Patent ID: 6895696

Claim:
A protective shoelace storage compartment in a shoe having a toe end and a heal end and having a tongue situated in a tongue gap between two side sections of a shoe, comprising: said tongue having an outer sidewall and an inner sidewall; said outer sidewall and said inner sidewall joined along a first side edge and a second side edge and at an attachment edge; means for attachment of said attachment edge adjacent to said toe end of said shoe; said tongue having an aperture formed in an endwall edge, between said inner sidewall and said outer sidewall, opposite said attachment edge, said aperture extending along said endwall edge between a pair of opposing tongue openings in respective opposing positions in said first side edge and second side edge, adjacent to said endwall edge; said aperture providing access to the entire length of a storage pocket, said storage pocket defined by said area between said inner sidewall and said outer sidewall, said first side edge, said second side edge, said attachment edge, and said endwall edge; means for releasable closure of said aperture; said pair of opposing tongue openings providing communication to said aperture for the distal ends of a shoelace used to secure said two side sections of said shoe, said shoelace crossing over said outer sidewall from said attachment edge to respective engagements of said distal ends through said tongue openings; said pair of opposing tongue openings engaged with said distal ends of said shoelace providing a means to maintain said tongue inline in said tongue gap from said attachment edge to said endwall edge; and an upper section of said storage pocket defined by the area between said tongue openings and said pair of sidewalls and said endwall edge, whereby said distal ends of said shoelace may be tied inside said upper section and said aperture closed thereby securing said distal ends inside said storage pocket.