Abstract:
A rack designed to vertically store footwears over one another and to collect water, sand, mud and/or any other debris falling therefrom while avoiding spillage of footwear stored on lower levels.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     (a) Field of the Invention  
         [0002]     This invention relates to a footwear rack. More particularly, the present invention is concerned with a device for cleanly and neatly storing boots or overshoes especially during winter or periods of bad weather, when water, mud salt and all kind of impurities accumulate on the footwear and may dirty the shoe storage area.  
         [0003]     (b) Description of Prior Art  
         [0004]     Winter and bad weather conditions generally cause footwear to be wet or soiled by mud, salt and the like, which leads to spillage on floors especially in public buildings, and even at home.  
         [0005]     To avoid extensive cleaning, public and private buildings often comprise an area where shoes, shoes covers or boots can be left by their users. However, footwear storage areas have generally to be wide since vertical storage of boots, shoes, cover shoes or the like would normally causes spillage on footwears stored on lower levels.  
         [0006]     To alleviate this problem, the prior art discloses footwear racks designed to store shoes or boot over one other. For example, racks for storing footwear are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,661,098 to Side, U.S. Pat. No. 1,810,308 to Wandeler, U.S. Pat. No. 3,762,573 to Collins and Collins, U.S. Pat. No. 4,200,993 to Blanc and Jorcin, U.S. Pat. No. 3,587,864 to Delisle, U.S. Pat. No. 3,311,242 to Miklya and U.S. Pat. No. 4,997,093. Although solutions have been proposed to alleviate spillage on floors with soiled footwear, none of the solutions proposed in the prior art provides a means for vertically storing shoes or boot, while preventing footwears stored at upper levels to soiled those stored at lower levels, and being easily adaptable to variable shoe dimensions and avoiding any damage to footwears.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0007]     One aim of the present invention is to provide a footwear rack designed to collect in a container any liquid, mud, sand and/or impurities that may drip away from a plurality of footwears disposed in the rack.  
         [0008]     According to a general aspect of the present invention, there is provided a footwear rack comprising a container and grid means on top of the container, the grid means to support at least one footwear and allow matter dripping out therefrom to accumulate the said container. The rack further comprises a vertical hanger connected to the container, at least one grid shaped footwear shelf on the vertical hanger and gutter means for each shelf, the gutter means being arranged to receive dripping matter that escapes from at least one additional footwear placed on the shelf and transfer same to the container without contacting any footwear disposed below.  
         [0009]     More particularly, the invention relates to a footwear rack designed to collect in a container, any liquid, mud, sand and/or impurities that may drip away from a plurality of footwears disposed in said rack, said footwear rack comprising: 
        a container and grid means on top of said container, said grid means being designed to support at least one footwear and allow matter dripping out therefrom to accumulate in said container,     a hanger connected to said container,     at least one grid shaped footwear shelf on said hanger, and     gutter means for each said shelf, said gutter means arranged to receive dripping matter that escapes from at least one additional footwear and transfer same to said container without contacting any footwear disposed below.        
 
         [0014]     Advantageously, said hanger may have various orientations as far as it permits to hang shelf(s) thereon. Preferably, said hanger may be a substantially vertical hanger, and more preferably said hanger may be a substantially vertical rectangular box having an inner space therein defined by a front face and a rear face.  
         [0015]     Advantageously, said container may have any appropriate geometric shape. Preferably, said container may be rectangular.  
         [0016]     Advantageously, said mounting means may consist of any appropriate means to mount a shelf on a support (i.e. hanger). Preferably, said mounting means may comprise: 
        in said front face of said box shaped hanger, at least one pair of hook engaging holes, said holes being formed in said front face;     in said at least one shelf, at an inner end thereof, downwardly extending hooks, said hook being removably engageable in said hook engaging holes; and     in said gutter means, a stopper for engagement against said front face.        
 
         [0020]     Alternatively, said mounting means may comprise: 
        in said front face of said box shaped hanger, at least one pair of hook engaging holes, said holes being formed in said front face;     in said at least one shelf, at an inner end thereof, downwardly extending hooks, said hook being removably engageable in said hook engaging holes; and     in said gutter means, a stopper for engagement against said front face.        
 
         [0024]     Advantageously, said front face of said box shaped hanger may be also formed with a substantially horizontal slot that is disposed below each said at least one pair of hook engaging holes, said gutter means comprising a downwardly inclined flat member for each said at least one shelf and disposed below same, said flat member having an upper end connected to an outer end of said shelf and a lower end extending through said slot into said inner space.  
         [0025]     Advantageously, said means allowing communication between said inner space and said container may be of any appropriate kind. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0026]     Reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, showing by way of illustration, preferred embodiments thereof, and in which:  
         [0027]      FIG. 1  is a front perspective view of a footwear rack according to an embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0028]      FIG. 2  is a side view of a shelving device according to an embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0029]      FIG. 3  is a top perspective view of the shelving device shown in  FIG. 2 ; and in  FIG. 1 ,  
         [0030]      FIG. 4  is a side view of the footwear rack according to line IV-IV of  FIG. 1 .  
         [0031]      FIG. 5  is a top perspective view of a variation of the shelving device shown in  FIG. 2 .  
         [0032]      FIG. 6  is a side view of the footwear rack according to line IV-IV in  FIG. 2  with a shelf of  FIG. 5 .  
         [0033]      FIG. 7  is a top perspective view of another variation of the shelving device shown in  FIG. 2 .  
         [0034]      FIG. 8  is a side view of the footwear rack according to line IV-IV in  FIG. 2  with a shelf of  FIG. 7 .  
         [0035]      FIG. 9  is a front view of the shelving device of  FIG. 2 .  
         [0036]      FIG. 10  is a partial view of an alternative means for mounting a shelf of  FIG. 2  without the stopper  48 . 
     
