US 2011 02031.35A1 (19) United States (12) Patent Application Publication (10) Pub. No.: US 2011/0203135 A1 DelCielo (43) Pub. Date: Aug. 25, 2011
(54) APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR STROBEL (51) Int. Cl. HIGH-HEEL SHOES A43B 23/02 (2006.01) A43B 23/07 (2006.01) (76) Inventor: Alex DelCielo, Howard Beach, NY (52) U.S. Cl...... 36/47 (US) (57) ABSTRACT (21) Appl. No.: 13AO21,472 A shoe and a process for fabricating high-heeled shoes or y x- - - 9 pumps incorporates Strobel technology having an upper outer (22) Filed: Feb. 4, 2011 material with a lower end region of the outer material located a rs in a lower upper end region, an upper lining material, which is arranged on the inner side of the upper outer material, Related U.S. Application Data incorporates a functional layer and has a lower end region of the lining material, the end region of the lining material hav (60) Provisional application No. 61/306,626, filed on Feb. ing a lining edge that is not covered by the upper outer 22, 2010. material, and a connecting band, resulting in a comfortable high-heeled shoe that can be worn all day and reduces foot Publication Classification stress over conventional high-heeled shoes.
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APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR STROBEL 0013 (c) to provide a high-heel shoe that is wearable for HIGH-HEEL SHOES many hours of the day in comfort; 0014 (d) to provide shoe with impact absorption charac CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED teristics to lessen joint stress when ambulating; APPLICATIONS 00.15 (e) to provide a new shoe sole design that is aestheti 0001. This non-provisional patent application claims a cally pleasing in fashion; and priority benefit to U.S. Provisional application No. 61/301, 0016 (f) to provide a footwear product that has a signifi 626 entitled 'Apparatus and Method for Strobel high-heel cantly lower import US Tariff Schedule than conventional shoes' filed in the United States Patent and Trademark Office foot wear. on Feb. 4, 2010 by a common Inventor to this instant appli 0017. Further objects and advantages of my invention will cation, Alex DelCielo. Further the above named Provisional become apparent from a consideration of the drawings and Application in its entirety is hereby incorporated by refer ensuing description. CCC. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY 0018 FIGS. 1-37 are various photographs showing the SPONSORED RESEARCH method and construction techniques of a Strobel high-heeled 0002. Not Applicable shoe.
REFERENCE TO APPENDIX DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 0003) Not Applicable 0019 While the present invention has been illustrated and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, FIELD OF THE INVENTION various modifications will be apparent to and might readily be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the 0004. This invention relates to the construction of pumps Scope and spirit of the present invention. Accordingly, it is not or high-heeled shoes using Strobel technology. intended that the scope of the claims appended hereto be limited to the description as set forth herein, but, rather, that BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION the claims be broadly construed. 0005 New, useful and aesthetically pleasing materials are 0020. The high-heeled shoe, or a shoe whose heel is higher constantly being sought out, discovered and applied to foot than the toe, is a matter of contentious and heated discussion. wear. Although Strobel technology has been known for use on Shoes in general have typically served as markers of gender, other foot wear such as flats, it has not been previously used class, race, and ethnicity—and both the foot and the shoe have in the construction of pumps or high-heeled shoes. Strobel been imbued with powerful phallic and fertility symbols as technology has very desirable qualities for application in evidenced in the contemporary practice of tying shoes to a pumps such as comfort, reduced foot stress, reduced impact newlywed couple's car. No other shoe, however, has gestured forces and shock absorption. toward leisure, sexuality, and Sophistication as much as the 0006 Thus there is a need for high-heeled shoes having high-heeled shoe. Fraught with contradiction, heels paradoxi Strobel technology incorporated into the construction cally inhibit movement in order to increase it, at least in thereof. appearance. Standing in heels, a woman presents herself 0007 Such a product and or method of producing such already half-walking while at the same time reducing the product is heretofore unknown to the Inventor. In general this length of her step, fostering the illusion of speed while Sug new product and method have the potential for creating gesting the promise of an immanent fall. The higher and more unique foot wear with extremely comfortable shoes, which unstable the heel, the more clearly these contradictions are absorb unwanted and detrimental walking or running impacts expressed (Kunzle 2004). Doctors and scholars alike have to a consumer's joints or skeletal structure. Ambulatory argued about the physical and cultural effect, both positive health and safety are increased with a more an attractive, and negative, that heels have had not only on women, but on comfortable, and longer wearable shoe. Society as a whole. