BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Various types of ice skates are known in the prior art, adapted to the various forms, styles, and sports requiring ice skating. Modernly, skates for ice hockey players typically comprise a blade holder that mounts to the outsole of the skate boot for installation of a securable blade therein. This design enables removing the blade for drying, sharpening, maintenance, or replacement. Further, blades of varying designs may be used in a common holder. Such fungibility of parts is useful for adapting and upgrading components of the skate without having to replace the entire skate.

Modernly, blade holders are composite or polymeric molded materials devised for tensile and compressive strength while minimizing weight. A favored design seen in the hockey arts comprises a rear post, securable under the outsole heel, and a front post, securable under the outsole toe. To reduce unnecessary weight, a gap is maintained between the rear post and the front post underlying the outsole foot plate.

Means employed by hockey players and other inline skaters to alter their performance include use of insoles and inserts placed inside the skate boot, either under the foot (such as a custom footbed) or over the toes (an insert). Such footbeds and inserts are devised to correct for pronation or supination, to reorient the posture of the feet, or to increase tautness of the boot upper around the foot and conform the boot to the skater to alter performance.

What is needed is an insertable skate outsole shim, securable between the rear post of the blade holder and the outsole heel, to increase the skater's angle of attack, absorb forces incurred during aggressive skating, to enhance a skater's performance.

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to ice skate accoutrements in general and, in particular, to an insertable skate outsole shim for increased attack angle that is devised for easy installation between a rear post of a blade holder and the outsole heel of a skate boot, to enhance skater performance by damping vibrations and increasing the forward angle of attack of the skater.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present insertable skate outsole shim for increased attack angle has been devised to enable a convenient means of damping vibration and enabling a more forward, aggressive skate posture when ice skating.

The present invention is devised particularly for ice hockey players, however other in-line skaters may benefit from the general concept informing the device; that is, an exterior insert installable between the heel of the outsole and the blade or truck or wheel holder or such other support as may enable insertion of a shim thereat, that may be applied wherever forward-facing in-line skating is desirably undertaken. Thus, while the general discussion herein is directed to ice hockey skates in particular, the general concept contemplated herein is not intended to be construed as limited for use in the ice hockey arts only. The present insertable skate outsole shim for increased attack angle is further contemplated as a fungible element easily installable to an existing pair of ice skates. The insertable skate outsole shim is securable underneath the heel of the boot outsole, atop the rear post of the skate blade holder (or other supporting structure of in-line footwear, such as a roller blade, say), to effectively raise the heel of the boot off a horizontal axis relative the boot toe. Variously sized and shaped outsole shims are contemplated as within the scope of this disclosure, whereby a single skater may employ a diversity of such outsole shims for different purposes or positions even with the same pair of skates. The outsole shim may include angled surfaces adapted to correct or compensate for a player's pronation or supination. Further, the present insertable skate outsole shim includes compressive properties suitable for damping vibration and absorbing forces induced during skating.

The overall object of the present invention, then, is to provide an installable shim that increases the skater's angle of attack for more aggressive skating, dampens vibration and absorbs some forces otherwise applied directly to the rear post of the blade holder, and presents an interchangeable part that increases the utile life of more expensive parts of the skate proper.

The present insertable skate outsole shim for increased attack angle, therefore, includes a polymeric, generally rigid crown member and a generally elastomeric, polymeric crest member. The crest member is configured to seat into the crown member, as will be described subsequently. Once the crest member is installed to the crown member, the crown member is disposed perimetrically surrounding a central plug disposed upon the crest member. The assembled shim is then securable to the skate in between the rear post and the outsole by action of the exiting fasteners used to secure the rear post of the blade holder to the outsole.

Improved athletic stance, skating stride, and ankle-boot alignment are achieved in use of the outsole shim allowing an increased height and adjustable tilt underneath the skate boot but above the blade holder of the skate. The increased attack angle decreases dorsiflexion of the ankle and allows for a deeper knee bend. The shim can be produced angled to compensate for overpronation or oversupination where desired. Correct alignment of the foot in relation to the boot through a full skating stride produces less stresses on the skate boot and the reduction in dorsiflexion maintains tautness of the boot to the skater's foot without adding additional stress to the laces and the boot upper. The compressibility and rubberlike properties of at least a part of the shim, as will be described subsequently, dampen vibrations and reduce forces applied directly to the outsole from the rear post and prolong the skate's integrity over time.

Discussing first the crown member. In an example embodiment contemplated herein, the crown member is an ellipsoidal polymeric molding disposed circumferentially bounding an open ellipsoidal center. In the example embodiment contemplated herein, the crown member includes a longitudinal axis and a transverse access sized to superimpose atop an existing rear post of a blade holder. The crown member includes a plurality of apertures disposed to superimpose and align atop existing holes in the boot heel wherein a plurality of fasteners engages to secure the rear post of the blade holder thereto. Each of the plurality of fasteners, therefore, secures through the blade holder rear post into the heel of the boot outsole by passing through an associated one of the plurality of apertures of the crown member.

The crest member is devised to seat a central plug tautly engaged in the open ellipsoidal center of the crown member. That is, the crest member seats into the open center of the crown member such that the crown member flushly girds the central plug. The crest member includes a thin, polymeric skirt member that overlies the crown member when the crest member is seated into the crown member, as described above. The fasteners used to secure the blade holder to the boot outsole pierce through this skirt member to tautly maintain the assembled shim between the rear post and the outsole. The central plug is compressible and elastomeric. Compressive forces may thus be distributed into and absorbed by the central plug during skating. The central plug may include a series of molded concentric rings disposed interiorly, to present a series of compressive walls encircling narrow voids that enable distribution and absorption of force and vibration, varying configurations of which may control for compressibility between individual outsole shims.

The outsole shim may be produced with an angled surface to compensate for an individual skater's pronation or supination. The outsole shim is contemplated to be producible to spec or by custom order as well as produced in bulk for particular skate models and sizes. The overall height of the shim may be produced at varied dimensions to increase or decrease the angle of attack allowing a single player to install different outsole shims for different gameplay, as desired. Further, it is contemplated that the crown member may alternatively be rubberlike, and compressible. Some embodiments are contemplated wherein the crown member is installable absent the crest member or wherein the crown member and the crest member are produced as an integrated whole. The present two-piece assembly represents a preferred embodiment due to ease of production via molding or additive-printing, whereby the crown member may be made of a different composition or present a different structural arrangement than the crest member, properties that are complemented when the outsole shim is installed as a single unit. Thus, while the two piece outsole shim discussed hereinbelow represents a preferred embodiment, additional embodiments that are singular, piecemeal, assemblable, integrated, separate, comprised of composite or singular materials, molded, additively-printed, fused, cooled, pressured, or otherwise formed into the requisite shape and producible at different dimensions along each axis to map to particular existing footwear and to produce a range of effects in dampening vibrations and absorbing forces as well as orienting the foot of the skater to correct for pronation, supination, and to present increased angles of attack off the horizontal axis, are contemplated as within scope of the inventive step set forth herein.

Thus has been broadly outlined the more important features of the present insertable skate outsole shim for increased attack angle so that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated.

Objects of the present insertable skate outsole shim for increased attack angle, along with various novel features that characterize the invention are particularly pointed out in the claims forming a part of this disclosure. For better understanding of the insertable skate outsole shim for increased attack angle, its operating advantages and specific objects attained by its uses, refer to the accompanying drawings and description.

