Athletic Shoe For Artificial Turf

Abstract

An athletic shoe suitable for use on artificial turf is described including an improved upper of a porous multiple layer construction and an improved sole having integral polygon shaped studs. The upper is preferably made of nylon tricot fabric outer layer, a polyurethane foam middle layer, and a porous synthetic fabric inner layer. This greatly reduces the weight of a football shoe made in accordance with the invention so that it is approximately one-half the weight of a conventional leather football shoe as well as providing great comfort and enabling use in wet weather without damage. The sole has short multi-sided polygon shaped studs of square, rectangular or triangle cross section, having a plurality of flat sides which provide gripping edges that give greatly improved traction.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to athletic shoes suitable for use in games requiring a rapid change in direction such as those played on artificial turf surfaces, and in particular, to a football shoe which is light weight, water resistant, and gives good traction. The term "football" as used herein includes not only American style football, but also European style football or soccer. However, the present shoe may be employed by players of any game on artificial turf and is particularly useful in games which require that the players stop, start and change direction rapidly. For example, this shoe can also be employed by lacrosse players and field hockey players.

Previous football shoes used on artificial turf do not provide good traction because they are made with circular or conical cleats or are provided with pointed cleats of other shape. It has been found that greatly superior traction can be achieved by employing a multi-sided polygon shaped cleat having a plurality of straight sides which form edges that "bite" into the artificial turf. Furthermore, by arranging the studs in staggered rows with adjacent studs in each row spaced apart by a distance at least as great as the width of such studs, the heat conducted from the artificial turf is reduced as well as improving traction. Thus, cylindrical polygon shaped studs of square cross section and relatively short height having a substantially flat bottom gave greatly superior results when tested by football players on artificial turf under game conditions.

Conventional football shoes have been made of a leather or vinyl plastic construction, both of which have disadvantages. Thus, the leather shoes are quite heavy and weigh between 14 and 16 ounces, as compared with the shoe of the present invention which weighs about 8 or 9 ounces. Vinyl football shoes are not much lighter in weight than leather shoes and have the additional disadvantage that the vinyl does not "breathe" or transmit sufficient air to allow good circulation which results in hot, sweaty feet.

The football shoe of the present invention overcomes these disadvantages by employing a multi-layer sandwich construction for the upper shoe portion, including an outer layer of porous nylon fabric such as nylon tricot, an intermediate layer of plastic foam such as polyurethane foam, and an inner layer of a porous synthetic fabric backing. A similar upper material has been used previously for track shoes in U.S. Pat. No. 3,583,081 of H. Hayashi, granted June 8, 1971, because it "breathes" almost as well as leather, and is much lighter in weight. In addition such upper material is very strong and is more water resistant than leather or vinyl in that the new upper material does not wrinkle, stiffen or crack upon drying after use in the rain. Furthermore, the shoe is extremely comfortable to wear because of the polyurethane foam middle layer which has an extremely soft feeling on the foot.

It is, therefore, one object of the present invention to provide an improved athletic shoe for use on artificial turf.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved athletic shoe which is strong and light weight, as well as comfortable and resistant to water damage.

A further object of the invention is to provide such a football shoe in which the upper shoe portion is made of a multi-layer sandwich construction including a porous nylon outer layer, a plastic foam intermediate layer, and a porous synthetic inner layer.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a football shoe in which integral polygon shaped studs are employed to provide good traction on artificial turf.

A still further object of the invention is to provide such a football shoe in which the studs are of a square shape and are arranged in staggered rows so that adjacent studs in each row are spaced apart by a distance at least as great as the width of the studs to reduce the heat conducted from the artificial turf.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of certain preferred embodiments thereof and from the attached drawings of which:

FIG. 1 is an elevation view of one side of a football shoe made in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an elevation view of the sole of the shoe of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a vertical section view taken along the line 3--3 of FIG. 1 showing the multi-layer sandwich construction of the upper shoe portion on an enlarged scale.

