Abstract:
A snow board binding comprises a base for supporting a footwear, at least one strap fastening connected to the base for restraining the footwear on the base, and a connection between the strap fastening and the base. The connection comprises a first portion of the strap fastening having greater flexibility than any remaining portion of the strap fastening.

Description:
This application is a U.S. national-phase application of International Application No. PCT/IT00/00547. 

   TECHNICAL FIELD 
   The present invention relates to a snow-board binding. 
   TECHNOLOGICAL BACKGROUND 
   In the technical field referred to, a need has arisen to facilitate the fitting and adjustment of snow board bindings on footwear so that they can be adapted to the snowboarder&#39;s various requirements as well as to the existing shapes of foot and footwear. 
   In most cases, the footwear is held on the base of the binding by two or more strap fastenings, each formed by two straps which can be closed onto one another by a fastening device for varying the extent to which the straps are tightened onto the user&#39;s footwear. Both straps of the strap fastening are made of relatively stiff plastic material to ensure the necessary support and clamping of the footwear during sports activities. 
   However, owing to the stiffness of the material, the fitting of the binding on the footwear is obstructed by the two straps of the strap fastening which have to be deformed resiliently in order to move them apart for this purpose. 
   Typical snow board bindings are disclosed in International Patent Publication No. WO 00/76603. 
   DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
   The main object of the invention is to provide a snow board binding including at least one strap fastening which is designed structurally and functionally for more convenient fitting on the footwear and improved adaptability to varied shapes of foot and/or footwear. 
   A further object of the invention is to optimize the coupling between the footwear and the binding. 
   Yet another object of the invention is to render the operations necessary to adjust the binding particularly quick and easy. 
   These objects and others which will become clearer from the following description are achieved by providing a snow-board binding formed in accordance with the following description. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The characteristics and the advantages of the invention will become clearer from the detailed description of a preferred but not exclusive embodiment thereof, described by way of non-limiting example with reference to the appended drawings in which: 
       FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a snow board binding according to the invention, 
       FIG. 2  is a view showing a detail of the binding on an enlarged scale and sectioned on the line II—II of  FIG. 1 , and 
       FIG. 3  is a further, partial perspective view of the binding of FIG.  1 . 
   

   PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION 
   With reference to  FIG. 1 , a snow board binding formed in accordance with the present invention is generally indicated by reference number  1 . 
   The binding  1  comprises a base  2  which can house a snow board shoe or boot (not shown) and is arranged to be fixed to a snow board  2   a  (shown partially) in an angularly adjustable manner by a conventional connection mechanism  4 , shown partially. 
   The base  2  has two facing and opposed side walls  3   a ,  3   b , which are connected at the rear by a bridge-like support  3   c , together defining a seat for housing the user&#39;s shoe or boot. 
   The binding  1  further comprises a pair of strap fastenings, that is, a rear strap fastening  5  and a front strap fastening  6 , for holding the shoe or boot on the base  2 . The rear strap fastening  5  is connected to the base  2  in the manner described below so as to act on the instep and ankle region of the user&#39;s foot, and the upper surface of the foot is acted on by the front strap fastening  6 . 
   Each strap fastening  5 ,  6  comprises two straps  5   a ,  5   b  or  6   a ,  6   b , respectively, between which a respective adjustable fastening  9 ,  10  is disposed. 
   Each of the straps  5   a ,  6   a  comprises a toothed portion  7  and is anchored by one end  11  in a compartment  12  of the respective side wall  3   a  so as to be pivotable about an axis  13 . 
   The strap  6   b  is anchored by one of its ends  14  in a compartment  15  of the respective side wall  3   b  so as to be pivotable about an axis  16 . The strap  6   b  carries, at its free end, the adjustable fastening  10  which is of the type that is arranged for bringing about unidirectional, manually released clamping onto the toothed portion  7  of the strap  6   a.    
   The strap  5   b  of the strap fastening  5  comprises a first portion which connects it to the base  2  and which is in the form of a loop  17  of flexible metal cable covered by a sheath of plastic material and closed onto itself around an anchoring pin  18 . To prevent extreme angles of wrapping of the metal cable, a pulley  19  is interposed between the loop  17  and the pin  18  and the whole is housed and protected in a compartment  20  of the side wall  3   b . At the end remote from the pulley  19 , the loop  17  is anchored in an adjustable position on teeth  21  of a rack  22 . 
   The rack  22  is protected by a cover  22   a  provided with holes  22   b  through which it is possible to see the underlying teeth  21  and thus to select the point of engagement of the loop  17  for the desired adjustment. The rack  22  is in turn fixed on top of a second portion  23  of the strap  5   b  in the form of an element for distributing the clamping load of the rear strap fastening  5  over the user&#39;s instep. The rack  22  is fixed by two screws  32 ,  33  which also have the function of anchoring the cover  22   a  on the rack  22 . The second portion  23  is widened and padded and is also equipped with a fairly stiff covering band  24  of plastic material on which the adjustable fastening  9  is anchored. 
   The adjustable fastening  9  is of known type with a lever  25  pivoting on a base  26  and provided with teeth  27  for engaging the toothed portion  7  of the strap  5   a  and pulling it along in the closure direction upon each operative pivoting movement on the base  26 . The adjustable fastening  10  also comprises a pawl  28  mounted on the base  26  and acting on the toothed portion  7  in order to restrain the strap  5   a  unidirectionally. It will also be noted that a seat  29  is provided between the covering band  24  and the padded portion of the load-distributing element for the concealed housing of the portion of the strap  5   a  which projects beyond the adjustable fastening  10  as a result of the tightening of the rear strap fastening  5 . The opening  29   a  of this seat  29  is visible in FIG.  3 . 
   Finally, the binding  1  is equipped with a rear support  30  connected for pivoting between the side walls  3   a ,  3   b , for example, on pins  18  and  31 . 
   In operation, during the fitting of the binding  1  on the footwear, the strap  5   a  of the rear strap fastening  5 , which is conventionally the stiffer strap owing to the need to incorporate the element for distributing the clamping load of the rear strap fastening  5  over the instep of the user&#39;s foot, can easily be opened out, owing to the considerable intrinsic flexibility of the first, metal loop  17  which not only allows the two straps  5   a ,  5   b  of the rear strap fastening  5  to be opened out easily but even allows the strap  5   b  to be left resting on the snow-board in the opened-out condition, enabling the binding  1  to be fitted on the footwear without using one&#39;s hands. 
   Once fitted on the footwear, the binding  1  is tightened thereon by the adjustable fastenings  9  and  10 . If necessary, the length of the strap  5   b  can be adjusted beforehand by changing the tooth  21  of the rack  22  on which the loop  17  is engaged. 
   The front strap fastening  6  may also have a structure similar to that of the rear strap fastening  5  described herein, with the same adjustment capabilities and flexibility. Moreover, the loop  17  may be made of non-metallic materials such as synthetic fibres, plastics materials, etc. 
   The present invention thus achieves the objects proposed, offering many advantages over the bindings of the prior art. 
   A first advantage is an extremely quick and easy fitting of the binding on the footwear since the strap fastening can be subjected to twisting or pivoting of any kind in the region of the metal loop without effort on the part of the user so that it does not obstruct the positioning of the footwear on the base of the binding. 
   Another advantage is that the cable used for the loop has a metal core, since this allows the cable to be very thin, favoring its flexibility but nevertheless ensuring its tensile strength. 
   Moreover, the binding can be adapted in many ways to varied morphological shapes of foot or to various types of footwear. 
   Finally, the adjustment both of the overall length of the strap fastening and of its inclination relative to the base of the binding is particularly easy.