Background Art Athletic footwear, such as sports shoes or running shoes, made of leather or rubber includes a shoe upper providing its shape, of which a plurality of uppers are stitched, an insole, a midsole, and an outsole providing its bottom. The athletic footwear serves as only footwear, but does not have a function to train wearer's physical strength, in other words, a function to strengthen muscles of wearer's legs. Ordinary men or sportsmen wear gaiters or sandbags on his/her calf to improve muscles of his/her lower body when exercising weight training, thereby causing the sportsmen inconvenience. In addition, after taking an exercise during a long time, the gaiters or sandbags are slipped down.

In order to solve the above problems, athletic footwear having an outsole with a plurality of rectangular grooves formed at a regular pattern and metal beads filled in the grooves has been proposed.

Specifically, several thousands or hundreds of thousands of metal beads are mixed with glue, and then the grooves of the outsole are filled with the metal beads mixed with glue. While the glue is gradually set, the meal beads are completely adhered to the outsole by the glue. After that, the outsole is manufactured as the athletic footwear having the same as that a common gaiter.

According to the conventional athletic footwear, a serious pollution problem is caused by a plurality of metal beads filled in the outsole. Further, the glue used at manufacturing the footwear is harmful to health of a worker. Since the outsole is manufactured through three steps, the number of processes is increased, thereby reducing its productivity and thus increasing a manufacturing cost. In addition, since the metal

beads mixed with the glue are manually filled in the outsole by the worker, weight of a bottom surface is not uniformly distributed, thereby deteriorating a quality of the article.

Another athletic footwear is disclosed in Korean Utility Model Registration No.

285242, in which a plurality of metal rods and PVC pipes are inserted into a midsole of the athletic footwear to train wearer's physical strength, and the metal rods are inserted into or removed from the PVC tubes to adjust weight of the footwear.

The prior art athletic footwear is adapted to uniformly distribute the weight in the midsole and to adjust the weight of the footwear.

However, the prior art athletic footwear serves as not casual footwear, but has a function to train wearer's physical strength. In other words, the user has to prepare separate casual footwear to go on foot.

Disclosure of the Invention Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the problems involved in the prior art, and to provide combined casual and training footwear capable of being used in training wearer's body, as well in a normal walking.

Another object of the present invention is to provide athletic footwear for training wearer's body as a substitute for casual footwear.

In order to accomplish the above and other objects, there is provided combined casual and athletic footwear including an upper, an insole, a midsole, and an outsole, the footwear comprising: a weighted training midsole having a plurality of holes for receiving rods; and a pad having desired elasticity; wherein if the weighted training midsole is positioned on an upper surface of the midsole, the footwear is used as the athletic footwear, and if the pad is positioned on the upper surface of the midsole, the footwear is used as the casual footwear.

Brief Description of the Drawings The above objects, other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent by describing the preferred embodiment thereof with reference to

the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is an exploded perspective view of combined casual and training footwear according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a training midsole in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a casual midsole to be used when athletic footwear is used as casual footwear.

Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view of athletic footwear according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing a state where athletic footwear is used as casual footwear according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention Reference will now be made in detail to preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. In the embodiments, like parts are shown by corresponding reference numerals throughout the drawings.

The present invention provides athletic footwear having a sheet of separate weighted training midsole capable of being used in both training wearer's body and a normal walking, in which the weighted training midsole includes a plurality of circular and rectangular metal rods and a light PU (polyurethane) or EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate) pad.

Specifically, the present invention relates to combined casual and athletic footwear, and realizes a technical thought that a cavity is formed in a bottom portion of the footwear corresponding to an ankle portion by attaching and detaching a liner to a lower portion of last and upper of conventional footwear, and if a weighted midsole is inserted into the cavity, the footwear can be used as athletic footwear, while if a pad made of a light PU or EVA material is inserted into the cavity, the footwear can be used as casual footwear. In addition, the weight of the combined casual and athletic footwear may be adjusted by inserting and removing the metal rods into and from the weighted midsole.

Figs. 1 to 3 are views showing construction of combined casual and training footwear according to one preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, the footwear of the present invention includes an upper 10, an insole 12, a midsole 28, and an outsole 32 having a cavity therein.

Since the above components are widely known in the art, the description thereof will be omitted herein.

The outsole 32 is formed with two bosses 34 for preventing a weighted training midsole 14 or a pad 36 from being slipped or detached from the cavity of the outsole.

Further, the midsole 28 is formed with holes 30 for receiving the bosses 34.

Fig. 2 shows a detailed construction of the weighted training midsole 14 shown in Fig. 1. The weighted training midsole 14 includes an upper sheet 16 and a lower sheet 18, the sheets made of a light PU or EVA material. One surface of the respective sheets 16 and 18 are formed with a plurality of semi-circular grooves 24a and rectangular grooves 26a. The upper sheet 16 is adhered to the lower sheet 18 by glue, such that the semi-circular grooves 24a and the rectangular grooves 26a form circular holes 24 and rectangular holes 26, respectively, as shown in Fig. 1. The circular holes 24 and the rectangular holes 26 are spaced apart from each other at regular intervals. Preferably, the circular holes 24 are arranged at a front of the footwear, while the rectangular holes 26 are arranged at a rear of the footwear.

In addition, circular metal rods 20 and rectangular metal rods 22 are inserted into the circular holes 24 and the rectangular holes 26, respectively. A wearer can adjust weight of the footwear of the present invention by inserting or removing the metal rods 20 and 22 into or from the holes.

As shown in Fig. 4, if the weighted training midsole 14 is positioned in the cavity of the athletic footwear, preferably the training midsole 14 is seated on an upper surface of the midsole 28, the bosses 34 formed on the outsole 32 are inserted into grooves 15 formed at the lower sheet 18. Therefore, the weighted training midsole 14 does not move in the cavity, so that the wearer can use the footwear as the athletic footwear.

Fig. 3 shows a casual midsole to be used when the athletic footwear is used as

casual footwear. The casual midsole consists of the pad 36 made of a light PU or EVA material.

The pad 36 is shaped to have the same shape as that of the midsole 28. The pad 36 is formed with grooves 36a for receiving the bosses 34 of the outsole 32 at a bottom surface thereof, as shown in Fig. 5.

As shown in Fig. 5, if the pad 36 is seated on the upper surface of the midsole 28, the athletic footwear according to the present invention can be used as the casual footwear.

While the present invention has been described and illustrated herein with reference to the preferred embodiments thereof, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, it is intended that the present invention covers the modifications and variations of this invention that come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.

Industrial Applicability As apparent from the above description, since a pair of shoes can be used as the casual shoes and as the athletic shoes, the athletic footwear of the present invention provides a useful effect in relation to the conventional training footwear. Further, when the footwear of the present invention is used in training wearer's body, the wearer can adjust the weight of the footwear, thereby optionally controlling quantity of motion.