Patent ID: 7818895

Claim:
A shoe comprising: an upper assembly of components and a lower assembly of components cooperating to provide an interior for a person's foot and a foot opening through which a person's foot can be inserted from an exterior into the interior and removed from the interior to the exterior; the lower assembly of components comprising an outer sole, a mid-sole overlying the outer sole on the interior, and an inner sole overlying the mid-sole on the interior, the inner sole comprising parallel slots extending through the inner sole; the upper assembly of components comprising a hard toe cover for covering toes of a person's foot, the hard toe cover comprising a through-opening to the interior for venting the interior to the exterior and a vent cover operable from the exterior for selectively covering and uncovering the through-opening; the outer sole comprising a bottom surface having a first zone comprising a rear tread for underlying the heel of a person's foot, a second zone comprising a front tread for underlying the ball of a person's foot, and a bridge that causes a portion of the bottom surface underlying the arch of a person's foot to be spaced from a flat horizontal surface when the shoe is resting with the two treads on that surface, and an air exhaust system disposed in a formation in the mid-sole and comprising a first bladder pump disposed between a first group of the parallel slots and the first zone and a second bladder pump disposed between a second group of the parallel slots and the second zone, the first bladder pump having an air inlet open to the interior beneath the first group of the parallel slots, the second bladder pump having an air inlet open to the interior beneath the second group of the parallel slots, a first exhaust conduit from the first bladder pump to the exterior, and a second exhaust conduit from the second bladder pump to the exterior, and wherein when downward pressure is applied to the inner sole by the ball of a person's foot, the air inlet of the second bladder pump is effectively sealed off to compress a charge of air that has entered through the second group of the parallel slots and force at least some of that charge through the second exhaust conduit to the exterior, and when downward pressure is applied to the inner sole by the heel of a person's foot, the air inlet of the first bladder pump is effectively sealed off to compress a charge of air that has entered through the first group of the parallel slots and force at least some of that charge through the first exhaust conduit to the exterior.