WO2016050660A1

WO2016050660A1 - Shoe sole comprising a textured bottom side

Info

Publication number: WO2016050660A1
Application number: PCT/EP2015/072196
Authority: WO
Inventors: Olivier Muhlhoff; Arnaud Larregain
Original assignee: Compagnie Generale Des Etablissements Michelin; Michelin Recherche Et Technique S.A.
Priority date: 2014-09-30
Filing date: 2015-09-28
Publication date: 2016-04-07
Also published as: FR3026279A1; EP3200636A1; CN106714606A; FR3026279B1

Abstract

The invention relates to a shoe sole (1) comprising a sole bottom side equipped with a plurality of ground-contact zones (2) and a sole top side designed to support the user's foot, in which at least one of the ground-contact zones (2) is provided with a plurality of tread elements including an apex (3) that comes into contact with the ground and a base (4) adjacent to, and recessed from the apex, at least one portion of the base (4) comprising textures (10).

Description

SHOE SOLE WITH TEXTURE BELT

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a shoe sole comprising a sole, provided with a plurality of contact areas with the ground, a sole, adapted to support the foot of the user, at least one of the zones contacting the ground being provided with a plurality of sculpture elements.

STATE OF THE PRIOR ART

[0002] For many years, fashion and stylistic cycles have influenced the design and production of clothing of all kinds. Shapes, arrangements, colors and other styles vary from season to season depending on major trends over periods often lasting several years. The last cycles of clothing creations have seen new materials on clothing, allowing to create various types of effect textures and reliefs, in addition to color schemes.

The footwear sector is no exception to these strong trends. Recent products, particularly in the field of leisure shoes and sports activities, have increasingly bright colors and added materials to create contrasts effects particularly appreciated by users. However, we note that these aesthetic effects relate generally only to the upper of the shoe. The sole purpose of the shoe is primarily to provide utilitarian and technical functions. However, some undersides may also have decorative features.

[0004] EP2499926 discloses a shoe whose structure comprises a flexion zone extending substantially under the forefoot. The flexion area of the soleplate is softer than adjacent areas of the soleplate. The sole also has ribbed elements. US3971145 relates to a tennis shoe provided for a high level of resistance. The sole has a side portion up to the stem under the toes and the flexing area of the foot. The sole portion that is at the junction of the pressure zone is of greater thickness.

[0006] WO8203754 describes an athletic shoe particularly suitable for sports where turns are made, quick starts, stops and sudden lateral movements. The shoe includes a sole of longitudinal shape. The median aspect of the sole is linear and rounded from the first metatarsal extension. The lateral area of the sole includes a wing projecting at 90 ° to the edges of the shoe. The heel is flared on the lateral edge and a projecting wing is formed from the back of the fifth metatarsal to below the malleolus and around the heel to meet the aforementioned medial wing. The rear aspect of the sole is beveled.

DE102014001951 discloses a shoe provided with half-ball shaped patterns made of rubber and / or plastic. The patterns are distributed on the bottom surface and on the side edges of the sole. The dimensions of these patterns are relatively large, for example a few millimeters in diameter.

The document FR2733880A3 relates to a shoe whose sole includes a body bearing a wear resistant design. The body of the sole has in its lower face a cavity in which is fixed an insertion element. The design is securely applied to the upper and lateral surfaces of the body by a transfer technique when molding the body.

US200929331A1 discloses a shoe consisting of an apparent marking system, configured to allow the location of one or more areas of the foot. The system is composed of a marking that extends from a lower surface of the sole to a peripheral portion of the sole. This document concerns a marking that is not necessarily purely aesthetic, embellishing the underside of the sole and being visible during the process of the user shoes.

The set of documents evoked deals with different examples according to which the undersides of shoe soles are the subject of markings embellishing the overall visual appearance of the shoe. On the other hand, no document demonstrates the use of particular textures affixed under the sole to produce a highly contrasted visual effect. To overcome these disadvantages, the invention provides different technical means.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0012] First, a first object of the invention is to provide a simple, effective and durable means, generating contrast effects on the underside of the shoe sole.

Another object of the invention is to provide soles whose part in contact with the ground has areas with strong contrasts between them.

Finally, another object of the invention lies in a subsidiary manner in the ability to detect the level of wear of the shoe when the textures in the bottom of the sculpture come into contact with the ground.

