perspective view is shown of a
dressable slipper. The dressable slipper 100 is shown having a sole
portion 102 and an upper foot covering shell portion 104 attached
to the sole portion 102 thereby defining a inner cavity (not shown)
for covering the foot of a wearer. The foot covering portion 104
further comprises a rear foot covering portion 106 and a front foot
covering portion 108 and further an ankle covering portion 107 and
a toe portion 110. The embodiment shown defines a boot-like for
booty-like covering of the foot and ankle portion of the wearer
thereby forming a slipper. Alternative configurations of the
slipper can be possible. For example, the front portion 108 and the
toe portion 110 can have an opening such that the slipper becomes
an open toe slipper. Further, the rear portion of the slipper 106
can be removed such that the slipper is an open heal slipper.
Further, the ankle covering portion 107 could be removed as shown
in FIG. 7 such that it forms a typical shoe covering rather than a
boot covering as shown in FIG. 1. The dressable slipper 100 is
further shown with a dressable character 112 integrally attached to
the foot covering portion 104 of the slipper. The dressable
character 112 shown is that of a teddy bear, however, any other
dressable toy character could be utilized. The dressable toy
character 112 is shown having a torso portion 114 and further
having a head portion 116. The head and torso portions of the toy
character extend upward from the toe portion 110 of the foot
covering. The torso further has appendages 118 and 120 extending
therefrom. The front portion 108 of the slipper can further have
additional appendages extending therefrom such as that
representative of a foot or leg.
[0023] Referring to FIG. 2, a front perspective view of the
dressable slipper 100 is shown. The front perspective view in FIG.
2 further reveals the front portion 108 of the foot covering 104.
As indicated above, the front portion 108 can further have
additional frontal appendages extending therefrom such as that
representative of legs or feet. The torso portion 114 of the toy
character 112 is shown extending upward from the toe portion 110 of
the foot covering. The torso portion 114 further has articulating
appendages 118 and 120 extending outwardly from the torso portion
114. The appendages 118 and 120 as shown in FIG. 2 are
representative of arms for the toy character. However, the
appendages can be any other outwardly extending appendages such as
wings. The appendages 118 and 120 are articulately attached as
shown by the articulating joints 202 and 200. The toy character 112
is shown with an article of clothing 204 draped thereabout. The
article of clothing 204 as shown in FIG. 2 is that of a simple
t-shirt. However, the article of clothing 204 could be any other
article of clothing that would typically be draped about the torso
of a character such as that of a dress or jacket. The article of
clothing can also have some decorative indicia recognizing a
particular occasion or event. The article of clothing 204 is shown
with openings 206 and 208. The article of clothing is draped about
the toy character 112 by inserting the appendages 118 and 120
through the openings 208 and 206 respectively of the article of
clothing 204. The article of clothing 204 can be draped from front
to rear or from the rear to the front.
[0024] Referring to FIG. 3, a side perspective view of the
dressable slipper 100 is shown. The side perspective view further
reveals the ankle covering portion 107 and opening 300 for
inserting wearer's foot there through. The dressable slipper and
the opening 300 can be sufficiently sized to accommodate the foot
of the wearer. As indicated above, this dressable slipper can be
sufficiently sized for a child or adult human wearer. Further, the
dressable slipper 100 can be sufficiently sized and designed for a
toy character. For example, the dressable slipper can be sized and
designed to be inserted about the foot of a toy character such as a
teddy bear.
[0025] Referring to FIG. 4, a top view of the dressable slipper 100
is shown. The top view further reveals the opening 300 for
insertion of the wearer's foot. As indicated above, the rear
portion 106 and the ankle covering portion 107 of the foot covering
can be removed such that the slipper is an open heel slipper.
Further, the top view reveals additional appendages 400 and 402
extending from the head portion 116 of the toy character. As
indicated above, the appendages 400 and 402 can be utilized to
attach various head gear clothing such as a cap or ribbon. Other
appendages extending from the head portion 116 can also be
accommodated such as hair or horns.
[0026] Referring to FIG. 5, a rear perspective view of the
dressable slipper 100 is shown. The rear perspective view of FIG. 5
further reveals the ankle covering portion 107 and rear portion 106
of the foot covering portion 104. The rear perspective view of FIG.
5 also reveals the releasable seam 500 and the rear of the article
of clothing 204. The releasable seam can be a Velcro seam or other
releasable seam such as a zipper. As shown, the article of clothing
204 is straight from front to rear about the toy character such
that the article of clothing 204 is draped about the torso of the
toy character by inserting the appendages 118 and 120 through the
openings 206 and 208 and draping the article of clothing about the
rear and re-attaching the releasable seam 500. FIG. 7 further
reveals the complete releasable seam 500 as well as showing an
alternative foot covering having an opening 700 that does not
comprise the ankle covering portion 107. FIG. 6 reveals the bottom
of the sole portion of the dressable slipper.
[0027] The various dressable slipper examples shown above
illustrate a novel invention for a novelty slipper for a human
wearer or for use with a toy doll or toy character such as a teddy
bear. A user of the present invention may choose any of the above
dressable slipper embodiment, or an equivalent thereof, depending
upon the desired application. In this regard, it is recognized that
various forms of the subject dressable slipper invention could be
utilized without departing from the spirit and scope of the present
invention.
[0028] As is evident from the foregoing description, certain
aspects of the present invention are not limited by the particular
details of the examples illustrated herein, and it is therefore
contemplated that other modifications and applications, or
equivalents thereof, will occur to those skilled in the art. It is
accordingly intended that the claims shall cover all such
modifications and applications that do not depart from the sprit
and scope of the present invention.
[0029] Other aspects, objects and advantages of the present
invention can be obtained from a study of the drawings, the
disclosure and the appended claims.
* * * * *