US20110016744A1

US20110016744A1 - Waterproof footwear cover

Info

Publication number: US20110016744A1
Application number: US12/794,708
Authority: US
Inventors: Wai Kwan Chan
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2009-04-12
Filing date: 2010-06-04
Publication date: 2011-01-27
Also published as: AU2010100233A4; CN201718560U; JP3162478U

Abstract

This utility patent relates to a waterproof footwear cover comprising a body comprising a sole, an upper, a vamp and a leg receiving member mounted upwardly from the said upper; the body adapted to receive a footwear; the body formed from at least one flexible material; a first fastening member adapted for moving the said upper towards a rear portion of the footwear mounted to a rear portion of the said upper adjacent to a rear portion of the said sole; a second fastening member adapted for moving the said upper towards a front portion of the footwear mounted to a front portion of the said vamp adjacent to a front portion of the said sole; and the first and second ends of the said first fastening member mounted to the said sole. As such, the user can directly wear the footwear cover with his/her original shoes on. There is no need to the user to take off the original shoes to put into the footwear cover. It is very convenient to use. Since the whole footwear cover can be packed up, it takes less space when taken by the user. Thus, it is easier to travel with.

Description

This application claims the priority of Chinese Utility Model Application No.: 200920261158.9, filed 4 Dec. 2009.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This utility patent application is a waterproof item. To be specific, it is a waterproof footwear cover that is easy to wear.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

At raining time, people usually wear rain boots when going outdoors to prevent their pants and feet from getting wet. These rain boots are usually made from rubber. The usually have sole, upper, vamp, and leg receiving member or boot trunk that sow together with upper and vamp. The sole, upper, and vamp form the shoe body to contain the user's feet. The front of the sole is the toe tip, and the back is the heel. Upper is attached with the latter part of the sole to form the mouth so that the users can put their feet into the shoe chamber. Vamp attached to front part of the sole. One end of the leg receiving member or boot trunk is attached to the shoe mouth and the other end is opened up to the user and matches the user's leg to protect their pants.
To be waterproof, these boots must be sealed well. That makes their ventilation very poor. It is not comfortable to wear them. Also, they don't look pretty. Furthermore, the user has to take off the original shoes to wear them, which is not convenient. Thus they are only worn when there is a heavy rain. People usually take comfortable shoes with them when using the boots, so that they can replace the boots indoor, such as in the office. In addition, the leg receiving member or boot trunk or the leg receiving member usually cannot be folded, making it difficult to take the boots along.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The technical issue that this utility patent application will resolve is: to resolve the current rain boots' issue of difficult to take along and difficult to replace, and to provide a waterproof footwear cover that does not require the user to take off the original shoes and is easy to take away. The technical solution provided by this utility patent application to resolve the said technical issue is: to provide a waterproof footwear cover comprising a sole, an upper, a vamp, and a leg receiving member mounted upwardly from the said upper; the body adapted to receive a footwear; the body formed from at least one flexible material; a first fastening member adapted for moving the said upper towards a rear portion of the footwear mounted to a rear portion of the said upper adjacent to a rear portion of the said sole; a second fastening member adapted for moving the said upper towards a front portion of the footwear mounted to a front portion of the said vamp adjacent to a front portion of the said sole; and the first and second ends of the said first fastening member mounted to the said sole.
In a preferred embodiment, the first and second ends of the said second fastening member are mounted to the said sole or the said first fastening member.
In another preferred embodiment, the angle between the said first fastening member and the said sole is between 20 degrees and 60 degrees.
In yet another embodiment, the middle portion of the said second fastening member is positioned from a distance between 5 min and 55 mm upwardly at the front end of the said vamp.
In a more preferred embodiment, the said body further comprises a third fastening member mounted to the said upper adjacent to the rear portion of the said sole, the first and second ends of the said third fastening member are mounted to a portion of the said upper adjacent to the said sole, the middle portion of the said fastening member is positioned on the rear portion of the said upper.
In a more preferred embodiment, the said sole comprises an aperture adapted to receive a heel of the footwear.
In a more preferred embodiment, the said aperture comprises a flexible material. The said flexible material has at least one cut adapted for receiving the heel of the footwear.
In a more preferred embodiment, a fourth fastening member adapted for releasably mounting the heel of the footwear is mounted around the said aperture.
In a more preferred embodiment, the said vamp comprises a vamp aperture and a vamp cover, the said vamp cover is formed from a flexible material and is adapted to cover the said vamp aperture.
In a more preferred embodiment, the said leg receiving member comprises a leg receiving aperture and a fastening means for causing the said leg receiving aperture to an open potion or a close position. The said fastening means can cause the said leg receiving aperture in a close position by using button, zipper or sticker.
In a more preferred embodiment, the said body further comprises a bag adapted to receive the said body affixed to the said leg receiving member by using string or a button.
In a more preferred embodiment, the said leg receiving member further comprises a bag receiving means for receiving the said bag mounted to the inner portion of the said leg receiving member. In a more preferred embodiment, a firth fastening member is mounted between the end of the said leg receiving member and the end of the said upper. The said fifth fastening member is adapted to fasten the lower end portion of the said leg receiving member.
Besides, there is a front elastic on the vamp. When the users put their feet into the chamber with their shoes, the second fastening member or the front elastic, under its own binding force, will change the vamp's shape to fit onto the vamp of the shoes. Similarly, the first fastening member or the back elastic will bind the upper to fit onto the upper of the users' shoes. Thus, the users' shoes will be fit in the chamber of the footwear cover tightly without getting loose. The users will not feel slippery when walking with this waterproof footwear cover on. Besides, the chamber of this waterproof cover can fit into different sizes of shoes, making it very universal.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