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Precursors to the High-Heeled Shoe 0008 High-heeled shoes are famous for their looks but 0021 Most of the lower class in ancient Egypt walked also for their discomfort. A new type of construction using barefoot, but figures on murals dating from 3500 B.C. depict Strobel techniques renders a more comfortable shoe. an early version of shoes worn mostly by the higher classes. These were leather pieces held together with lacing that was OBJECTS AND ADVANTAGES often arranged to look like the symbol of "Ankh, which represents life. But there are also some depictions of both 0009. The primary purpose of this invention is to fabricate upper-class males and females wearing heels, probably for a unique high-heel shoe incorporating Strobel technology. ceremonial purposes. Egyptian butchers also wore heels, to 0010. Accordingly, several objects and advantages of our help them walk above the blood of dead beasts. In ancient invention are: Greece and Rome, platform sandals called kothorni, later 0011 (a) to integrate Strobel technology into high-heeled known as buskins in the Renaissance, were shoes with high shoes; wood or cork soles that were popular particularly among 0012 (b) to provide a higher degree of comfort than pre actors who would wear shoes of different heights to indicated viously known in high-heeled shoes; varying Social status or importance of characters. In ancient US 2011/0203135 A1 Aug. 25, 2011
Rome, sex trade was not illegal and female prostitutes were tuary laws in Venice that banned the wearing of chopine-style readily identified by their high heels (Wilson 2005). platform shoes as early as the 1430s. 0022. Chopines, or platform shoes, were created in Turkey 0028 High-heeled shoes quickly caught on with the fash in the 1400s, and were popular throughout Europe until the ion-conscious men and women of the French court, and spread to pockets of nobility in other countries. The term mid-1600s During the Middle Ages, both men and women “well-heeled became synonymous with opulent wealth. would wear pattens, or wooden soles, that were clearly a Both men and women continued wearing heels as a matter of precursor the high heel. Pattens would attach to fragile and noble fashion throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth cen expensive shoes to keep them out of the mud and other street turies. When the French Revolution drew near, in the late “debris' when walking outdoors (Swann 1984). In the 1400s, 1700s, the practice of wearing heels fell into decline in France chopines, or platform shoes, were created in Turkey and were due to its associations with wealth and aristocracy. Through popular throughout Europe until the mid-1600s. Chopines out most of the 1800s, flat shoes and sandals were usual for could be seven to eight or even 30 inches high, requiring both sexes, but the heel resurfaced in fashion during the late women to use canes or servants to help them walk. Like 1800s, almost exclusively among women. pattens, chopines were overshoes, but unlike the pattens, 0029. Throughout the last 60 years high-heels have fallen chopines were worn almost exclusively by women (Rexford in and out of favor several times, most notably in the late 90s, 2000). They were usually designed with cork or wood stacked when lower heels and even flats predominated. Lower heels as the heel. were preferred during the late 60s and early 70s as well, but 0023 The Venetians made the chopine into a status sym higher heels returned in the late 80s and early 90s. The shape bol revealing wealth and social standing for women, and of the fashionable heel has also changed from block (70s) to tourists to Venice often remarked humorously on the outra tapered (90s), and stiletto (50s, 80s, and post-2000). geously high chopines. One visitor noted that they were 0030 Today, high-heels are typically worn by women, “invented by husbands who hoped the cumbersome move with heights varying from a kitten heel of 1/2 inch (4 cm) to ment that entailed would make illicit liaisons difficult” (Mc a stiletto heel (or spike heel) of 4 inch (10 cm) or more. Dowell 1989). Already we can see issues of domination and Extremely high-heeled shoes, such as those higher than 5 inch Submission being associated with shoes much like the lotus (13 