To do this, the invention provides a shoe sole comprising:

- a bottom of sole, provided with a plurality of areas of contact with the ground;

- A sole, adapted to support the foot of the user, said top can be adapted to a rod or a slipper;

at least one of the areas of contact with the ground being provided with a plurality of sculpture elements comprising a top for contact with the ground and a bottom adjacent to the summit and set back with respect to the latter, at least a portion of the background comprising textures, the zones provided with textures comprising a plurality of elements protruding or recessed with respect to the surface, each element extending substantially perpendicularly (θ = 90 °) to the sculpture bottom surface and the hollow elements or protrusion of the texture being integral with said sole and all or part of the protruding elements being strands distributed in the texture having a density of at least one strand per square millimeter (mm ² ), each strand having an average cross section of between 0.003 mm ² and 1 mm ² and / or all or part of the protruding elements being substantially parallel slats between they, the pitch of the lamellae in the texture being at most equal to 0.5 mm, each lamella having an average width of between 0.03 mm and 0.25 mm.

Such a sole architecture can produce a marked contrast effect between the different neighboring areas: on the one hand the non-textured tops, and on the other hand the backgrounds of sculptures, provided with textures. Moreover, the arrangement of the textures indented with respect to the friction zones makes it possible to avoid the wear of these textures. The visual effect thus procured is therefore durable. The areas in contact with the ground are abrasion polished as the shoe is used, which maintains the contrast with the textured parts not touching the ground when new. The predicted textures set back from the contact areas provide a water repellent effect, which limits the penetration of sludge or other impurities in these parts.

The textures according to the invention make it possible to obtain particularly favorable zones for marking elements which may for example be constituted by various graphic signs.

With such an architecture, the contrast obtained by the light absorbed by the texture allows the user to view the various graphic elements such as signs, logos and patterns, affixed to the soles of his shoes. In addition, the marking may also result from the effect produced by the textures in the bottom of sculpture of the sole, or even a textured element affixed at the level of the arch. In addition, the presence of textured zones juxtaposed and / or surrounding peaks of sculptures, allows the user to become aware of the level of wear of the sole of his shoe, since the initially visible contrast seems altered and deteriorated textures. Advantageously, the luminance level of the zones comprising textures is less than that of the zones devoid of textures such as the vertices of the sculpture elements. Thus, the textures produce a stronger light absorption effect than at the vertices. According to an advantageous embodiment, the difference in luminance of the zones comprising textures with the zones devoid of textures is at least 5 points.

According to another advantageous embodiment, the luminance of the zones comprising textures is between 5 and 18, preferably between 8 and 16.

In a first variant, the sole comprises a bottom zone provided with textures located on the front portion of the sole.

According to another variant, a bottom zone of the sole provided with textures is located on the heel of the soleplate.

According to yet another variant, a textured bottom zone extends on at least one side of the sole.

According to one variant, at least 30% of the protruding elements of the texture make an angle α greater than 40 ° with respect to a plane tangent to the surface of the surface. contact and at most 25% of the elements protruding from the texture makes an angle less than 20 ° relative to the tangent plane.

Another variant allows all or part of the protruding elements form parallelepipeds side (C) between 0.05 mm and 0.5 mm, height (Hp) between 0.05 mm and 0.5 mm, the distance between two adjacent parallelepipeds in the texture being between 0.05 mm and 0.5 mm.

Similarly, according to yet another variant, the protruding elements present in the texture shapes and distances between elements in variable protrusion.

Advantageously, the hollow elements of the sole form openings on the surface of the sole and the texture comprises a plurality of openings, said openings being distributed in the texture in a density at least equal to an opening by millimeters squared (mm ² ), these openings having on the surface of the soleplate equivalent diameters (Dt) of between 0.03 mm and 1.2 mm.

The invention further provides a shoe comprising a sole such as previously described.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

All the details of implementation are given in the description which follows, supplemented by FIGS. 1 to 8, presented solely for purposes of non-limiting examples, and in which:

- Figure 1A is a schematic representation of an example of a bottom of a sole according to the invention;

- Figure 1 B is a schematic representation of a variant of the example of the underside of Figure 1A;

FIG. 2A is a schematic representation of another example of underside of sole according to the invention; - Figure 2B is a schematic representation of another example of sole, seen from the side, the bottom of the sculpture areas of the underside extend on either side of the sides of the sole;

FIG. 3 represents a part of the texture of a sole such as that of FIGS. 1A or 1B or 2A or 2B, according to a first exemplary embodiment according to which the texture has elements in protuberance in the form of strands;

FIG. 4 represents a part of the texture of a sole such as that of FIGS. 1A or 1B or 2A or 2B, according to another second embodiment in which the texture has elements in protuberance in the form of lamellae; - Figure 5 shows a part of the texture of a sole such as that of Figures 1A or 1B or 2A or 2B, according to a third embodiment wherein the texture has parallelepiped-shaped protruding elements;

FIG. 6 represents a part of the texture of a sole such as that of FIGS. 1A or 1B or 2A or 2B, according to a fourth embodiment in which the texture has elements in protuberance whose shapes and distances between elements in protuberance are variable;

