Patent ID: 8904673

Claim:
An automated tightening shoe, comprising: (a) a shoe having a sole and an upper connected to the sole, the upper including a toe, a heel, a medial side portion, and a lateral side portion; (b) a single shoe lace or cable connected to an exterior surface of the medial and lateral side portions of the upper for drawing the medial and lateral side portions around a foot placed inside the shoe; (c) a tightening mechanism contained inside a housing secured to the shoe, the tightening mechanism including: an axle with a cylindrical surface having two ends with a ratchet wheel having a plurality of teeth attached to at least one end of the axle in a fixed relationship, a continuous passageway through the axle with two exit apertures along the side surface, and an actuator wheel rigidly connected to the axle and extending outside the shoe; (d) the shoe lace or cable being passed through the continuous passageway and two exit apertures formed within the axle, through or along the medial and lateral side uppers with the free ends of the shoe lace or cable secured together and attached to the exterior point on the shoe, so that the shoe lace or cable forms a continuous loop; (e) a release lever pivotably mounted to the housing in operative engagement with a bias means, the release lever having a pawl formed on a position along the release lever inside the housing and an actuation end extending outside the housing and the shoe, the pawl engaging a tooth of the ratchet wheel; (f) whereby rotation of the actuator wheel extending outside the shoe against the ground or another hard surface causes rotation of the axle of the tightening mechanism to draw the shoe lace or cable around the axle in a tightening direction to draw the medial and lateral side upper portions around the foot, the ratchet wheel operatively connected to the axle being engaged by the pawl of the release lever to impede counter-rotation of the axle to prevent the shoe lace or cable from loosening; (g) whereby a user pushing down upon the actuation end of the release lever overcomes the counter force applied by the bias means to pivot the release lever to selectively disengage the pawl from the tooth of the ratchet wheel to enable counter-rotation of the axle to allow the medial and lateral uppers to loosen; and (h) whereby the user ceasing pushing down upon the actuation end of the release lever causes the bias means to exert its counterforce to restore the release lever substantially to its original position to reengage the pawl with a tooth of the ratchet wheel to prevent counter-rotation of the axle.