cm), are normally worn only for aesthetic reasons and are shoes of China. Indeed, Chinese concubines and Turkish not considered practical. Court shoes are conservative styles odalisques wore high shoes, prompting scholars to speculate and often used for work and formal occasions, while more if heels were used not only for aesthetic reasons but also to adventurous styles are common for evening wear and danc prevent women from escaping the harem (Kunzle 2004). ing. High-heels have seen significant controversy in the medi 0024. Shoes were beginning to be made in two pieces cal field lately, with many podiatrists seeing patients whose during the 1500s, with a flexible upper attached to a heavier, severe foot problems have been caused almost exclusively by stiffer sole (Swann 1984). This new two-part shoe led to the high-heel wear. heel as an actual part of the shoe rather than just an attachable 0031 Wedge heel is informally another style of the heel, overshoe. where heel is in a wedge form and continues all the way to the 0.025 Raised heels are sometimes claimed to have been a toe of the shoe. response to the problem of the rider's foot slipping forward in 0032 Reasons against wearing high-heels, which are stirrups while riding. The “rider's heel.” approximately 1/2 almost exclusively health and practicality reasons, include: inch (4 cm) high, appeared around 1500. The leading edge 0033 they can cause foot pain was canted forward to help grip the stirrup, and the trailing 0034 they can create foot deformities, including ham edge was canted forward to prevent the elongated heel from mertoes and bunions catching on underbrush or rock while backing up, such as in 0035 they can cause an unsteady gait on-foot combat. These features are evident today in riding 0.036 they can shorten the wearer's stride boots, notably cowboy boots. 0037 they can render the wearer unable to run 0026. The simple riding heel gave way to a more stylized 0.038 altered forces at the knee caused by walking in heel over its first three decades. Beginning with the French, high-heels may predispose to degenerative changes in heel heights among men crept up, often becoming higher and the knee joint thinner, until they were no longer useful while riding, but 0039. See “Foot and Tendon Problems' below for many were relegated to “court-pony’ wear. By the late 1600s, men's of the medical reasons. heels were commonly between three and four inches in 0040 Women who wear high heels frequently have a height. higher incidence of degenerative joint disease of the 0027. However, high heels may have been wornby women knees. This is because they cause a decrease in the nor just as early or earlier, both as a fashion statement and to mal rotation of the foot which puts more rotation stress increase short stature. At least as early as 1533, the diminutive on the knee Italian wife of Henry II King of France, Queen Catherine de' 0041 Reasons for wearing high-heels, which are almost Medici, commissioned a cobbler to fashion her a pair of heels, exclusively aesthetic, include: both for fashion, and to suggest greater height. They were an 0.042 they change the angle of the foot with respect to adaptation of chopines and pattens (elevated wooden soles the lower leg, which accentuates the appearance of with both heel and toe raised, not unlike modern platform calves shoes or dogs and sabots), intended to protect the feet of the 0.043 they change the wearer's posture, requiring a wearer from dirt and mud; but unlike chopines, the heel was more upright carriage and altering the gait in what is higher than the toe and the “platform” was made to bend in the considered a seductive fashion middle with the foot. That raised shoes had already been worn 0044 they make the wearer appear taller as a fashion statement in Italy, at least, is suggested by Sump 0.045 they make the legs appear longer US 2011/0203135 A1 Aug. 25, 2011
0046 they make the foot appear smaller into this position, the more it may cause the Achilles tendon to 0047 they make the toes appear shorter shorten. This may cause problems when the wearer chooses 0048 they make the arches of the feet higher and better lower heels or flat-soled shoes. When the foot slants forward, defined a much greater weight is transferred to the ball of the foot and 0049 they make the lower leg muscles more defined the toes, increasing the likelihood of damage to the underly 0050 they make the gluteus maximus more defined ing soft tissue which supports the foot. In many shoes, style 0051 they may improve the tone of a woman's pelvic dictates function, either compressing the toes, or forcing them floor. together, possibly resulting in blisters, corns, hammer toes, bunions (hallux valgus), Morton's neuroma and many other Types of High Heels medical conditions, most of which are permanent, and will 0052 Types of heels found on