FOR THE PRODUCTION OF SAID FOOTWEAR

DESCRIPTION

Field of application

In its more general aspect, the present invention relates to the field of footwears.

In particular, the present invention relates to a method for the production of a footwear with leather sole by Goodyear manufacture.

The present invention also relates to a footwear obtained through the above method.

Prior art

As it is known, the technology called Goodyear is widely consolidated and commonly adopted to make the so-called“pre-assembled” shoes, wherein an upper assembly (for instance an assembly made of an upper-assembly outer material coupled to an internal lining) is first“pre-assembled” on an insole with the aid of a last and then coupled to the sole.

More particularly, based on this technique, an upper assembly, intended to wrap laterally and upwardly the foot and open below, is fit on a last consisting of a model that reproduces the three-dimensional shape of a foot and the lower edges of the upper assembly are stretched, folded and joined to an insole mounted on the lower part of the last and to an outer welt perimetrically surrounding the lower edge of the upper assembly.

In the Goodyear manufacture, the insole is provided with a channel, i.e. an incision formed in the thickness of the insole, so as to obtain a support lip for a seam and the joining between the above components is performed by a first hooked seam with perimetral extension (except the heel area of the footwear) between the folded edge of the upper assembly, the raised lip of the channel of the insole and the outer welt.

Subsequently, a filler material is applied, usually cork mixed with natural resin, in a lower interspace of the insole formed by the raising effect of the lip of the channel in the seaming operation and thus the sole is joined to the outer welt. The sole has a width greater than that of the insole so as to have a peripheral portion facing towards the outer welt and the joining of the sole is performed by a second perimetral high-low seam between sole and welt.

The Goodyear manufacture is widely recognized and used to make, amongst other things, leather footwears (i.e. with leather sole, welt and possibly also insole). Although the leather footwears obtained by Good year manufacture are widely recognized and satisfactory in particular for their robustness and reliability, they are not free from drawbacks.

In particular, it is often found that leather shoes obtained by Goodyear manufacture are penalized by poor comfort, due in particular to their rigidity, which does not allow them to suitably and softly flex, following the natural articulation of the foot during walking.

Said rigidity is mainly due to the insole which on the hand must be made of a sufficiently rigid material and/or with a consistent thickness such as to support the wrapping of the upper assembly and to be sewed and, on the other hand, it is further stiffened by the raising of the lower lip of the channel and by the traction suffered by the insole in the first seam operation with the upper assembly and the outer welt.

The main object of the present invention is thus to provide a modified method for the production of footwears by Goodyear manufacture which allows obtaining a more flexible and comfortable footwear while keeping good resistance and reliability features which are typical of the Goodyear manufacture.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a modified method as the above one which can be realized in a simple way at low costs on an industrial scale.

Summary of the invention

These objects are mainly attained by a method for the production of a footwear by Goodyear manufacture wherein the lower edge of an upper assembly, a lower lip of the channel of an insole and a welt externally surrounding the lower edge of said upper assembly are joined by a first seam wherein a sole is subsequently joined to said welt by a second seam, the method being characterized by practising a plurality of incisions in at least one of said insole and said sole along part of the thickness in a front area thereof substantially in correspondence of the forefoot fit area.

Preferably, the method according to the invention comprises the steps of:

- fitting an upper assembly on a last and associating the folded lower edge of said upper assembly to an insole, said insole being provided with a channel in a peripheral portion thereof having a substantially perimetral extension, said channel forming a lower lip;

- applying an outer welt so as to substantially surround the lower edge of said upper assembly,

- joining said lower edge of the upper assembly, said lower edge formed by the channel of the insole and said outer welt by a first seam,

- applying a filler material below said insole in an interspace laterally delimited from said lower lip of its channel,

- joining a sole to said outer welt by a second seam, the method being characterized by practicing a plurality of incisions in at least one of said insole and said sole along part of the thickness in a front area thereof substantially in correspondence of the forefoot fit area.

Preferably, the insole and/or the sole are made of leather. Preferably, the incisions have each a transverse extension and are ar ranged in succession along a substantially middle portion of the front area corresponding to the forefoot fit area.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the insole and the sole are both provided with a plurality of transverse incisions along a substantially middle portion of a front area corresponding to the forefoot fit area.

In the present invention, the incisions on the insole are preferably per formed on the lower surface of the insole along part of its thickness, whereas the incisions on the sole are performed on the upper surface of the sole.

According to a particularly preferred embodiment, the sole has a periph eral portion intended to be joined to the outer welt by said second seam and an internal portion bearing transverse incisions along part of its thickness in a front area in correspondence of the forefoot fit area, said internal portion of the sole being raised with respect to said peripheral portion.

