Oh, patents! Twinkle shoes for kids

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann My little neighbors, the three sweetest little girls --8, 6 and 5 years old-- have the coolest twinkle shoes! Their little shoes light-up when they hop, skip and jump! The lights twinkle in different colors, and it is very cute to see! Of course this made me wonder who the manufacturer could be, and whose invention this was. The footwear is Skechers and the patent for the twinkle lights is US2011271558.  This patent, assigned to Skechers, is also one among hundreds, since Skechers is a public, billion dollar, global manufacturer of footwear with more than 3000 shoe styles for men, women and children, marketed in more than 120 countries worldwide, via more than 900 stores! Below is the abstract of patent US2011271558 titled “Lighted panel for an article of footwear” and one of the drawings.         Abstract US2011271558 A lighted panel in combination with an article of footwear wherein the lighted panel includes a translucent display panel, a foam sheet, at least one primary light diffuser, and a reflective sheet that together act to illuminate and distribute light uniformly throughout, the translucent display panel without any concentrated points of light.                     Twinkle, twinkle little shoes, now you too know what they are!...