Patent ID: 7007411

Claim:
An article of footwear for receiving a user's foot having toe, ball, arch and heel portions, comprising: (a) an upper member adapted to cover the upper portion of the user's foot, said upper member having an open bottom defining a bottom edge portion contained in a generally horizontal plane; (b) a horizontal flexible insole member arranged within and secured to said upper member bottom edge portion, (1) said insole member being formed by molding from a flexible synthetic plastic material and having generally planar upper and lower surfaces, and toe, ball, arch, and heel portions arranged below the corresponding portions of the user's foot; (2) said insole member lower surface containing beneath the ball portion of the user's foot a plurality of parallel transversely-extending longitudinally-spaced flex grooves that define therebetween a plurality of transversely extending flex bars, respectively, the ends of said flex grooves being spaced from the corresponding edge portions of said insole member; (3) said insole member lower surface containing beneath the arch portion of the user's foot a longitudinally-extending shank slot; (4) said insole member lower surface containing adjacent the peripheral edge of said toe, ball, arch and heel portions a continuous channel that extends in concentrically spaced relation around said flex grooves and said shank slot; (c) an annular welt member extending concentrically around said upper member bottom edge portion; (d) inseam stitching means securing said welt member to said upper member lower edge portion and to said insole member; (e) a midsole member extending beneath said insole member and said welt member; (f) means securing said midsole member to said welt member; (g) an outsole member extending beneath and secured to said midsole member; and (h) a relatively rigid generally horizontal shank member arranged longitudinally in said shank slot, thereby to stiffen the arch portion of said inner sole member.