OUTSOLE

The present invention substantially relates to an outsole for footwear, preferably but not exclusively, made of high-flexibility polyvinyl chloride (PVC), as well as to footwear comprising an upper either sewn or otherwise fastened to said outsole. The surface of the outsole made of PVC may be substantially flat or non flat; in either case, said outsole is made of two blends having different colors which are placed side- by-side to reproduce the effect of the teak decks and bridges of yachts with teak strips interspersed with seams. Said seams, which in the flat version form the walking tread together with the teak strips, in the non-flat version are the first to be in contact with the ground, because they protrude from the rest of the outsole, preferably for about S/5 millimeters.

Hereinafter, the term “flat outsole” means an outsole the surface of which has no protruding parts from the rest of the outsole, whilst the term “non flat outsole” means an outsole the surface of which is provided with parts which protrude from the rest of the outsole. In other words, in the present description, the term “flat outsole” does not mean that the outsole has a surface mandatorily lying on a geometrical plane.

The present invention relates to the field of production of footwear for men, women and children, and in particular relates to an outsole of lowered type made of high-flexibility polyvinyl chloride (PVC) , and to footwear comprising an upper sewn to said outsole. The present invention also relates to the corresponding production method for assembling the outsole, produced by a co-extrusion process and consisting of sole, heel and shank, by sewing and/or gluing the upper to obtain the complete footwear.

According to the present state of the art, footwear of the known type consists of an upper associated with an outsole which, where a heel is provided, can be divided into sole, heel and shank, the latter being the part of the outsole which does not touch the ground while walking because said more or less high heel spaces it apart from the ground; an insole normally made of either genuine or man-made leather, which encloses a padding in order to make walking more comfortable, is preferably inserted into the upper.

A method for manufacturing an outsole made of plastic material by means of an injection molding production process is known from US 2016/206041. This type of process has the following disadvantages as compared to the co-extrusion process to be used in the present invention: increased production costs due to the construction of several molds. Indeed, for manufacturing each outsole, US 2016/206041 requires a double mold for each foot, which must be multiplied by the number of different sizes chosen for producing each single shoe model. Furthermore, with the injection molding, it is absolutely not possible to obtain a real “teak deck” effect; at most, shapes and colors may be similar but not the feel. Footwear with an outsole made of plastic material which is undoubtedly obtained by means of an injection molding process, with the same limitations as above, is also known from GB 2008926.

Among the many types of outsole made of leather, rubber or PVC made to meet specific fields of use, as well as to cater for fashion trends, the invention described herein relates to an innovative outsole, preferably made of PVC.

There are many types of footwear made with various PVC blends on the market.

In particular, the outsoles with studs (or tacks) made of rubber or PVC (obviously inspired by golfing) successfully introduced on the market in the early 1990s by a well-known footwear brand are very well- known and appreciated.

However, these shoes have a series of drawbacks, inter alia lower walking comfort, particularly accentuated in summer models characterized by lighter leather, linings and insoles, with the consequence of feeling the studs/tacks on the outsole of the foot more; as well as rapid wear of the studs/tacks themselves, which accompany the known difficulty in replacing the studs/tacks or the entire outsole.

The present invention takes inspiration from yachting and substantially differs from any previous technical solution thus improving ergonomics, walking comfort, wear resistance of materials and parts with which said shoe is assembled, as well as appearance.

It is the main object of the present invention to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.

B It is a further object of the present invention to suggest an innovative outsole preferably made of PVC, obtained by using two blends having different colors, which reproduce - from a visual and tactile point of view - the effect of yacht bridges and decks with teak strips interspersed with seams.

In a preferred embodiment, merely disclosed by way of non-limiting example, the invention can be embodied by mutually alternating and coupling a plurality of strips of PVC having the color of teak wood with a plurality of strips of PVC having the black color of the seams used to seal the decks of yachts, where the width of said teak wood-colored strips is significantly greater than that of the black ones: e.g. 10 times larger.

According to the invention, the narrower black strips (i.e. those corresponding to the seams of the yacht decks) may also protrude from the teak-colored ones, with which they are alternated.

Moreover, it is a further object of the present invention to provide an innovative method of assembling the outsole to the other components of the footwear. More specifically, we refer to the type of thread used for sewing, either in a “through” or just “ornamental” manner, using a waxed Dyneema ^® twine - getting now inspiration from the world of sailing; said material is characterized by being tougher than steel, thus extremely resistant but at the same time as ductile as waxed nylon ^® thread, commonly used to manufacture footwear. Furthermore, the use of said material can give the shoe as a whole a particular, high construction quality standard.

It is a last but not least object to achieve an invention which is structurally simple, has acceptable manufacturing costs, and capable of being obtained by means of conventional and known systems.