This and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent upon reading of the following detailed descriptions and drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows the front view of the preferred embodiment of this utility patent application.

FIG. 2 shows the front view of the preferred embodiment of this utility patent when the leg receiving member is in the open position.

FIG. 3 shows the front view of the preferred embodiment of leg receiving member of this utility patent application when the bag is mounted to the bag receiving means externally.

FIG. 4 shows the front view of the second embodiment of this utility patent application.

FIG. 5 shows the front view of the second embodiment of this utility patent application when the third fastening member is moving up.

FIG. 6 shows the bottom view of the second embodiment of this utility patent application.

FIG. 7 shows the bottom view of the third embodiment of this utility patent application.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

As shown in FIGS. 1, 2, and 3, the preferred embodiment of the waterproof footwear cover of this utility patent includes sole 1, upper 2, vamp 3, and a leg receiving member or boot trunk 4. The upper 2, vamp 3, and leg receiving member or boot trunk 4 are made from soft materials, such as waterproof plastic, into one piece. Sole 1 is made from strong friction bearing materials such as rubber. The sole 1, upper 2, and vamp 3 form the shoe chamber to match with the user's shoes. The front end of the sole 1 is shoe tip 1 a. The rear end of sole 1 is the heel 1 b. One side of upper 2 attaches to the rear half of sole 1 and the other side attach to the lower end of the leg receiving member or boot trunk. The upper end of the leg receiving member or boot trunk 4 is the boot mouth 4 a, which allows the user to put their feet into the waterproof footwear cover. Vamp 3 attaches to the front half of sole 1, and attaches to upper 2 to form the shoe chamber 7 that has an opening at the rear end.
There are several places that elastic or the fastening member is used in the waterproof footwear cover defined by this utility patent application. The said elastic or the fastening member is a long narrow flat belt that is elastic lengthwise. By placing elastic on the surface of the soft material, especially by sewing it on the surface of the soft material, the surface of the soft material can fold up. When sewing together, the elastic should be stretched out to get sewed to the surface of the soft material. When the elastic or the fastening member retracts back, it is attached to several sewing points on the surface of the soft material. Thus, it will retract with these sewing points. This way the surface of the soft material will retract too, so the size of this position will be reduced.
As shown in FIG. 2, there is a rear elastic or the first fastening member 9 on the upper 2 near heel 1 b. To be specific, the rear elastic or the first fastening member 9 can be sewed to on the upper 2 near sole 1. This way, when the users put their feet into the shoe chamber 7 of the waterproof footwear cover with their shoes, the rear elastic or the first fastening member 9 will retract to fold part of the upper 2 of the waterproof footwear cover. It reduces the size of shoe chamber 7 at this position, so that the upper 2 of the waterproof footwear cover can be attached tightly to the upper of the user' shoes. Similarly, there is a front elastic 8 or the second fastening member on the vamp 3 near show tip 1 a. Specifically, the front elastic or the second fastening member 8 can be sewed to the vamp 3 near sole 1. Thus the vamp 3 of the waterproof footwear cover can fold up to reduce the size of shoe chamber 7 at this position. Thus the vamp 3 of the waterproof footwear cover can attach to the vamp of the users' shoes closely. With the joint effort of front and rear elastics 8 and 9, the chamber 7 of the waterproof footwear cover can match perfectly into the users' shoes. Thus the users' shoes can fit tightly into the chamber 7 of the waterproof footwear cover, to prevent the shoes from sliding inside the chamber 7 of the waterproof footwear cover.
In a preferred embodiment, since upper 2, vamp 3, and leg receiving member or boot trunk 4 are made into one piece, when sealing the one piece upper 2 and vamp 3 onto sole 1, there are some scraps left. To prevent the scrap from affecting the appearance of the footwear cover, they can be turned outside upper 2 and vamp 3 to form protection layer 10. Around the mouth of the protection layer 10 there is a third elastic or the fifth fastening member 11 to make sure the mouth of the protect layer attaches to the outside of upper 2 and vamp 3.
As shown in FIGS. 4, 5, and 6, the second embodiment of the waterproof footwear cover of this utility patent application includes sole 1, upper 2, vamp 3, and leg receiving member or boot trunk 4. This embodiment mostly aims where the users' shoes are woman's shoes. Similarly, there is a front elastic 8 sewed to the surface of upper 2 near the shoe tip 1 a. And there is a rear elastic 9 sewed to the surface of the vamp 3 near the heel 1 b.
