Patent ID: 7096559

Claim:
An automated tightening shoe comprising: a. a sole; b. an integral shoe upper connected to the sole, the integral upper including a toe, a heel, a tongue, a gap above the tongue, a junction of the tongue to the integral shoe upper near a lower end of the gap, and a reinforced lacing pad aligned about the edge of the gap and aligned generally to the tongue, the reinforced lacing pad having a number of pairs of lace eyelets provided around the periphery of the gap; c. a tightening mechanism in the heel; d. a pair of opposed guide means, each of the opposed guide means extending from adjacent the reinforced lacing pad to the tightening mechanism; e. lacing means for tightening the shoe at the gap, the lacing means extending through alternate lace eyelets in crisscross fashion over the tongue, and thence through the pair of opposed guide tubes to within the tightening mechanism in the heel whereat the shoe laces are operatively associated in a tightening or in a loosening direction with the tightening mechanism.