Athletic shoe having an upper toe section of stretchable material, external reinforcing strips and improved lacing
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The subject matter of the present invention relates generally to improved athletic shoes for various sports, such as track and field, football, baseball, basketball, tennis or the like, and particularly to such athletic shoes in which the upper portion of the shoe limits the motion of the portion of the foot rearwardly of the toes. 
     It is desirable to provide an athletic shoe with a toe upper section of a stretchable material to permit free movement of the toes and yet provide a comfortable and close fitting shoe. In contrast, to optimize the desired characteristics of the shoe, it is possible to provide a main body upper section rearwardly of the toes which is of a nonstretchable material so that movement of the rear portion of the foot is restricted. Consequently, undesired lateral motion of this portion of the foot during running is minimized and problems such as fatigue resulting from such motion are reduced. To further restrict movement of the ball of the foot, stabilizing members such as reinforcing strips can be positioned at the medial side of the shoe to distribute pressure from the laces forwardly and rearwardly of the ball of the foot. Another reinforcing member positioned on the other side of the shoe forwardly of the fifth metatarsophalangeal joint can also be provided to reduce undesired movement. The rigidifying and stabilizing effect of the shoe on the portion of the foot rearwardly of the toes can also be enhanced by way of improved lacing including staggered lace openings. 
     Conventional shoes have been made with an upper portion of differing materials. For example, the shoe disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,822,488 of Johnson has a forward section of one material such as leather and a heel section of another material such as a synthetic fabric. However, in this prior shoe, the two upper sections are joined together approximately at the midpoint of the arch. Therefore, motion of the ball of a foot within this shoe is relatively unrestricted. Consequently, this shoe suffers from the disadvantages associated with shoes permitting undesired pronation of the foot rearwardly of the toes. 
     In another known shoe described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,138,880 of Kunzli, a one piece upper is provided with strips sewn along its sides. Each of these strips supports an eyelet ring for use in lacing the shoe so that reinforcing sections along the margins of the tongue opening are eliminated. Because of this one piece upper, this shoe has the drawback that no one material has all the characteristics necessary for an athletic shoe of best performance. In particular, it lacks a toe section of stretchable material as indicated above. In addition, it employs a relatively expensive construction in attaching eyelet rings to a shoe. 
     Staggered eyelets have been used in certain specialty shoes, such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,420,239 and 716,528. 
     however, staggered arrangements of lace openings are not known to have been employed in athletic shoes to improve the fit of the shoe upper to limit pronation of a rear portion of a foot within the shoe, nor which cooperate with reinforcing members along the sides of the shoe for this purpose. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is, therefore, one object of the present invention to provide an improved athletic shoe having an upper shoe portion optimized for more desired characteristics by forming it to limit the movement of the portion of a foot rearwardly of the toes. 
     Another object of the invention is to provide an improved athletic shoe having a toe section generally forwardly of the metatarsophalangeal joints which is of a stretchable material so as to permit flexing of the toes, and which has a main body section rearwardly of the toe section designed to restrict pronation of the rear portion of the foot. 
     A further object of the invention is to provide an improved athletic shoe including a reinforcing member at the medial side of the shoe which exerts pressure along the forward and rearward sides of the ball of the foot to limit its movement. 
     Still another object of the invention is to provide another reinforcing member at the lateral side of the shoe for exerting pressure along the forward side of the fifth metatarsophalangeal joint to further restrict undesired movement of the rear portion of the foot. 
     A still further object of the present invention is to provide such an athletic shoe employing improved lacing for enhancing the fit of the upper portion of the shoe and which cooperates with reinforcing members to reduce undesirable pronation of the rear portion of the foot. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof and from the attached drawings of which: 
     FIG. 1 is a side elevation view of the lateral side of a track and field shoe in accordance with one embodiment of the invention; 
     FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the shoe of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 3 is a side elevation view of the medial side of the shoe of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of a reinforcing member which defines lace openings along the sides of the tongue opening; 
     FIG. 5 is a section view taken along the line 5--5 of FIG. 4 on an enlarged scale showing a reinforcing strip covering the junction of two joined upper sections of different material. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     As shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, a track and field shoe in accordance with one embodiment in the present invention has an upper shoe portion 10 including plural sections such as a toe upper section 12 and a main body upper section 14 made of different materials. The upper sections are joined together at the medial side of the shoe along a junction 16a and at the lateral side of the shoe along a junction 16b. Junction 16a is preferably positioned forwardly of and adjacent to the ball of a foot within the shoe and junction 16b is preferably positioned forwardly of and adjacent to the fifth metatarsophalangeal joint so that toe section 12 extends forwardly of the metatarsophalangeal joints. 
