Stand for storage of shoes

Abstract

A stand for storage of shoes has two flat parallel rigid end supports, and telescopic crossties extending between these. Major surfaces of the end supports are provided with coupling elements for engagement with the crossties. Edge faces of the end support have additional coupling elements by means of which two or more of the stands can be coupled together to provide increased storage capacity.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a stand for storage of shoes, in which rod shaped crossties are supported by supports which are arranged at a distance from each other.

There are already known stands for storage of shoes which have a cabinet shape, wherein storage shelves are provided for receiving the shoes and are integrated into the cabinet construction. There are also known stands for storage of shoes which are made from rod-shaped material and which can be hung on walls. These known shoe stands are disadvantageous in that their use is tied to a stable location as a consequence of their construction, so that they can usually be accommodated only in places which are unsuitable for permanent use. Also, fitting the conventional stands to the available space is quite impossible without resorting to special measures.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a shoe storage stand which can be used under various conditions, particularly in diversely shaped spaces, without resorting to special assembling measures, and which also is suitable for superposing so as to assemble a larger unit.

This is achieved according to the invention, in general, by constructing the shoe stand supports as rigid flat members, and by providing at least one major surface of each support with coupling elements for supporting rod-shaped crossties. Additional coupling elements are provided on the support edge faces for direct attachment of a plurality of supports to each other. Using such a construction of the supports, the shoe stand according to the invention is suitable for direct erection on the floor, for hanging on a wall or the like, or also as the need may be for accommodation in an available cabinet space, without any need for a professional assistance on the part of the user. It is also possible to stack a plurality of such shoe stands above each other without encountering any difficulty, and thus to assemble from them a larger unit.

For this purpose it is advantageous that the shoe stand supports be configurated as essentially rectangular rigid members, and that they be provided with coupling elements on their edge faces. Consequently, the shoe stand can be optionally erected in such a manner that the shorter or the longer edge faces of the support contact the support surface (e.g. the floor) and a fitting of the stand to spaces having different heights and depths is possible solely by changing its orientation. Furthermore, it is advantageous to locate the coupling elements for supporting the rod-shaped crossties for holding the shoes at diagonally opposite grid points of a rectangular, preferably quadrilateral, grid. An arrangement is obtained by this measure which permits optimum storage of the shoes and in which the crossties are located in pairs arranged in inclined planes. The preferable arrangement of the coupling elements at diagonally opposite grid points of a quadrilateral grid even permits a positioning of the crossties in inclined planes which enclose an angle of 45.degree. with any possible base planes (depending upon the orientation of the stand), so that the shoes to be stored can always be placed upon a crosstie having the same inclination regardless of the orientation of the stand, such inclination of course assuring optimum access thereto. Moreover, it is advantageous to construct the coupling elements of the shoe stand support for the unilateral reception of crosstie parts having different diameters, i.e. of parts which are telescoped into each other, such crosstie parts preferably having a tubular configuration. Widening or narrowing of the entire shoe stand may then be obtained by telescoping the smaller-diameter crosstie part into or out of the larger-diameter crosstie part so that the shoe stand width is easily variable in a broad range. In this context, it is furthermore advisable to provide one major surface of each shoe stand support with coupling elements for both types of the crosstie parts to be assembled to a crosstie unit, the coupling elements being arranged in alternating order so that the shoe stand supports are identical and the two supports can be used interchangeably at any end of the shoe stand.

In order to enable even a technically unskilled user to easily assemble the various parts, the coupling elements for attachment of the crossties as well as for direct coupling of a plurality of supports to each other are advantageously constructed as coupling projections and/or coupling sockets suitable for establishing plug-in connections.

The coupling projections and the coupling sockets for mutual coupling of several supports are preferably provided on elongated offset head parts of the supports, the head parts being located at the shorter ends of the supports and projecting beyond the longitudinal sides of the main part of the support. The ends of the head parts are advantageously provided with coupling projections on one side of the support, and with coupling sockets on the other side of the support, while the head parts are provided with immediately adjacent coupling projections and coupling sockets in the longitudinal regions of their end faces, the adjacent arrangement on one side of the support being opposite to that on the other side. In order for the shoe stand according to the invention to have only a small weight but high stability, it is advisable that the shoe stand supports be provided with perforations or holes in the region between the coupling elements for the rod-shaped crossties.

The novel features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in particular in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its construction and its method of operation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the novel shoe stand, in a first manner of erection;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the novel shoe stand, in a second manner of erection and with two individual stands superimposed;

FIG. 3 is an elevational view of a shoe stand support, seen from the inside of the stand; and

FIG. 4 is a top plan view of FIG. 3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 of the drawing shows a currently preferred embodiment of the stand for storage of shoes, according to the invention. This shoe stand comprises, in general, flat panel-shaped supports 10 arranged in parallel but spaced from one another, and rod-shaped crossties 11 which are accommodated between these supports and suitable for supporting the shoes to be stored. The supports 10 have different dimensions in mutually normal directions, such that a substantially rectangular basic shape is obtained. Various possibilities of erection of the shoe stand, as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, result from this fact. When the stand is oriented as shown in FIG. 1, it evidently requires a much smaller floor space than if it has the orientation shown in FIG. 2, but it needs greater overhead clearance (disregarding the fact that in FIG. 2 there are two stands shown to be stacked in vertical direction).