high-heeled footwear require Surgery to alleviate the pain. High heels—because include: they tip the foot forward put pressure on the lower back 0053 cone: a round heel which is broad where it meets through making the rump push outwards and crushing the the sole of the shoe and noticeably narrower at the point lowerback vertebrae and contracting the muscles of the lower of contact with the ground back. 0054 kitten: a short, slim heel with maximum height 0062) If it is not possible to avoid high heels altogether, it under 2 inches and diameter of no more than 0.4 inch at is Suggested that the wearer spend at least a third of the time the point of contact with the ground on their feet in contour-supporting "flat shoes (such as exer 0055 prism: three flat sides which form a triangle at the cise sandals), or well-cushioned 'Sneaker-type' shoes, saving point of contact with the ground high heels for special occasions. 0056 spool: broad where it meets the sole and at the 0063. One of the most critical problems of high-heeled point of contact with the ground; noticeably narrower at shoe design involves a properly constructed toe-box. the midpoint between the two Improper construction here can cause the most damage to 0057 stiletto: a tall, slim heel with minimum height of one's foot. Toe-boxes which are too narrow force the toes to 2 inches and diameter of no more than 0.4 inch at the be "crammed too close together. Ensuring that room exists point of contact with the ground for the toes to assume a normal separation so that high-heel 0.058 wedge: occupies the entire space under the arch wear remains an option rather than a debilitating practice, is and heel portions of the foot an important issue in improving the wearability of women's high-heeled fashion shoes. Wide heels do not necessarily Men and Heels offer more stability, and any raised heel with too much width, such as found in “blade-” or “block-heeled' shoes, induces 0059 Although high heels originated in France as male unhealthy side-to-side torque to the ankles with every step, footwear around 1500, since the late 1700s, men's shoes have stressing them unnecessarily, while creating additional had primarily low heels. A notable exception is cowboy boots, impact on the balls of the feet. Thus, the best design for a which continue to sport a taller riding heel. The two-inch high-heel is one with a narrower width, where the heel is Cuban heel features in many styles of men's boot, but was closer to the front, more solidly under the ankle, where the toe popularised by Beetle boots, famously worn by the English box provides room enough for the toes, and where forward rock group, The Beatles, which saw the reintroduction of movement of the foot in the shoe is kept in check by material heels for men which some men still wear high heels today. Snug across the instep, rather than by the toes being rammed Winklepicker boots also usually feature a Cuban heel. There forwards andjamming together in the toe box, or crushed into was also a brief resurgence in higher-heeled shoes for men in the front of the toe box. the 1970s (in Saturday Night Fever, John Travolta's character 0064. Despite the medical issues surrounding high-heel wears a Cuban heel in the opening sequence). The singer wear, a few podiatrists recommend well-constructed low to Prince is known to wear high heels, as well as Sir Elton John. moderate heels for some patients. It appears a slight elevation Bands such as Motley Crue & Sigue Sigue Sputnik predomi of the heel improves the angle of contact between the meta nantely wore High Heels during the 1980's and are currently tarsals and the horizontal plane, thereby more closely being worn by Bill Kaulitz, the lead singer of Tokio Hotel. approximating the proper angle and resulting in proper weight distribution of a medium-to-high-arched foot. Other Accessories foot specialists, however, argue that any heel causes unnec 0060. The stiletto of certain kinds of high-heels can dam essary stresses on the various bones and joints of the foot. age some types of floors. Such damage can be prevented by heel protectors, also called covers, guards, or taps, which fit Potential Health Benefits over the “stiletto’ tips to keep them from direct, marring contact with delicate surfaces, such as linoleum (rotogravure) 0065. A recent study suggested that wearing high heels or urethane-varnished wooden floors. Heel protectors are may improve the tone of a woman's pelvic floor. widely used in ballroom dancing, as such dances are often held on wooden flooring. The bottom of most heels usually Feminist Attitudes Towards High Heels has a plastic or metal heel tip that wears away with use and can 0066. The high heel has been a central battleground of be easily replaced. Dress heels (high-heeled shoes with elabo sexual politics ever since the emergence of the women's rate decoration) are worn for formal occasions. liberation movement of the 1970s. Many second-wave femi nists rejected what they regarded as constricting standards of Foot and Tendon Problems female beauty, created for the subordination and objectifying 0061 High-heeled shoes slant the foot forward and down of women and self-perpetuated by reproductive competition while bending the toes up. The more that the feet are forced and women's own aesthetics. Some feminists argue that the US 2011/0203135 A1 Aug. 25, 2011