FIG. 4 is a vertical section view taken along the line 4--4 of FIG. 1 showing the improved sole construction on an enlarged scale.

FIG. 5 is an elevation view of a portion of the sole of another embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 6 is an elevation view of a portion of the sole of a third embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a football shoe made in accordance with the present invention includes an upper shoe portion 10 of porous multi-layer sandwich construction which is bonded to the upper surface of an intermediate sole member 12 of suitable resilient material such as synthetic rubber whose lower surface is bonded to an outer sole layer 14 of a harder rubber or other synthetic material. The bottom surface of the outer sole layer 14 is provided with a plurality of studs 16 which are arranged in staggered rows and are formed integrally with, and project downward from, the remainder of the bottom surface of the outer sole layer provided by a support sheet 18 of the same resilient material. Thus, the support sheet 18 and studs 16 may be molded from a single piece of rubber in a conventional manner.

The studs 16 are of a cylindrical polygon shape having a plurality of straight substantially parallel sides 20 which are joined together and with a substantially flat top portion 22 to form a plurality of relatively sharp edges which bite into the artificial turf and give good traction. In the preferred embodiment shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, the studs 16 are of a square cross section taken substantially parallel to the bottom of the sole. The studs 16 project downward a distance approximately equal to the width of the support sheet 18 which may be approximately 1/16 inch. The square studs 16 have a width X of approximately 9/32 of an inch and adjacent studs in the same row are spaced a distance Y of about 11/16 inch. The studs are spaced diagonally a distance Z of about 9/32 inch from the studs in the next row.

As shown in FIG. 4, the upper sole portion 10 is bonded between the sole member 12 and an insole member 24 of sponge rubber having an outer layer 26 of leather bonded to the top of such insole by a suitable cement. The rough side of the leather layer 26 is positioned on top to reduce slippage of the foot within the shoe. The upper shoe portion 10 is made of multiple layer fabric about 1/32 inch thick, shown in greater detail in FIG. 3. Thus, the upper material 10 includes an outer layer 28 of porous nylon fabric, such as nylon tricot, and an inner layer 30 of any porous synthetic fabric such as nylon, rayon or acetate. An intermediate layer 32 of expanded plastic foam, such as polyurethane foam or polystyrene foam is bonded between the outer fabric layer 28 and the inner fabric layer 30. While the thickness of the intermediate foam layer 32 may vary, it is preferably at least twice as thick as the outer fabric layer. It has been found that this multiple layer upper material provides an excellent football shoe for use on synthetic turf under dry or wet weather conditions. Thus, the porous upper material 10 breathes to give good ventilation for the feet during hot conditions and also enables the shoe to dry out quickly after use under wet conditions. It is possible that a fourth synthetic layer 33 may be provided for reinforcement on the exposed surface of the inner layer 30 in regions adjacent the toe of the shoe and other points of greatest wear. However, the total weight of the shoe is only about 8 or 9 ounces compared to conventional football shoes made of leather which weigh from 14 to 16 ounces.

Other cylindrical polygon shapes can be employed for the studs such as the triangular studs 16' shown in FIG. 5 or the rectangular studs 16" shown in FIG. 6. These studs are similar to the square studs 16 of FIGS. 1, 2 and 4, but have a different cross sectional shape. Thus, the studs 16' have an equilateral triangle cross section substantially parallel to the sole while studs 16" have a rectangular cross section. The same general size and spacing distances are employed. Thus, the spacing between adjacent studs 16' or 16" in the same row is at least as great as the width of the cleats and in the preferred embodiment is twice such width. This greater spacing between studs provides greater traction and greater comfort. One reason for this is believed to be the greater amount of air between the sole of the shoe and the playing surface of the artificial turf which reduces the amount of heat conducted from the turf through the studs to the foot of the wearer. This is extremely important when playing on artificial turf due to the very high temperature that such turf reaches on bright sunny days where turf temperatures have been known to exceed 100.degree. Fahrenheit.

