Patent Publication Number: US-2004055183-A1

Title: Soccer shoe with improved spinning power and speed

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD  
       [0001] The present invention relates to a soccer shoe, and more particularly, to a soccer shoe capable of improving the spin and curve of a ball by forming protrusions on the shoe upper thereon contacting with the ball.  
       BACKGROUND ART  
       [0002] Soccer is a kind of sports that most of shooting, dribbling and passing are made by foot. Therefore, shoes that players wear play especially high role in performance of the players.  
       [0003] That is, when a player makes a dribble oneself, makes a pass to a teammate or makes a shooting, it is often beneficial to give more spin to a ball when kicked, thereby creating more swerve or arc to the flight of the ball. Especially when a player tries passing, centering or shooting, swerve of the ball makes them easier, more accurate and even more workable. For instance, if a player makes the ball swerve, the ball may arc past opposing players on its way to an opposing player&#39;s goal.  
       [0004] However, it is not easy for a player to make the ball make an acute curve. In order to make the ball curve, the player often strikes the ball with the foot distorted, which sometimes causes the kick to be inaccurate or even causes the ankle to break. In fact, the accuracy of the ball depends not only on the kicking skill of a player, e.g., the angle and speed of the impact of the soccer shoe but also on the surface quality of the shoe and the sewed sewing thread and stitches thereon. Considering most of the shoe upper is made of natural leather, the sewing thread thereon is a key factor affecting the surface quality of the soccer shoe. Therefore, in order to minimize the delicate effect of sewing thread, the thickness of the sewing thread and the direction of the sewing are carefully determined as in manufacturing the soccer shoe.  
       [0005] Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown an external view of a conventional soccer shoe. As can be seen from FIG. 1, plain thread  12  is sewed on the smooth and flat surfaces  11  of the conventional soccer shoe  10 . Though the sewed thread  12  might slightly contribute to preventing the ball from slipping on the surface  11 , it may not be sufficient for the thread to contribute to making the ball spin and curve.  
       DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION  
       [0006] It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a soccer shoe capable of improving the spin and curve of a ball by forming protrusions on the shoe upper contacting with the ball.  
       [0007] According to the present invention, there is provided a soccer shoe comprising a sole and a shoe upper, characterized in that a plurality of protrusions are formed on an inner side area of a toe portion and an outer side area of the toe portion, each protrusion embedding therein an elastic wedge-shaped object, to thereby increase a spin power of a soccer ball. 
     
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS  
     [0008] The above and other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of preferred embodiment given in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:  
     [0009]FIG. 1 shows an exterior view of a conventional soccer shoe;  
     [0010]FIG. 2 illustrates an exterior view of an inventive soccer shoe;  
     [0011]FIG. 3 depicts a magnified view of cross section of one side of the shoe upper of the inventive soccer shoe;  
     [0012]FIG. 4 presents a one-body type ridge-shaped object in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention;  
     [0013]FIG. 5 represents a one-body type ridge-shaped object in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention;  
     [0014]FIG. 6 represents a one-body type ridge-shaped object in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention; and  
     [0015]FIG. 7 gives a soccer shoe with biased protrusions in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
    
    
     MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION  
     [0016] Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.  
     [0017]FIG. 2 illustrates an exterior view of an inventive soccer shoe. FIG. 3 depicts a magnified view of cross section of one side the inventive soccer shoe.  
     [0018] The inventive shoe  20  has a shoe upper  21  and a sole  22 . On the shoe upper  21 , protrusions  23  are formed in almost parallel in step-like pattern. The protrusions  23  are formed at locations where players most often use their foot for handling and kicking a ball, i.e., the inner and outer side area of the toe portion of the shoe upper  21 . The protrusions  23  are formed for the purpose of improving the spin, curve and speed of the ball. In order to efficiently achieve these goals, the cross section of each protrusion  23  is wedge-shaped as shown in FIG. 3. The wedge-shaped protrusions  23  give elasticity to the surface of the shoe upper  21  the instant when the shoe  20  impacts a ball.  
     [0019] In shaping the protrusions  23 , a long narrow wedge-shaped object  24  is inserted within each protrusion  23 . The inserted object  24  is preferably made of rather rigid but elastic material, e.g., natural rubber, synthetic rubber, plastic, silicone sponge rubber, compressed sponge rubber, polymer or the like.  
     [0020] The protrusions  23  may be formed by a series of process: firstly, attaching several wedge-shaped objects  24  to the inner layer  26  of the shoe upper in parallel as shown in FIG. 2; secondly, tightly covering up the wedge-shaped objects  24  with an outer layer  25 ; and finally, sewing the edge of each protrusion  23  thereby shaping the protrusions  23 . For the purpose of easy manufacturing, it would be advantageous to attach each wedge-shaped objects  24  on one fabric or scrim and attach the fabric or scrim to the shoe upper  21  rather than directly attach each wedge-shaped object  24  individually on the shoe upper  21 . Alternatively, the wedge-shaped object  24  may be attached to the inner layer  26  of the soccer shoe  20 .  
     [0021] Rather than each protrusion  23  is in a long and narrow stripe shape, it may be formed like an island on the shoe upper  21 . In other words, each protrusion is in a rectangular or a square shape for a plane view and a plurality of those protrusions may be formed about on the surface of the shoe upper  21 .  
     [0022] The protrusions  23  are preferably formed tilted toward the shoe. The angle of the tilt is preferably 20 to 60 degrees with respect to the normal line of the inner layer  26 . Preferably also the space (L) between each protrusion  23  is 0.5 to 4.0 cm. In addition, the height of each protrusion  23  is gradually varied depending on the location of each protrusion so that the protrusion  23  nearest the toe is the lowest and the protrusion  23  located farthermost the toe is highest. The height gap (H) between neighboring protrusions are preferably 0.5 to 3.0 mm. In the preferred embodiments of the present invention, although the number of protrusions may vary depending on a use or an application, it has been found that it is optimal that the number of protrusions are 5 to 6, more specifically, 6 for the inner side area of the toe portion and 5 for the outer side area of the toe portion. Although the height of each protrusion  23  is described as gradually varied depending on the location of each protrusion as described above, the height of each protrusion  23  may be identical. But, as mentioned above, the number of protrusions may vary. Therefore, the number of each side area of the toe portion may be the same, e.g., 3 to 5 for the inner side area of the toe portion and 3 to 5 for the outer side area of the toe portion.  
     [0023] Inventor&#39;s tests have found optimal combinations of the height of each protrusion and the width of bottom of each protrusion. Tables 1 to 4 show the results of each combination.  
                       TABLE 1                       Serial Number of   Height of   Width of bottom of       each Protrusion   Protrusion   Protrusion                  1   2.0 mm   5.0 mm       2   2.5 mm   6.0 mm       3   3.0 mm   7.0 mm       4   3.5 mm   8.0 mm       5   4.0 mm   9.0 mm       6   4.0 mm   9.0 mm                  
 
