TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a shoe with a shaft and a load-removing shaft recess.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In order, for a shoe attached to a frame, such as a single-lane roller blade or skating shoe, for example, or for any shoe with a rigid sole, for example a cycling shoe, not to have to lack an at least partly bending shaft, enhancing the wearing comfort, without threatening the shape stability of the shoe, which is necessary for the transfer of the force, it is known to provide a shaft recess, provided on the frame, for example connected with the rigid sole, which supports, while giving it a shape, the shaft, which by itself is not sufficiently rigid, especially in the ankle area, so that the strains that occur on the shaft recess can be removed on the frame, for example on the sole. The disadvantage is though, that the usually shell-shaped shaft recess, which shows enough shape stability for that purpose, can only be laid over an average foot shape, and cannot subsequently be fitted to different foot shapes of any possible user.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is thus based on the purpose of building up a shoe according to the initially described art, so that a subsequent sufficient adaptation to different foot shapes of users is made possible, without having to accept in exchange losses with respect to a good support of the foot.

The invention solves the provided question, by providing a shaft recess which comprises at least one load-removing outer part and at least one spacer supporting partly the shaft at the outer part.

On the basis of this measure, the layout of the shaft, i.e. the upper part of the shoe, including the toe cap and the counter, can be changed, with regard to the respective shaft recess, in chosen areas, through spacers between the shaft recess and the shaft, and can therefore be subsequently fitted to the foot shape of a user, whereby a shape-stable support of the shaft at the shaft recess results in turn, when the above-mentioned outer part of the shaft recess, for the support, entails a suitable strength and shape stability for the necessary removal of the load. In this context, it should be noted that in many cases no rigid support of the shaft is required or desired, in order to avoid, for example, overloadings of the foot in locally restricted parts. For this reason, the supporting outer part of the shaft recess could, at least partly, be formed as elastic, with a corresponding spring constant, or a springy pliable spacer could go into action, so that the support force can be limited by pre- set spring forces.

Although a good adjustment of the layout of the shaft by using interchangeable spacers is possible, simpler handling conditions arise, when the spacers coming into action between the shaft and the outer part are adjustable and, therefore, the adjustment to the respective anatomical handicaps can be provided by adjusting the spacers.

In order to avoid local overloadings of the foot in the spacers area, the shaft can comprise a reinforcement in the spacers area, which provides a corresponding distribution of the pressure over the contact area of the respective spacers. This measure, however, requires particular precautions at the shaft itself, because of the reinforcements. To avoid reinforcements of the shaft, the shaft recess can comprise, next to the outer part, an inner part mounted along the shaft and at least one spacer between the outer part and the inner part, so that the pressure distribution over the inner part is performed, and the adjacent shaft requires no reinforcement. In order to be able to carry out adjustments, to a large extent independent from each other, of the adjacent areas of the shaft support over the inner part of the shaft recess, this inner part can be assembled from single sections separated from each other. Favourable construction conditions arise then, though, if the inner part of the shaft recess forms a shell, enclosing at least partly the shaft with self-adjustable flaps, separated from each other by slits at the edge, because in that case there is no need for a separate mounting of the single sections of the inner part.

The outer part of the shaft recess follows with some distance the shaft which is fitted to an average foot shape, so a help for the adjustment arises, because, coming from a middle distance between the outer part and the shaft, the differences from an average foot shape are merely to be taken into account, which generally entails smaller travel distances for the spacers. Besides, optically appealing shoe shapes are arranged more easily.

As mentioned above, there can be an influence on the shaft layout and, with that, on the respective foot shape through spacers between the shaft, properly bending, at least in the adjustment area, and the load-removing outer part of the shaft recess, and therefore over the whole area of the shaft, if a corresponding distribution of the outer part over the shaft surface is provided. This means that following the measures according to the invention, not only adjustments in the ankle area, but also in the area of the front of the foot, of the instep and/or of the heel can be carried out. Even in the area of the arch of the foot, or of the width of the shoe, adjustments are performed, when, only with the outer part of the shaft recess, a suitable support for spacers is created. For this purpose, it may be advantageous that the outer part of the shaft recess forms a cage surrounding partly the shaft. In order to achieve easy handling conditions for adjusting the spacers, each above-mentioned spacer can be formed as an adjusting screw, which is mounted in the outer part of the shaft recess and is adjustable by screwing. Through an adjustment by screwing of this adjusting screw, the distance between the outer part of the shaft recess and the shaft can then be adjusted smoothly, whereby, because of the self-locking of the threaded engagement, there is no requirement of securing the adjusted distance.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, the subject-matter of the invention is represented, for illustration purposes. In these drawings:

Fig. 1 is a schematic side view of a shoe according to the invention in the form of a roller skate shoe.

Fig. 2 is a section of the roller blade shoe of Fig. 1 along the line II- II, in a larger scale. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

The roller skate shoe according to the illustrated embodiment comprises a chassis 1 bearing lane arranged rollers. On the chassis 1, a shaft recess 3 is provided for a shaft 4 of a shoe 5. This shaft recess 3 is composed of a rigid outer part 6, connected to the chassis 1, together with an inner part 7, which is inserted in the outer part 6 and, according to the illustrated embodiment, forms a shell, nestling against the shaft 4, which forms, for example in the ankle area and in the heel area, flaps 9 separated from each other by slits 8 at the edge. These flaps 9 lie on the shaft 4, with some distance from the outer part 6. The outer part 6 is, in this area, along a bow-like layout, with spacers 10 in the form of adjustment screws 11, which are adjustable by screwing and put in the outer part 6, and have an effect on the flaps 9 of the inner part, as shown especially in Figure 2.

With the help of the adjustment screws 11, mounted in the outer part 6 and adjustable by screwing, the distance of each flap 9 of the outer part 6 can be independently adjusted, so that the inner part 7 gets a different layout from the layout of the outer part 6, whereby the anatomical differences of the foot shape of a user, from an average foot form, preset for example through the outer part 6, are taken into account. The depth of the screwing of the adjustment screws 11 determines therefore the shape of the shaft in the area of the flaps 9, resulting in an advantageous adaptability of the shaft recess 3 to individual foot shapes. Generally, an adjustment in the ankle area will be sufficient. But this does not mean that, in other areas of the shaft 4, such adaptability would be excluded. The invention is of course not limited to the illustrated embodiment and applies to any embodiment covered by the independent claim. Thus, the invention doesn't require any roller- skate shoe or any other shoe with a frame for attaching the shaft recess. Indeed, the shaft recess can perfectly well be connected to the bottom of a shoe, whereby the bottom is not even generally rigidly formed, so that it is possible to create, on an outer part of a shaft recess, affiliated to the bottom, an adequate support for spacers acting on the shaft.