In the second embodiment, there is flexible elastic or the third fastening member 12 on the surface of upper 2 near heel 1 b. Both ends of the said elastic 12 are attached to the center of the upper but its center is not attached to the upper 2. It is possible to sew both ends of the said elastic 12 to the upper 2 near sole 1, or even directly to sole 1. Since woman's shoes usually has a high heel, and the vamp on top of the heel usually leans forward, when the users' shoes get into the chamber 7 of the waterproof footwear cover, the center of the elastic or the middle of the third fastening member 12 can be moved up to the upper of the woman's high heel shoes so that the heels of the woman's shoes is pressed on the sole 1, preventing the woman's shoes from moving up and down inside the chamber 7 of the waterproof footwear cover, and preventing the woman's shoes from moving back and forth inside the chamber 7 of the waterproof footwear cover with the help of the front elastic or the second fastening member 8.
Because woman's shoes usually have high heels, when they are directly placed into the chamber of the waterproof footwear cover, the high heel of the woman's shoes press directly over the sole 1 of the waterproof footwear cover. The whole weight of the user is concentrated on the small portion of the sole. Thus sole 1 will quickly wear out. As shown in FIG. 6, in this embodiment, there is a heel mouth or an aperture 13 on the sole 1 at the position corresponding to heel's position 1 b where woman's high heels 1 b′ are. When the user gets the woman's shoes into the chamber 7 of the waterproof footwear cover, the woman's high heels 1 b′ can pass through the heel mouth 13 on the sole 1 of the waterproof footwear cover to the outside of chamber 7. Thus it can avoid the wearing on the sole 1 from woman's high heels 1 b′. In this embodiment, the material of sole 1 near heel 1 b is made from soft material. The fifth elastic or the forth fastening member 14 is set around the said heel mouth 13. Thus heel mouth 13's size matches the size of the woman's high heel 1 b's size, preventing rain water from entering the chamber 7 of the waterproof footwear cover from the heel mouth 13. In addition, an aperture 13 a can be arranged in the soft material adjacent to the heel mouth 13 as shown in FIG. 7. The aperture 13 a is used to mount the waterproof footwear cover firmly around the heel and to prevent the flow of water into chamber 7.
Besides, since some woman's shoes have a sharp tip, and since the size of the tips are quite different due to the large variety of woman's shoes, the sole 1 of the waterproof footwear cover has to be adaptive to different sizes. In this embodiment, there is a shoe tip mouth 16 set on the vamp 3 near the tip 1 a. There is elastic rubber cap 15 covering around the said tip mouth 16. The said elastic rubber cap 15 covers the tip mouth 16 to prevent rain water from entering the chamber 7 of the waterproof footwear cover through tip mouth 16. When different sizes of shoe tips are placed into the chamber 7 of the waterproof footwear cover, the elastic rubber cap 15 can change its size and shape according to the size and shape of the shoe tip, thus be adaptive to the tip of different woman's shoes.
In the preferred embodiment or the second embodiment, there are fourth elastics or the fifth fastening member 17 sewed around the mouth of the leg receiving member or boot trunk 4 a. This fourth elastic or the fifth fastening member 17 can retract to reduce the size of leg receiving member or boot trunk mouth 4 a so that leg receiving member or boot trunk 4 can stick to the leg of the user tightly. This protects the user's pants from water, and also prevents leg receiving member or boot trunk 4 a from slipping down.
In the preferred embodiment or the second embodiment, there is vertical opening 18 on the said leg receiving member or boot trunk 4 to help the user getting her feet into the chamber 7 of the waterproof footwear cover. There are zips or buttons on the vertical opening 18 for closing the vertical opening 18. It helps the opening and closing of vertical opening 18, so that the user can quickly put on or take off the waterproof footwear cover.
In the preferred embodiment or the second embodiment, there is a containing bag 19 to pack and store the whole waterproof footwear cover. This bag can be attached to the said leg receiving member or boot trunk 4 via string or rope 20 or button. It is also possible to set a storage hole or bag receiving means 21 on the inner side or portion of the said leg receiving member or boot trunk to store the said containing bag through this storage hole or the bag receiving means 21.
In the preferred embodiment or the second embodiment, the said front and rear elastics can be set the same way as the said elastic, i.e., both ends of the elastics can be set on the sole. The center of the elastics is not fixed on the upper or vamp so that the user can wear different sizes and shapes of shoes.
The present invention has been described in detail, with reference to the preferred embodiment, in order to enable the reader to practice the invention without undue experimentation. However, a person having ordinary skill in the art will readily recognizes that many of the previous disclosures may be varied or modified somewhat without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A waterproof footwear cover comprising:

a body comprising a sole, an upper, a vamp and a leg receiving member mounted upwardly from the said upper;

the body adapted to receive a footwear;

the body formed from at least one flexible material;

a first fastening member adapted for moving the said upper towards a rear portion of the footwear mounted to a rear portion of the said upper adjacent to a rear portion of the said sole;

a second fastening member adapted for moving the said upper towards a front portion of the footwear mounted to a front portion of the said vamp adjacent to a front portion of the said sole; and

the first and second ends of the said first fastening member mounted to the said sole.

2. The waterproof footwear cover of claim 1, wherein the first and second ends of the said second fastening member are mounted to the said sole or the said first fastening member.

3. The water proof footwear cover of claim 1, wherein the angle between the said first fastening member and the said sole is between 20 degrees and 60 degrees.

4. The water proof footwear cover of claim 1, wherein the middle portion of the said second fastening member is positioned from a distance between 5 mm and 50 mm upwardly at the front end of the said vamp.

5. The water proof footwear cover of claim 1, wherein the said body further comprises a third fastening member mounted to the said upper adjacent to the rear portion of the said sole, the first and second ends of the said third fastening member are mounted to a portion of the said upper adjacent to the said sole, the middle portion of the said third fastening member is adapted to be moved within the rear portion of the said upper.

6. The waterproof footwear cover of claim 1, wherein the said sole comprises an aperture adapted to receive a heel of the footwear.

7. The waterproof footwear cover of claim 6, wherein the said aperture comprises a flexible material wherein said flexible material has at least one cut adapted for receiving the heel of the footwear.

8. The waterproof footwear cover of claim 6, wherein a fourth fastening member adapted for releasably mounting the heel of the footwear is mounted around the said aperture.

9. The waterproof footwear cover of claim 1, wherein the said vamp comprises a vamp aperture and a vamp cover, the said vamp cover is formed from a flexible material and is adapted to cover the said vamp aperture.

10. The waterproof footwear cover of claim 1, wherein the said leg receiving member comprises a leg receiving aperture and a fastening means for causing the said leg receiving aperture to an open position or a closed position wherein said fastening means can cause the said leg receiving aperture in a closed position by using a button, zipper or sticker.

11. The waterproof footwear cover of claim 1, wherein the said body further comprises a bag adapted to receive the said body affixed to the said leg receiving member by using a string or button.

12. The waterproof footwear cover of claim 11, wherein the said leg receiving member further comprises a bag receiving means for receiving the said bag mounted to the inner portion of the said leg receiving member.

13. The waterproof footwear cover of claim 8, wherein a fifth fastening member is mounted between the end of the said leg receiving member and the end of the said upper, wherein said fifth fastening member is adapted to fasten the lower end portion of the said leg receiving member.