Each of the rod-shaped crossties 11 in the illustrated embodiment consists of two tubular crosstie sections 12, 13, one of which is suitable for being telescopically inserted into the other, each crosstie section also being inserted at one end into a coupling element 14, 15. These coupling elements are provided on a major surface 16 of the respective support 10. In the illustrated embodiment, the coupling elements are constructed as coupling receptacles or sockets fitted to the outer periphery of the respective crosstie section 12 or 13 to be accommodated therein. However, it is to be noted that the coupling elements 14, 15 can also be constructed as pins projecting into the ends of the crosstie sections, should this be preferred. The length of the shoe stand may be varied within a broad range as a result of the use of the telescopic crosstie sections, so that an universal adjustment of the shoe stand to given space conditions is possible.

The coupling sockets 15, 14 for accommodation of the crosstie sections for holding the shoes are arranged in a quadrilateral grid on the major surfaces 16 of the supports 10, namely, in pairs at diagonally opposite corner points. By this arrangement, the crossties are arranged so that each cooperating pair of the same lies in a plane which encloses a 45.degree. angle with the base plane of the stand, regardless of the orientation of the stand (compare FIGS. 1 and 2) so that there is no need for changing the position of the crossties in respect to the supports. Since the shoes are always rested on one pair of crossties, an optimum condition for the accessibility of the shoes is thus obtained because, regardless of the orientation of the shoe stand, the orientation of the pairs of crossties relative to the base plane remains the same at all times.

It is to be noted that each support is provided with adjacent coupling sockets for accommodation of any one of the two different crosstie sections 12, 13 having different diameters, so that the supports of the shoe stand are arbitrarily interchangeable end-for-end. The different coupling parts are alternately provided at the corner points of the quadrilateral grid so that, in the arrangement obtained during the assembling operation, the shoe stand supports are mirror images of each other, and the coupling parts for each of the crosstie sections 12, 13 always face each other.

In addition to the coupling elements 14, 15, the shoe stand supports 10 are provided with further coupling elements 18, 19 on certain of their edge faces. These latter coupling elements 18, 19 are alternately constructed as coupling projections and coupling sockets in such a manner that whenever a plurality of shoe stands is arranged above each other (see FIG. 2) or next to each other, the shoe stand supports engage each other by means of the coupling elements 18, 19 which permit a plug-in connection. The drawing shows that the supports 10 are delineated at their shorter sides by offset head parts 20 which are unitary with the main part of the respective support, but extend beyond its longitudinal sides. FIGS. 3 and 4 show in particular that the offset head parts 20 are provided with immediately adjacent coupling projections 18 and coupling sockets 19 at their longer edge faces 21, the adjacent arrangement on one of the ends of the support being opposite to that on the end facing in the other direction. The ends of the head parts, which constitute the base regions for the erection of the shoe stand in the manner as shown in FIG. 2, are alternately each provided with a coupling projection 18 on one end and with a coupling socket 19 on the opposite end. This arrangement of the coupling elements 18, 19 permits the assemblage of several shoe stands by plug-in connection in every case, regardless of the orientation of the lowermost stand. Finally, it is to be added that the supports are provided with perforations or holes 22 in their main part for reducing their weight and the material expenditure.

As already mentioned above, the illustrated embodiment is only an example of the construction of the shoe stand according to the invention, and the invention is not limited to this particular embodiment; rather, various changes and other embodiments are also possible. For instance, the rod-shaped crossties could also be of a different shape, and the coupling parts for attachment of the crossties could be constructed as annular collars into which the ends of the crossties are inserted.

It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together, may also find a useful application in other types of constructions differing from the types described above.

While the invention has been illustrated and described as embodied in a shoe stand, it is not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.

Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of the present invention that others can by applying current knowledge readily adapt it for various applications without omitting features that, from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essential characteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this invention and, therefore, such adaptations should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalence of the following claims.

Claims

What is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent is set forth in the appended claims:

1. A stand for storage of shoes, comprising a pair of I-shaped end members each having a center portion and a pair of crossbar portions having parts which extend beyond opposite sides of said center portion at the respective ends thereof, each of said crossbar portions having an edge face facing away from the other crossbar portion and each of said parts having an end face extending substantially normal to the associated edge face so that each end member may be placed on a supporting surface in a position in which one of said edge faces or two of said end faces are juxtaposed with said supporting surface, said center portion of each of said end members being provided with a plurality of sockets aligned with corresponding sockets provided in the center portion of the respective other end member; a plurality of shoe-supporting telescopic crossties each having spaced end portions lodged in the respective aligned sockets of said end members and interconnecting the latter at a distance from one another which is adjustable by telescoping said crossties, the length of said shoe stand being variable at will by changing said distance between said end members of said pair with attendant telescoping of said crossties, and the working height and width of said shoe stand being selectable in dependence upon whether respective edge faces or end faces of said end members are juxtaposed with supporting surface; and a plurality of male and female portions in form of projections and recesses provided on said edge faces and on said end faces of said crossbar portions of said end members and adapted to engage complementary connecting crossbar portions of an identical additional shoe stand so that a stacked array may be provided which is composed of a plurality of said shoe stands.

2. A shoe stand according to claim 1, wherein said sockets for attachment of said crossties are arranged in pairs at diagonally opposing grid points of a rectangular grid.

3. A shoe stand according to claim 2, wherein said pairs of sockets are constructed for accommodation said crosstie sections of different diameters.

4. A shoe stand according to claim 1, wherein said end members are provided with holes intermediate said sockets.