FIG. 7 represents a part of the texture of a sole such as that of FIGS. 1A or 1B or 2A or 2B, according to a fifth embodiment in which the texture has recessed elements, conical in this example;

FIG. 8 represents an enlarged view of a cavity of a hollow element of the texture of FIG. 7.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0034] FIGS. 1A and 2A illustrate a first embodiment of the invention. The underside of the sole 1 comprises a plurality of contact zones 2 in the form of sculptures defined by a vertex 3 configured to be in contact with the ground and sculpture funds 4, adjacent to the vertices, and set back from to these, so as to provide a free space between said funds 4 and the tops 3. In the usual way, the sculptures can be arranged in a virtually infinite number of configurations, in which the profiles and / or dimensions can vary depending on the soles. In the exemplary embodiments illustrated in FIGS. 1A, 1B, 2A and 2B, the sculpting backgrounds 4 comprise textures 10, as described below. In these figures, the sculptural background textures are represented by hatching, so as to illustrate the visual effect of strong contrast between the textured areas, in the sculpture background 4, and the untextured, at the top 3 of sculpture. More specifically, in Figures 1A and 1B, the front section of the sole includes a front sculpture, at the front of the sole, and respectively three and four sculptures on the inner and outer sides. At the heel, three lateral sculptures on each side occupy most of the heel, the rear having a single sculpture across the width. Each of the vertices 3 is delimited by a bottom 4 immediately adjacent to the vertex. These funds are highlighted by the textures 10, thus creating a noticeable visual effect. Therefore, the sole of the shoe can greatly help to enhance and enhance the overall appearance of the shoe.

In the example of Figure 1A, the camber 6 of the sole is also provided with textures 10. In the example of Figure 1 B the camber further comprises a pattern or marking 8 delimited by the textures, the marking being itself devoid of such sculptures.

Since the sculpture funds 4 and the camber of the sole are not in contact with the ground, the textures are protected against wear. The contrast effect lasts as long as the vertices are not worn. When one or more vertices 3 are worn out, the surrounding textures are brought into contact with the ground, producing a gradual attenuation of the contrast effect. This attenuation of the contrast makes it possible to indicate to the user of shoes that the soles have reached a high level of wear.

The embodiment of Figure 2A is similar to that of Figure 1A for the front sector and the heel. The camber 6 has a texture 10 whose profile forms a marking, in this case a geometric shape. Figure 2B is a side view of an alternative embodiment in which the sculptures extend on the edges of the sole. The funds 4 of sculpture are thus visible on these edges. In this embodiment, the funds 4 are provided with textures 10.

The previously mentioned contrast effect comes from the fact that the luminance level of the zones provided with textures 10 (such as the backgrounds 4) is lower than that of the zones devoid of textures (such as the vertices of the sculpture elements). . Various arrangements or configurations of textures make it possible to produce such an effect, as described below, in relation with FIGS. 3 to 8.

The apparatus for measuring the appropriate luminance is a CM 700D spectrophotometer of the brand KON ICA-MINOLTA (trademark). This device is suitable for measuring:

the luminosity L ^* 1, L ^* 2 of the zones of the sole (areas covered by the texture, areas not covered by the texture);

a component a ^* that defines a first shade of color between red and green;

a component b ^* that defines a second shade of color between yellow and blue.

Positioning said apparatus on the part of the sole that is to be measured and said apparatus gives the values of the three parameters L ^* , a ^* , b ^* relating to the texture. These measurements are made with the "SCI" mode (specular reflection mode included) set at an angle of 10 ° and a light setting of type D65 (setting defined by the International Commission on Illumination, CIE).

With this device, we quantify the brightness of the texture that is compared to the brightness of the rest of the sole.

Figures 3 to 8 illustrate examples of textures that can be arranged on the sole according to the invention. FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment in which the texture comprises a plurality of strands 1 1. The strands 11 are distributed in the texture according to a density of at least one strand per mm ² , each strand having an average section S of between 0.0005 mm ² and 1 mm ² . We note that the The mean section of each strand is the average of sections S measured at regular intervals from the base of the strand. The strands 106 have a generally conical shape with a section decreasing in the Hb height of these strands. FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment in which the texture comprises a plurality of blades 12 parallel to each other, the pitch of the blades 12 in the texture being at most equal to 0.5 mm, each blade 12 having an average width. between 0.02 mm and 0.5 mm. Note that the average width corresponds to the average width I measured at regular intervals in the height Hl of the blade, the height of each blade being between 0.05 and 0.5 mm.

In another variant embodiment, the texture comprises a combination of strands 1 1 and / or and blades 12. The invention is not limited to the examples described and shown and various modifications may be made thereto. without leaving his frame. Thus, according to another non-limiting embodiment, the blades 12 of Figure 4 may be discontinuous. They have a flat part between them. In addition, they may have section differences between them. In addition, the blades may have curvatures or angles, especially in their length. They can also be of variable length.