     [0024]                       TABLE 2                       Serial Number of   Height of   Width of bottom of       each Protrusion   Protrusion   Protrusion                  1   2.0 mm   5.0 mm       2   2.5 mm   6.0 mm       3   2.0 mm   7.0 mm       4   2.5 mm   8.0 mm       5   3.0 mm   9.0 mm       6   3.5 mm   9.0 mm                    
     [0025]                       TABLE 3                       Serial Number of   Height of   Width of bottom of       each Protrusion   Protrusion   Protrusion                  1   1.5 mm   5.0 mm       2   2.0 mm   6.0 mm       3   2.0 mm   7.0 mm       4   2.5 mm   8.0 mm       5   3.0 mm   9.0 mm       6   3.5 mm   9.0 mm                    
     [0026]                       TABLE 4                       Serial Number of   Height of   Width of bottom of       each Protrusion   Protrusion   Protrusion                  1   2.0(or 3.0) mm   6.0(or 5.0) mm       2   2.0(or 3.0) mm   6.0(or 5.0) mm       3   2.0(or 3.0) mm   6.0(or 5.0) mm       4   2.0(or 3.0) mm   6.0(or 5.0) mm       5   2.0(or 3.0) mm   6.0(or 5.0) mm       6   2.0(or 3.0) mm   6.0(or 5.0) mm                    
     [0027] According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, rather than each of the wedge-shaped objects  24  are individually inserted or attached as described above, the ridge-shaped objects  24  can be made as one body as shown in FIG. 4, FIG. 5 and FIG. 6. The cross sectional view of each ridge of the topside  42  of the one-body  40  of FIG. 4 is in wedge shape while that of FIG. 5 is in triangular shape and that of FIG. 6 is in round shape. Bottom sides  41 ,  51  and  61  of the one-body objects  40 ,  50  and  60  firmly attached on the inner side  26  of the shoe upper  21 , and then the top sides  42 ,  52  and  62  of the one-body objects  40 ,  50  and  60  are covered with the leather constituting the surface of the shoe upper  21 .  
     [0028] Referring to FIG. 7, there is provided another preferred embodiment of the present invention. The protrusions  23  are biased or tilted from front to rear of the soccer shoe  20  as shown in FIG. 7. Though not shown, the directions of the tilt may be reversed, that is, from rear to front of the soccer shoe  20 . The directions of the tilt may depend upon a soccer player&#39;s position on the field of play. Further, the number, length and height of the protrusions can be varied depending on a soccer player&#39;s position on the field of play, e.g., an attacking player, a defensive player or a goalkeeper.  
     [0029] The operation and effect of the inventive shoe  20  equipped with the protrusions  23  will now be described.  
     [0030] The instant when a player kicks the ball to make a pass or make a shooting, the ball contacts the protrusions  23 . The kicked ball attains more spin to thereby make good curves while flying since the protrusions  23  give frictions to the contacting region of the ball while the ridge of each protrusion  23  scrapes the ball.  
     [0031] Furthermore, the ball acquires higher flight speed because of the repulsion power of the wedge-shaped objects  24 . The protrusions  23  contracts at the instant they contract the ball but soon expands thanks to the elasticity of the wedge-shaped objects  24 , which in turn add to the flying power of the ball. In addition, the flight speed of the ball becomes higher since the faster is the spin of the ball, the less is the ball affected by the air resistance.  
     [0032] As described above, the higher speed and the better curve of a ball when kicked give a player of game a more dynamic control of the ball, and on the other hand, hamper the opposing player the ability of prediction of the direction of the ball thereby making the soccer game more speedy and more exciting.  
     [0033] While the invention has been shown and described with respect to the preferred embodiment, it will be understood by the skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the following claims.