The above objects are also obtained by a footwear produced according to the Goodyear manufacture comprising:

- an upper assembly which wraps the upper and the lateral sides of the foot fit area,

- an insole associated with the lower edge of the upper assembly and having a channel in a peripheral portion thereof, said channel forming a lower lip,

- an outer welt which substantially surrounds the lower edge of said up per assembly, the lower edge of the upper assembly, the outer welt and the lower lip of the channel of the insole being joined together by a first seam, - a sole joined to said outer welt by a second seam, the footwear being characterized in that at least one of said insole and said sole is provided with a plurality of incisions along part of the thick ness in correspondence of a front area thereof corresponding to the fore foot fit area.

Preferably, the insole and/or the sole are made of leather.

Further features and advantages of the present invention will become clearer in the following detailed description, which is provided by way of non-limiting example, with reference to the enclosed figures, wherein:

- figure 1 schematically shows a perspective view and with detached parts of a footwear according to the present invention;

- figure 2 schematically shows a cross-sectional view of the footwear of figure 1 ;

- figure 3 schematically shows a perspective view from below of a portion of the footwear of figure 1 in an assembling step thereof;

- figures 4 to 7 schematically show a footwear according to the invention in various implementation steps of the manufacturing method thereof.

Detailed description

In the present invention, the terms“upper”,“lower” and the like, when referred to components of the footwear of the invention, relate to said arrangement of said components with respect to the footwear’s support ing surface on the ground.

Furthermore, the terms“longitudinal” and“transverse” or the like refer to the extension and/or arrangement of elements or components of the footwear in the length and width directions of the footwear, respectively.

With reference to the above figures, a footwear according to the invention obtained by Goodyear manufacture is globally indicated with 1.

The footwear 1 comprises an upper assembly 2 which wraps the upper and lateral sides of the foot fit area and ends below with an edge 3. By way of example, the upper assembly may be made of an upper outer ma terial (for instance leather) and of an internal lining made for instance of a natural and/or synthetic-fibre fabric. Alternatively, the upper assembly 2 may be only made of the upper outer material.

The footwear further comprises an insole 4 preferably provided, in a pe ripheral portion thereof, with an incision (channel 5) having a substan tially perimetral extension (except the area T of the heel) which deter mines the formation of a lower lip 6 supporting a first seam 7.

The term“insole” means the upper part of the footwear bottom on which the foot or the internal footbed directly rests.

The footwear 1 further comprises a welt 8 which surrounds externally and perimetrically the upper assembly 2 substantially in correspondence of the lower edge 3 thereof. The outer welt 8 may be preferably made of leather or alternatively of a plastic material or another suitable material.

According to the Goodyear manufacture, the outer welt 8, the upper as sembly 2 and the insole 4 are joined together perimetrically (except the area T of the heel) by a first seam 7, for instance a hooked seam, which involves a portion facing towards the interior of the outer welt 8, the lower edge 3 of the upper assembly 2 and the lower lip 6 of the insole 4.

According to the present invention, the insole 4 has a plurality of inci sions (or notches) 12 along part of its thickness and extended in the transverse direction of the footwear 1 in a substantially middle portion of a front area A thereof corresponding to the forefoot fit area.

It has surprisingly been found that by making a plurality of incisions or notches in a front area of the insole of a footwear obtained by Goodyear manufacture, the resulting footwear turns out to be greatly more flexible and comfortable for the user without thereby compromising the robust ness and reliability features of the footwear conferred by the classic Good year manufacture.

Preferably, the incisions 12 are performed from the lower surface of the insole 4 and have a depth not greater than about 30% of the thickness of the insole 4, more preferably a depth comprised between 20% and 30% of the thickness of the insole 4.

By way of example, with a 10 mm-thick insole 4, for instance made of leather, the incisions 12 may have a depth of 2 mm or 3 mm or comprised between 2 mm and 3 mm.

In this way, the flexibility and comfort features of the footwear and the maintenance of its robustness turn out to be optimal.

The incisions 12 may be made through techniques and/or procedures which are per se conventional, in particular by laser cutting techniques.

The footwear 1 further comprises a sole 10 or outer sole 10 (i.e. which rests directly on the ground) preferably made of leather and a layer or midsole 9 made of filler material arranged between the sole 10 and the insole 4 which fills an interspace I formed below the insole 4 and laterally delimited by its lower lip 6 further to the raising of the latter for perform ing the first seam 7.