In the example of FIG. 5, the textures have a parallelepipedic section 13 of side C between 0.05 mm and 0.5 mm, with a height H p of between 0.05 mm and 0.5 mm, the distance Dp between two adjacent cavities in the texture being between 0.05 mm and 0.5 mm. In a variant, the section of the textures may be circular, polygonal (for example hexagonal). With the square or polygonal structures, it is possible to more easily organize the elements relative to each other so as to limit the area of the intermediate zones between the elements. In the variant of Figure 6, the elements 14 have shapes and variable distances between them. This variant makes the details of the texture less visible. Figure 7 illustrates a texture according to another non-limiting embodiment. In this variant, the texture is formed by a plurality of cavities 16. The cavities 16 are here in the form of cones which extend in the depth of the surface and open out onto this surface by forming circular openings 15. The cavities 16 have thus a section that decreases in depth. Note that in this variant, the openings 1 1 of the cavities 16 do not touch. The openings 1 1 are separated by intermediate zones 17. In addition, the openings January 1 are evenly distributed so that the distance d between each opening is generally similar. FIG. 8 is an enlarged view of the texture of FIG. 7. All or some of the cavities here have at least one wall 18 which, in a sectional view, forms an angle β of between 10 ° and 60 ° by relative to a direction Z perpendicular to the texture.

Reference numbers used in the figures

Underside

Contact areas

Mountain peak

Sculpture Fund

Lateral edge

instep

Pattern or marking

textures

strands

blades

parallelepipeds

Variable protruding elements

overtures

cavities

Intermediate areas

Wall

Claims

1. Shoe sole (1) comprising:

- a lower sole, provided with a plurality of contact zones (2) with the ground;

at least one of the contact zones (2) with the ground being provided with a plurality of tread elements comprising a top (3) for contact with the ground and a bottom (4) adjacent to the top and set back from therein, at least a portion of the bottom (4) comprising textures (10).

characterized in that the zones provided with textures comprise a plurality of elements (1 1, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16) protuberance or recessed relative to the surface (2), each element extending substantially perpendicularly (θ = 90 °) to the sculpture bottom surface (4) and in that the recessed or protuberant elements of the texture are integral with said sole and in that all or part of the protruding elements are strands (6) distributed in the texture (3) at a density of at least one strand per square millimeter (mm ² ), each strand having an average cross section of between 0.003 mm ² and 1 mm ² and / or all or part of the elements in protrusion are slats (7) substantially parallel to each other, the pitch of the slats in the texture (3) being at most equal to 0.5 mm, each slat having an average width of between 0.03 mm and 0.25 mm.

The sole of claim 1, wherein the luminance level of the areas comprising textures (10) is less than that of the textureless areas such as the vertices (3) of the carving elements.

The sole according to claim 2, wherein the luminance difference of the zones comprising textures with the zones devoid of textures is at least 5 points.

4. Sole according to one of claims 2 to 3, wherein the luminance of the zones comprising textures is between 5 and 18, preferably between 8 and 16.

5. Sole according to one of claims 1 to 4, wherein a bottom zone (4) provided with textures (10) is located on the front portion of the sole.

6. Sole according to one of claims 1 to 4, wherein a bottom zone (4) provided with textures (10) is located on the heel of the sole.

The sole according to one of claims 1 to 4, wherein a bottom zone (4) provided with textures (10) extends on at least one side of the sole.

8. Sole according to one of claims 1 to 7, wherein at least 30% of the elements (1 1, 12, 13, 14) in protrusion of the texture (10) makes an angle α greater than 40 ° relative to a plane tangential to the surface and at most 25% of the elements (1 1, 12, 13, 14) in protrusion of the texture (3) makes an angle a less than 20 ° relative to the tangent plane.

9. Sole according to one of claims 1 to 7, wherein a portion of the protruding elements form parallelepipeds (13) side (C) between 0.05 mm and 0.5 mm, height (Hp) included between 0.05 mm and 0.5 mm, the distance between two adjacent parallelepipeds (13) in the texture being between 0.05 mm and 0.5 mm.

10. Sole according to one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the protruding elements (14) have in the texture (10) forms and distances between elements protruding variable.

1 1. Sole according to one of claims 1 to 7, wherein a part of the recessed elements (16) form openings (15) on the surface of the sole and the texture (10) comprises a plurality of openings (15), said openings (15) being distributed in the texture (10) in a density at least equal to one opening per square millimeter (mm ² ), these openings (15) having on the soleplate equivalent diameters (Dt) of between 0.03 mm and 1, 2 mm.

12. Shoe comprising a sole according to one of claims 1 to 1 1