    
       [0037]     It will be noted that throughout the appended drawings, like features are identified by like reference numerals.  
       DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0038]     Referring to the drawings, more particularly FIGS.  1  to  3 , a footwear rack  1  designed to collect liquid mud, sand, dust or any impurity found on shoes, boots, ski boots or any footwear will be described. Rack  1  generally comprises a hollow rear wall  3 , a base  5 , at least one shelving device  7  and a container  9 .  
         [0039]     Hollow rear wall  3  has the general shape of a rectangular box vertically positioned and comprising a front face  11 , a rear face  13  and a top face  15  ( FIG. 1 ). Base  5  generally defines a rectangular box horizontally positioned and adopted for resting on the floor or any other horizontal surface. Base  5  comprises a bottom face  17  and a top face  19  and is connected by its rear extremity  21  to the lower extremity  23  of rear face  13  of wall  3 , in a manner that the base  5  and wall  3  assembly defines a L-shaped member. Wall  3  and base  5  are connected by L-shaped side panels  25   a ,  25   b  that constitute simultaneously the side faces of the wall and base assembly. Front face  11  and rear face  13  of wall  3  extend from top face  15  until reaching top face  19  and bottom face  17 , respectively, so that the wall and base assembly create a L-shaped hollow box. Front face  11  of rear wall  3  comprises hook-anchoring holes  41   a ,  41   b  and longitudinal slot  43  horizontally disposed under hook-anchoring holes  41   a ,  41   b , the longitudinal slot  43  and holes  41   a , 41   b  being designed to accommodate shelving means  7 . As shown any number if hook-anchoring holes and slots may be provided depending on the intent of the designer.  
         [0040]     Shelving device  7  comprises a shelf  29  and a gutter  31 , angularly adjoined by their respective front edges  33  and  35  ( FIGS. 2 and 3 ). Shelving device  7  may optionally comprise end panels  51  or  53  (shown in  FIGS. 5 and 7 ), to help avoiding water and falling debris from escaping at the side extremities of gutter  31 , as it will be described in details hereinafter. Rear edge  37  of shelf  29  comprises downwardly extending anchoring hooks  39   a , 39   b  designed to be inserted into anchoring holes  41   a ,  41   b  and maintain shelf  29  in a generally horizontal position while rear edge  45  of gutter  31  is inserted into longitudinal slot  43  ( FIG. 4 ) and at least one stopper  48  (see FIGS.  2  to  4  and  9 ) engages the front face  11  as shown. A skilled artisan will understand that multiple shelving device  7  may be mounted on a same footwear rack  1 . Shelf  29  accommodates shoes, boots or other footwear  46  and preferably consists of a grid material, such as metal grid, plastic grid, fiberglass grid or any perforated panel allowing the passage of water or debris falling from footwear onto gutter  31  ( FIG. 3 ). The same grid material may also be used to fabricate top face  19  of base  5  to provide additional storage space on footwear rack  1  ( FIG. 1 ).  
         [0041]     Optionally, the stopper  48  may be replaced by end panels  51  or  53 . Alternatively, a clip  55  may provided with fixing means allowing to fix it (by any appropriate means including for example a layer of glue  56  and/or fastener(s) such as for example screw(s)  57 ) inside hollow near wall  3  to removably receive anchoring hooks  39   a ,  39   b . In that case, stopper  48  may be present or not, depending on the charge to be applied on the shelf. Cavity  61  may be defined by a portion of wall  11  and clip  55 . An anchoring hook  39   a  or  39   b  can removably engages the cavity  61  or can be removed therefrom according to arrow appearing in  FIG. 10 . Preferably, the clip may make an integral part of the wall  11  and then no fixing means are required.  
         [0042]     Container  9  has preferably the shape of a drawer that is slidably mounted in base  5  through opening  27 . Container  9  preferably extends from opening  27  to rear face  13  of rear wall  3 , to ensure that matter falling within cavity  47  of rear wall  3  will end into container  9 , as it will be described in more details hereinafter. A person skilled in the art will however understand that any container, removable or not, that may serve the purpose of the present invention can be used.  
         [0043]     In use (see  FIG. 4 ), footwear  46  are stored on shelf  29 . Water sand or the like fall from footwear onto gutter  31  through grid  29  or panel&#39;s perforations provided in the defined by top face  19 , where gravity causes them to naturally fall along angled gutter  31 , through longitudinal slot  43 , into cavity  47  of rear wall  3  and to finally end into container  9 . Debris falling from shoes or boots stored on perforated or grid face  19  of base  5  fall directly into container  9 . To avoid water, sand, mud or the like to escape from the sides of gutter  31 , panels or flanges may be provided on both side of gutter  31 . Alternatively, gutter  31  can be angled so that fluids and solid particles migrate to the center of gutter  31  while falling thereon.  
         [0044]     While the invention has been described with particular reference to the illustrated embodiment, it will be understood that numerous modifications thereto will appear to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the above description and accompanying drawings should be taken as illustrative of the invention and not in a limiting sense.