Further features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of some preferred embodiments of outsoles or parts of outsole, including sole, heel and shank, which are diagrammatically shown by way of non limiting example in the accompanying drawings, in whi ch :

figure 1 shows a bottom view of an outsole according to the invention, in which the black seams may protrude or not from the surface of the rest of the teak-colored outsole;

figure 2 diagrammatically shows a perspective bottom view of a first embodiment of the outsole, provided with seams (6a) protruding from the rest of the outsole;

figure B is a side perspective view of a second embodiment of the outsole, in which the seams (6b) do not protrude from the teak-colored strips;

figure 4 is a side view of the outsole in figure

2 ;

figure 5 shows a bottom view of a variant of the outsoles in figures 1 and 2, which in this case are pre-perforated for the presence of the sewn seam with a waxed Dyneema ^® twine;

figure 6 is a perspective bottom view of a third embodiment of the invention, in which the outsole is a seamless sole with protruding PVC seams (6a) which also continue on the rear vertical part of the heel; figure 7 is a rear view of a variant of the third embodiment in fig. 6, in which the seams and the teak- colored part continue on the heel cap over the heel.

In the following description, individual features, given in relation to specific examples, may also be exchanged with other different features present in other exemplary embodiments.

With reference to the figures above, the bottom view in fig. 1 corresponds to both the first and the second embodiment of the outsole according to the invention, which are both capable of being used to obtain classic-type footwear for men, women and children (figs. 1 to 5).

The outsoles according to the present invention are preferably, but not exclusively, made of plastic material, such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), with two blends having different colors which reproduce the effect of the teak bridges and decks of yachts with teak strips alternated with black seams (6a and 6b). By way of non-limiting example, the width of each teak wood-colored PVC strip may be from 8 to 12 times (preferably 10 times) greater than that of the adjacent black PVC strip (6a, 6b) of the seam used to seal the decks of yachts.

In its “flat” version, in which the seams 6b do not protrude from the rest of the outsole (Figs. 1 and 3), which is preferably suitable for manufacturing classic-type footwear, the construction includes assembling a heel (3) and a sole (1), leaving the shank (2) free.

Figs. 4 and 5 show a variant of the invention in which the assembly of the outsole, provided with teak and seam strips, to the leather insole (5) and upper (4) is achieved by a sewn upper/outsol e seam (9) carried out according to the Goodyear or Blake/Rapid or Norwegian modes using a waxed Dyneema ^® twine (10) of appropriate size.

In the “non-flat” version thereof in which the seams 6a protrude, the PVC outsole, depicted in fig. 2 and fig. 4, differs from the previous “flat” version in that, in this case, the thickness of the seam strips 6a is greater than that of the teak strips, thus protruding from the rest of the outsole and representing the point of greatest grip while walking. Preferably, said protrusion will be of 3/5 millimeters, thus contributing not only to a pleasant visual effect of the footwear as a whole but also to an excellent grip of the tread.

A third embodiment (fig. 6 and fig. 7) of the invention is used for assembling sneakers. In this third embodiment, the outsole made of PVC, which can be either “flat” or “non-flat”, is seamlessly shaped without interruptions between heel (B) , sole (1) and shank (2): therefore, it forms the entire walking tread .

In this third embodiment, the seam (6a or 6b) may also rise in the heel cap region (12), as shown in figure 7, or stop at the heel region (13), as shown in figure 6.

It is apparent that the invention described herein achieves all the intended objects. Indeed, the outsole structure according to the invention, in addition to being manufactured with a new material (different PVC blends) is certainly more comfortable and ergonomic, because, especially in the version with protruding seam 6a aligned with the walking direction, provides multiple advantages in terms of greater step stability and grip with the treading surface.

Furthermore, both in the version with “flat” outsole and in that with protruding PVC seams (6a), the wear of the invention is smaller than that of known solutions, indeed if the co-extrusion of the outsole coincides with the longitudinal direction of the seams which represent the walking support “on the road”, the crosswise friction is negligible, thus ensuring more “life” for outsole and footwear.

The invention thus conceived is susceptible of many changes and variations which are functionally and technically equivalent, all falling within the scope of the same inventive concept.

It is understood that the features described for one embodiment of the invention may also be present in other embodiments, without limiting the implementation and scope of the invention itself.

The possible presence of reference numerals and measurements must be considered to be exclusively reported for the purposes of presentation of the present description, and may change according to the construction requirements of the outsole.

It is also apparent that the features described and identified by expressions such as “teak-colored” and “black seam” are provided herein by way of non limiting example, being related to only one of the possible combinations of colors characterizing the construction of the outsole and the complete footwear, for which any combination of the constituent components thereof may be adopted.

Therefore, the colors of the wider and narrower strips (6a, 6b) can be different from those described heretofore, or may be mutually exchanged, without departing from the scope of protection of the claims appended hereto. For example, a possible modification of the invention could include strips made of PVC which, instead of being arranged longitudinally in the toe-heel direction, are arranged transversely to such a direction, or are arranged obliquely thereto, with any direction, e.g. 45°, but not limited to that angl e .

Moreover, although the preferred material for the outsole is PVC, the outsole according to the present invention can also be made of other plastic materials without changing the benefits or functionality thereof.

Finally, all construction details are replaceable by technically equivalent elements. In practice, the materials used, as well as the contingent shapes and sizes, may be any according to the requirements, without departing from the scope of the following claims.

REFERENCE NUMERAL KEY:

1 sol e

2 shank 3 heel

4 upper

5 insole

6a second protruding strips (seams) 6b second non-protruding strips (seams)

9 sewn upper/outsol e seam

0 waxed Dyneema ^®