US20070089319A1

US20070089319A1 - Breathing shoe

Info

Publication number: US20070089319A1
Application number: US11/255,319
Authority: US
Inventors: Chih-Yuan Liao; Ying-Fang Liao; Ming-Chuan Liao
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2005-10-20
Filing date: 2005-10-20
Publication date: 2007-04-26

Abstract

A breathing shoe is disclosed to include an air pumping mechanism formed of an air bladder and mounted in the top wall of the outsole for pumping outside cooling air into a front part inside the shoe body to force foul air out of the shoe body through air holes in the front upper part of the shoe body when the user is walking or running.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates shoes and more particularly, to a breathing shoe, which breathes when pressed by the user's foot.
2. Description of the Related Art
When putting a pair of shoes on the feet of the legs, the feet may feel sweltering due to poor ventilation, and may soon start to sweat and to produce a bad smell. One may be embarrassed when taking off the shoes from the feet or when changing the shoes before others if the feet give off a bad smell. Further, keeping the feet in a hot and wet environment for long may cause the skin of the feet to suffer from a skin disease or to be infected with bacteria. Dermatitis may frequently occur in the toes, the gap between toes and the sole.
The aforesaid problems occur due to poor ventilation of the shoes. In order to eliminate these problems, breathing shoes are developed. Commercial breathing shoes use breathing materials for the insole or the vamp, or making air vents on the vamp or the outsole. However, these conventional breathing shoes do not function as well as expected because they cannot induce ventilation when walking.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention has been accomplished under the circumstances in view. It is the main object of the present invention to provide a breathing shoe, which automatically pumps outside cooling air into a front part inside the shoe body and to simultaneously force foul air out of the shoe when the user is walking or running, thereby keeping the user's toes dry and cool.
To achieve this and other objects of the present invention, the breathing shoe comprises a shoe body, which has a plurality of air holes in the vamp thereof, an outsole, which is fastened to the bottom side of the shoe body and has an air inlet at the rear side, and an air pumping mechanism, which comprises a repeatedly compressible air bladder mounted in the top wall of the outsole corresponding to the heel, an air inlet unit connected to the air inlet of the outsole for guiding in cooling air from the outside of the outsole into the inside of the air bladder when the air bladder is not compressed, and an air outlet unit for guiding air out of the air bladder into a front part inside the shoe body when the air bladder is compressed.
When the user is walking or running, the air bladder is alternatively compressed and released to pump outside cooling air into the inside of the upper shoe and to simultaneously force inside foul air out of the shoe body through the air holes in the vamp of the shoe body.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an exploded view of a breathing shoe according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is similar to FIG. 1 but showing the air pumping mechanism installed in the outsole.
FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken in an enlarged scale along line 3-3 of FIG. 1.
FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken in an enlarged scale along line 4-4 of FIG. 3.
FIG. 5 is a top plain view of the assembly of the outsole and the air pumping mechanism according to the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a schematic side view of the present invention, showing the action of the air pumping mechanism upon a downward pressure from the user's foot.
FIG. 7 is a schematic sectional view showing the action of the air pumping mechanism upon a downward pressure from the user's foot of FIG. 6.
FIG. 8 is a schematic side view of the present invention, showing the shoe lifted from the ground and the air bladder of the air pumping mechanism inflated.
FIG. 9 is a schematic sectional view showing the action of the air pumping mechanism after disappearance of the downward pressure from the user's foot of FIG. 8.
FIG. 10 is a sectional view in an enlarged scale taken along line 10-10 of FIG. 8.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIGS. 1, 2 and 5, a breathing shoe in accordance with the present invention is shown comprising an outsole 10, a shoe body 30 fixedly fastened to the periphery of the outsole 10 at the top, an air pumping mechanism 20 mounted in the outsole 10, and at least one, for example, two air discharging pipes 31 embedded in the outsole 10 and connected to the air pumping mechanism 20.
The air pumping mechanism 20 comprises a repeatedly compressible air bladder 21, an air inlet unit 221 disposed at one side of the air bladder 21, an air outlet unit 231 disposed at an opposite side of the air bladder 21, and at least one, for example, two air delivery pipes 24 embedded in the outsole 10. The air inlet unit 221 comprises a one-way air valve 22 for guiding air into the air bladder 21. The air outlet unit 231 comprises at least one, for example, two one-way air valves 23 for guiding air out of the air bladder 21. The two air delivery pipes 24 are respectively connected between the one-way air valves 23 of the air outlet unit 231 and the air discharging pipes 31 for guiding air out of the air bladder 21 into the inside of the inside of the shoe body 30.
The outsole 10 has a recessed chamber 12 formed in the top wall 11 at the area corresponding to the heel, an air inlet 13 backwardly extending from the recessed chamber 12 to the outside, and two pipe grooves 14 formed on the top wall 11 at two opposite lateral sides and respectively forwardly extending from the recessed chamber 12 for accommodating the air delivery pipes 24. The air bladder 21 is mounted in the recessed chamber 12 with the one-way air valve 22 connected to the air inlet 13 of the outsole 10 and the one-way air valves 23 respectively connected to the air delivery pipes 24 that are respectively set in the two pipe grooves 14 inside the outsole 10. When the air bladder 21 receives no pressure from the user's foot, the air bladder 21 partially protrudes over the top wall 11 of the outsole 10.
Referring to FIG. 10, the front side (vamp) of the shoe body 30 is comprised of an outer covering layer 32 and an inner lining layer 33. The outer covering layer 32 and the inner lining layer 33 are bonded together and stitched to an insole 40, and then bonded with the insole 40 to the outsole 10. The outer covering layer 32 has a plurality of air holes 34. The inner lining layer 33 is made of a breathing fabric material. The air discharging pipes 31 are respectively set in between the outer covering layer 32 and the inner lining layer 33 at two opposite lateral sides. The arrangement of the air delivery pipes 24 and the air discharging pipes 31 must be kept away from direct pressure of the user's foot. The air discharging pipes 31 each have one end extending out of the bottom side (see FIG. 1) and respectively connected to the air delivery pipes 24, and a plurality of air jet nozzles 311 spaced around the periphery near the front end for guiding air from the air delivery pipes 24 into the inside of the shoe body 30.
Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, the air bladder 21 comprises an elastic top cover shell 212, an elastic bottom cover shell 213 peripherally sealed to the periphery of the elastic top cover shell 212, and a plurality of air cells 211 jointed to one another and set in between the elastic top cover shell 212 and the elastic bottom cover shell 213. The air cells 211 have air holes 214 for air communication of one air cell 211 with another. The one- way air valves 22 and 23 are simultaneously affixed to the air bladder 21 when sealed the elastic top cover shell 212 and the elastic bottom cover shell 213. By means of the elastic cover shells 212 and 213 and the air cells 211, the air bladder 21 is continuously compressible.
Referring to FIGS. 6 and 7, when the foot gives a downward pressure to the air bladder 21 of the air pumping mechanism 20 during walking (see the arrowhead sign B in FIG. 7), the air bladder 21 is compressed to force air out of the air bladder 21 through the one-way air valves 23 into the air delivery pipes 24 and then the air discharging pipes 31, enabling the compressed air to pass out of the air jet nozzles 311 of the air discharging pipes 31 into the inside space 35of the shoe body 30 (see FIG. 10) and to further force a part of inside air out of the shoe body 30 into the outside open filed through the air holes 34.
Referring to FIGS. 8 and 9, when the user lifts the shoe from the ground, the aforesaid downward pressure is disappeared, and the air bladder 21 immediately returns to the former shape (see arrowhead signs C in FIG. 9) to suck in outside fresh air through the air inlet 13 and the one-way air valve 22.
Therefore, when the user is walking, the air bladder 21 is alternatively compressed and released to intermittently pump outside fresh air into the inside of the shoe body 30 and to simultaneously force inside hot and wet air out of the shoe body 30 through the air holes 34, providing a good ventilation in the shoe body 30 and lowering the temperature and humility in the shoe body 30 around the toes of the user's foot.
A prototype of breathing shoe has been constructed with the features of FIGS. 1˜10. The breathing shoe functions smoothly to provide all of the features discussed earlier.
Although a particular embodiment of the invention has been described in detail for purposes of illustration, various modifications and enhancements may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention is not to be limited except as by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A breathing shoe comprising:

a shoe body, said shoe body having a plurality of air holes in a vamp thereof;

an outsole fastened to a bottom side of said shoe body, said outsole having a top wall and an air inlet; and

an air pumping mechanism mounted in the top wall of said outsole, said air pumping mechanism comprising an air bladder repeatedly compressible, an air inlet unit connected to said air inlet of said outsole for guiding in cooling air from the outside of said outsole into the inside of said air bladder when said air bladder is not compressed, and an air outlet unit for guiding air out of said air bladder into the inside of said shoe body when said air bladder is compressed.

2. The breathing shoe as claimed in claim 1, wherein said outsole has a recessed chamber in said top wall; said air bladder of said air pumping mechanism is mounted in said recessed chamber and partially protruding over the top wall of said outsole.

3. The breathing shoe as claimed in claim 2, wherein said recessed chamber is formed in the top wall of said outsole corresponding to the heel.

4. The breathing shoe as claimed in claim 3, wherein said air inlet of said outsole is formed in a rear side of said outsole.

5. The breathing shoe as claimed in claim 1, wherein said air bladder comprises a plurality of air cells joined to one another on the inside, and a plurality of inside air holes respectively formed in said air cells for air communication between said air.

6. The breathing shoe as claimed in claim 1, further comprising at least one air discharging pipe respectively mounted in said shoe body and respectively connected to said air outlet unit of said air pumping mechanism for guiding air from said air bladder into a front part inside said shoe body.

7. The breathing shoe as claimed in claim 6, wherein said at least one air discharging pipe each have a front end embedded in said shoe body and a plurality of air jet nozzles spaced around the periphery of said front end for guiding air out of the respective air discharging pipe into a front part inside said shoe body.

8. The breathing shoe as claimed in claim 6, further comprising at least one air delivery pipe mounted inside said outsole and respectively connected between said at least one air discharging pipe and said air outlet unit of said air pumping mechanism.

9. The breathing shoe as claimed in claim 8, wherein said at least one air delivery pipe is mounted in the top wall of said outsole and extending along the border area of said outsole.

10. The breathing shoe as claimed in claim 9, wherein said outsole has at least one pipe groove formed in said top wall and extending along the border area thereof for accommodating said at least one air delivery pipe.

11. The breathing shoe as claimed in claim 6, wherein said vamp of said shoe body comprises an outer covering layer and an inner lining layer; said at least one air discharging pipe is respectively set in between said outer covering layer and said inner lining layer of said vamp.

12. The breathing shoe as claimed in claim 6, wherein said at least one air discharging pipe each has a rear end extending out of a bottom side of said shoe body at a distance and connected to said air outlet unit of said air pumping mechanism.

13. The breathing shoe as claimed in claim 1, wherein said air inlet unit of said air pumping mechanism comprises an one-way air valve connected to said air inlet of said outsole for guiding in outside cooling air into said air bladder.

14. The breathing shoe as claimed in claim 1, wherein said air outlet unit of said air pumping mechanism comprises at least one one-way air valve for guiding air out of said air bladder into the inside of said shoe body.