It will be obvious to those having ordinary skill in the art that many changes may be made in the details of the above-described preferred embodiment of the present invention without departing from the spirit of the invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should only be determined by the following claims.

Claims

I claim:

1. An athletic shoe in which the improvement comprises:

a shoe upper;

an outer sole of resilient material including a bottom surface having a plurality of studs formed integral with the remainder of said bottom surface and projecting downward from the bottom surface of said sole, said studs being of a multi-sided polygon shape with a plurality of straight sides and having a projection height less than its width, and said studs forming the entire ground contacting surface of said shoe; and

an intermediate sole of resilient material of lower hardness than that of said outer sole provided between said shoe upper and said outer sole.

2. A shoe in accordance with claim 1 in which the studs are square shaped in cross section.

3. A shoe in accordance with claim 2 in which the studs provided in staggered rows and adjacent studs in each row are spaced apart by a distance at least as great as the width of the studs.

4. A shoe in accordance with claim 1 in which the studs are all of the same size and shape, and are uniformly distributed over the entire bottom of the shoe.

5. A shoe in accordance with claim 1 in which a shoe upper portion of multiple layer construction including an outer layer of porous synthetic fabric, an intermediate layer of foamed plastic, and an inner layer of porous synthetic fabric.

6. A shoe made in accordance with claim 5 in which the outer layer is made of nylon tricot fabric.

7. An athletic shoe in which the improvement comprises:

a shoe upper portion of multiple layer construction including an outer layer of porous nylon fabric, an intermediate layer of porous resilient foam material through which air can pass, and an inner layer of porous synthetic fabric; and

a sole attached to said shoe upper and including a plurality of polygon shaped studs projecting downward from the bottom surface of said sole.

8. A shoe in accordance with claim 7 in which the intermediate layer is made of polyurethane foam and the inner layer is made of nylon fabric.

9. A shoe in accordance with claim 7 in which the sole includes an outer sole layer of resilient material having a plurality of square shaped studs formed integral with and projecting downward from the remainder of said outer sole layer.

10. A shoe in accordance with claim 9 in which the sole includes an intermediate sole layer of resilient material different from that of said outer sole layer and of a greater thickness than said outer sole layer, said intermediate sole layer being provided between the shoe upper and the outer sole layer, and said outer sole layer being of greater hardness than said intermediate sole layer.

11. A football shoe in which the improvement comprises:

a shoe upper;

a sole including an outer sole layer of resilient material having a plurality of studs formed integral with the bottom surface of said outer sole layer and projecting downward from a support portion, said studs being of a multi-sided polygon shape, and an intermediate sole layer of resilient material of lower hardness than said outer sole layer provided between said shoe upper and said outer sole layer, and said studs being adapted to grip artificial turf with high traction.

12. A football shoe in accordance with claim 11 in which the studs are square shaped in cross section and are uniformly distributed over the bottom of the shoe.

13. An athletic shoe in which the improvement comprises:

a shoe upper;

a sole attached to said shoe upper, including an outer sole layer of resilient material having a plurality of multi-sided polygon-shaped studs formed integral with and projecting downward from the remainder of said outer sole layer; and

an intermediate sole layer of resilient material different from that of said outer sole layer provided between said shoe upper and said outer sole layer, said outer sole layer being of greater hardness than said intermediate sole layer and being of less thickness than said intermediate sole layer at least for those portions of the outer sole layer between said studs.

14. An athletic shoe in which the improvement comprises:

a shoe upper portion of multiple layer construction including an outer layer of porous synthetic fabric, an inner layer of porous synthetic fabric and an intermediate layer of porouse resilient foam material through which air can pass between said inner and outer layers; and

a sole attached to said shoe upper including an outer sole layer of resilient material having a plurality of studs formed integral with and projecting downward from the remainder of said outer sole layer, and an intermediate sole layer of resilient material different from that of said outer sole layer provided between said shoe upper and said outer sole layer, said outer sole layer being of a greater hardness than said intermediate sole layer.