     Although sections 12, 14 may be secured together in any suitable manner in the preferred form, external reinforcing strips 18, 20 of a strong durable material such as leather are employed for this purpose. Strip 18 overlaps junction 16a and strip 20 overlaps junction 16b and are each secured to toe section 12 and main body section 14 along opposite sides of their associated junction in a suitable manner, such as by thread 22 of nylon or other high strength material. These upper sections 12, 14 are also joined to a multi-layered sole 24 which may include a synthetic rubber outer sole 26 having a plurality of circular projections or cleats 28 molded into its lower surface for better traction. 
     Strips 18, 20 may be employed on the shoe, for reasons explained below, even when not performing the function of joining the upper sections together. When employed, strip 18 is preferably positioned forwardly of and adjacent to the first metatarsophalangeal joint while strip 20 is preferably positioned forwardly of and adjacent to the fifth metatarsophalangeal joint. These strips are each connected at their lower end, to the sole of the shoe and at their upper end to a lace hole reinforcing member 30 which surrounds a tongue opening 32 and has plural lace openings therein as explained below. 
     As shown in FIG. 5, toe upper section 12 is preferably formed of a soft stretchable material to provide a comfortable fit for the toes and yet permit the toes to flex so as not to interfere with the driving force imparted by the toes during running. Toe upper section 12 may be formed of a &#34;sandwich&#34; of multiple layers of synthetic material. In one preferred form, the exterior layer 44 is of a synthetic mesh fabric, such as a nylon mesh with one millimeter openings between the strands forming the mesh. The mesh is supported by an intermediate layer 42 of a synthetic soft plastic or rubber foam material of approximately 1/8 inch thickness. The foam layer is preferably sufficiently porous so that it &#34;breathes&#34; or passes air through for ventilation. Also, the foam layer is preferably the same color as the mesh so that the portion of it which is visible through the mesh does not detract from the overall appearance of the shoe. The interior side of the foam material is preferably backed by a thin woven abrasive-resistant lining such as nylon tricot fabric 40 to protect it from wear. 
     As also shown in FIG. 5, main body section 14 may include a woven synthetic material such as a nylon fabric in the form of a three layer &#34;sandwich&#34; of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,793,750. This fabric includes a synthetic foam layer 34 between two woven synthetic fabric layers 36, 33 with the outermost layer 33 being of a nonstretchable material such as nylon or vinyl. 
     Preferably the materials forming main body section 14 and toe section 12 are of substantially the same thickness. In addition, the adjacent edges of the sections are formed to abut at junctions 16a, 16b so that, when the sections are joined together, discontinuities such as bulges are eliminated from the junctions of the materials. Stitching 46 may be provided to prevent the interior edges of these materials from parting so that a comfortable fit results. 
     Stretchable toe section 12 permits the toes to move freely during running and minimizes certain problems associated with shoes with stiff toes. One such problem that is minimized is a condition referred to as &#34;black toe&#34;. This condition results from damage to the toenails of a foot connected to the rubbing of the toes against a nonstretchable material. At the same time, a nonstretchable material rearwardly of the metatarsophalangeal joints stabilizes the foot in this region and restricts undesirable pronation of this portion of the foot. Consequently, a more efficient running shoe is provided. In addition, when the shoe is laced, strips 18, 20 exert pressure along the heads of the first and fifth metatarsal joints to further isolate the movement of the toes from the rear portion of the foot and thereby restrict the pronation of this latter portion. 