According to the Goodyear manufacture, the outer welt 8 and the sole 10 are perimetrically joined by a second high-low seam 16.

The layer or midsole 9 may be made of any suitable filler material of nat ural or synthetic origin. Preferably, the layer 9 is made of a polymeric material having shape-memory features, such as for instance a shape- memory polymeric latex. Furthermore, the layer or midsole 9 is made of a breathable material, in particular a shape-memory breathable poly meric latex, or it is made breathable (for instance by practicing a plurality of through-holes) so as not to compromise the breathable features of the footwear.

Advantageously, the use of a layer 9 made of a shape-memory material, for instance a polymeric latex, allows modeling the shoe in a capillary manner according to the weight and shape of the sole of the wearer’s foot, thereby further increasing the comfort of the footwear.

The filler layer 9 may be applied into the interspace below the insole 4 by fixing or without fixing, for instance through glues. In case of fixing and use of a breathable filler layer 9, the application of glue or adhesive may be limited to a perimetral peripheral portion so as not to compromise the breathability of the footwear.

According to an embodiment of the invention represented in the figures, the sole 10 has a peripheral portion 13 and an internal portion 14 which is raised with respect to the peripheral portion 13. Furthermore, the in ternal portion 14 has a plurality of incisions (or notches) 15 along part of its thickness and extended in the transverse direction of the footwear 1 in a substantially middle portion of a front area A thereof corresponding to the forefoot fit area.

Preferably, the incisions 15 are applied from the upper surface of the raised portion 14 of the sole 10 and have a depth not greater than about 30% of the thickness of the sole 10, more preferably a depth comprised between 20% and 30% of the thickness of the sole 10.

The incisions 15 of the sole 10 may be made through techniques and/or procedures which are per se conventional, in particular by laser cutting techniques.

More particularly, the sole 10 has a width greater than that of the insole 4 so that the peripheral portion 13 faces towards the outer welt 8. The raised portion 14 of the sole 10 is instead dimensioned so as to partially or completely insert into the interspace I below the insole 4 coming into contact, possibly with slight pressure, against the filler layer 9. The sole 10 is joined to the welt 8 by a second seam having a substantially perimetral extension.

Analogously to what has been described above in connection to the inci sions 12 on the insole 4, the presence of similar incisions 15 on part of the thickness of the sole 10 in a front area thereof makes the resulting footwear greatly more flexible and comfortable for the user without thereby compromising the robustness and reliability features of the foot wear conferred by the classic Goodyear manufacture.

Said flexibility and comfort features turn out to be greatly enhanced in the event that respective incisions 12 and 15 are practiced both on a front area A of the insole 4 and on a front area A of the sole 10, as in the non limiting embodiment of the invention illustrated in the Figures.

Furthermore, the incisions 15 on the upper surface of the sole 10, for instance on its raised part 14, exert an advantageous anti- slip effect for the overlying layers, in particular for the layer 9 of filler material.

As for the method for manufacturing the footwear 1 , it should be noticed that it keeps the manufacturing steps of a classic Goodyear manufacture and therefore it is relatively simple and easily adaptable to Goodyear manufactures and related to equipment already in use.

In particular, in an initial step of the method according to the invention illustrated in Figure 4, the insole 4 is arranged below a last 17 consisting of a model that reproduces the three-dimensional shape of a foot and the upper assembly 2 is fit on the last 17. The lower edge 3 of the upper assembly 2 is thus pulled through pliers 18, folded below the insole 4 in a peripheral portion external to the lower lip 6 of the insole 4 and joined to the lower lip 6 of the insole 4, for instance by glue injection. Afterwards, the joined portion of the lower edge 3 of the upper assembly 2 is fixed to the lower lip of the insole 4 by a thread 18 as illustrated in Figure 5. Afterwards, the welt 8 is arranged so as to surround externally the upper assembly 2 in correspondence of its lower edge 3 and the upper assembly 2, the insole 4 in correspondence of its lower lip 6 and the outer welt 8 are joined by a first seam 7 as illustrated in Figure 6. Afterwards, after removing the exceeding lower edge 20 of the upper assembly 2 (Figure 6), the filler layer 9 is inserted into the interspace I below the insole, the sole 10 below is applied and the sole 10 is joined to the welt 8 by a second seam 16, as illustrated in Figure 7, thus obtaining, after possible further conventional finishing operations, a footwear 1 according to the present invention.

A skilled person may make several changes and variants to the process and footwear according to the invention according to the invention in or der to meet specific and contingent needs, which however are all com prised within the scope of protection of the appended claims.