high heels were designed to make woman helpless and Vul connecting band at points with convex curvature of the lower nerable, perpetuating the gender role of males as protectors of periphery of the upper end region, corresponding to the dif the slowly staggering women. High heels have also been fering curvatures and arc lengths of the outer material end and blamed for reducing the woman into a sex object, by sacri the lining material end region. ficing practical comfort in favor of an alleged increase in sex 2. The shoe upper as claimed in claim 1, in which the arc appeal. Many contemporary feminists, however particu length of the second longitudinal side of the connecting band larly those of the third wave—do not share these views. Some is longer than the arc length of the first longitudinal side of the second wave feminists such as Judy Grahn have tied high connecting band at points of the upper end region periphery heels to menstruation rituals that various cultures have used. with a concave curvature. 0067 Strobel Slip Last Shoe construction method 3. The shoe upper as claimed in claim 1, in which the lining which stitches a sole shaped fabric board to the upper of the edge that is not covered by upper outer material is formed by shoe that is slipped onto a last, closing the upper with Stitches an overhang of the end region of the lining material with around the perimeter of the sole. The board may be varied respect to the end region of the outer material. from thin flexible materials, thicker stable to materials, or a 4. The shoe upper as claimed in claim 1, with a Substan combination of the two stitched together, to improve stability tially rigid connecting band, in which the differences in arc or flexibility. length of the two longitudinal sides of the connecting band, I claim: which are dependent on the respective arc curvature, are 1. A shoe upper, having: an upper outer material with a incorporated correspondingly into the band at the production lower end region of the outer material located in a lower upper Stage. end region, an upper lining material, which is arranged on the 5. The shoe upper as claimed in claim 4, with a punched inner side of the upper outer material, incorporates a func connecting band. tional layer and has a lower end region of the lining material, 6. The shoe upper as claimed in claim 4, with an injection the end region of the lining material having a lining edge that molded connecting band. is not covered by the upper outer material, and a connecting 7. The shoe upper as claimed in claim 1, with an elastic band, which extends around the periphery of the upper end connecting band, which is joined on its first longitudinal side region and is joined on a first longitudinal side to the end to the outer material end region while being Subjected to region of the outer material but not to the end region of the longitudinal tensile pre-stress. lining material, and is joined on a second longitudinal side to 8. The shoe upper as claimed in claim 1, with a deformable the end region of the lining material but not to the end region connecting band, which is joined on its first longitudinal side of the outer material, band wherein at points of curvature of to the outer material end region while being Subjected to the lower periphery of the upper end region the connecting longitudinal tensile pre-stress leading to plastic deformation. band extends in an arc corresponding to the local radius of 9. The shoe upper as claimed in claim 1, in which the curvature, with the two longitudinal sides of the connecting connecting band is joined on its second longitudinal side to band having different degrees of curvature band, in Such a the lining material end region while being Subjected to lon way that, for an arc sector lying in the respective curvature, gitudinal tensile pre-stress. with a predetermined unitary sector angle, the arc lengths of 10. The shoe upper as claimed in claim 1, in which the first the two longitudinal connecting band sides belonging to this longitudinal side of arc sector differ from each other the more, the greater the the connecting band is sewn to the end region of the outer curvature of the respective arc sector is, the arc length of the material. first longitudinal side of the connecting band being longer than the arc length of the second longitudinal side of the