     A second reinforcing strip 50, similar to reinforcing strip 18, is provided at the medial side of the shoe rearwardly of and adjacent to the first metatarsal head or ball of the foot. Strip 50 exerts pressure along the rearward side of the ball of the foot when the shoe is laced. Thus, strips 18, 50 cooperate to retain the ball of the foot between them and restrict its motion. In this manner, strips 18, 50 constitute one form of stabilizing means for restricting the motion of the ball of the foot. Also, strip 20 at the lateral side of the shoe urges the ball of the foot into the pocket or region 52 (FIG. 3) between strips 18, 50. 
     With reference to FIG. 4, a special arrangement of lace openings may be employed in the shoe and contributes to the stabilization of the rear portion of the foot. In this arrangement, strips 18, 20 and 50 are joined to lacing member 30 in substantial alignment respectively with a pair of first lace openings a, a&#39;, and a third lace opening c. Consequently, when the laces are tightened the resulting stress applied to these lace openings is not localized at the openings, but instead is distributed along the strips to the sole. For this reason, strip 18 bears evenly on the front portion of the first metatarsal of a foot in the shoe while strip 50 bears evenly on the rear portion of this metatarsal, thereby enhancing the stability of the foot rearwardly of the toes. At the same time, strip 20 bears evenly on the head of the fifth metatarsal to further immobilize the rear portion of the foot. 
     In addition, strip 18 may be curved to follow the contour of the ball of the foot and thereby improve the fit of the shoe when laced. 
     The lace openings defined by lace member 30 are staggered so that the main body portion fits the foot more closely and comfortably when the shoe is laced. 
     The lace openings are arranged in plural wide sets and plural narrow sets of lace openings positioned alternately along the tongue. Each such set includes a pair of lace openings with each lace opening of the pair positioned at the opposite side of the tongue opening from the other. Thus, in the illustrated shoe with reference to FIG. 4, there are eight sets of lace openings. The first set nearest to the toe comprising openings a, a&#39;, the second set comprising openings b, b&#39; and so on through the rearmost set h, h&#39;. 
     The wide set openings comprise those sets with lace openings more widely spaced apart than the other, or narrow sets. Thus, sets a, a&#39;; c, c&#39;; e, e&#39; and h, h&#39; are wide set openings and the remaining sets are narrow set openings. 
     The first set of openings a, a&#39; is positioned with opening &#34;a&#34; in substantial alignment with the upper end of strip 20 and the third set of openings c, c&#39; are positioned with opening c in substantial alignment with strip 50 for reasons explained above. Also, by aligning these strips with openings of a wide set, pressure from the laces is applied to the strips at a point closer to the side edges of the shoe than if they were aligned with openings of a narrow set. This has been observed to provide a more comfortable fitting and stable main body section 14. Also, placement of a narrow set of openings b, b&#39; between sets a, a&#39; and c, c&#39; and indenting lace member 30 upwardly at 54 in the region of set b, b&#39; provides greater room for the ball of the foot between the lower edge of lace member 30 and the sole of the shoe. 
     Plural consecutive narrow sets of openings, in this case sets f, f&#39; and g, g&#39;, are positioned rearwardly of the arch of the foot so that when the shoe is laced the upper encases a greater portion of this region of the foot. Also, the rearwardmost set of openings h, h&#39; is wide set so that lacing of the shoe draws the heel 55 of the shoe forward against the foot. 
     It should be noted that heel reinforcing members 56, 58 of leather and vinyl, respectively, may be provided over the outer surface of the rear end or heel portion of the main body section 14 of the upper. Also, the vinyl member 58 has a pair of elongated ends 60 extending around the ankle opening in the top of the upper 10. Finally, a decorative strip 62 of vinyl of contrasting color may be sewn over the main body section 14, which serves as the identifying symbol or trademark of the assignee of the present invention. However, it is obvious that this strip 62, as well as the reinforcing members 56 and 58 can be eliminated from the shoe. 
     It will be obvious to those having ordinary skill in the art that many changes may be made in the details of the above-described preferred embodiment of the present invention without departing from the spirit of the invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention can only be determined by the following claims.