Oh, Gronk’s shoes! Wolf & Shepherd shankboard

Copyright © Francoise Herrmann

Gronk, aka Rob Gronkowski, four times Superbowl champion, is also Ambassador for a selection of shoes, purported to be the world’s most athletic dress shoes. Whether loafer, brogue or derby, Gronk’s selection, engineered by Wolf & Shepherd, combines the technical innovations of sports shoes, with the luxury of classical Italian leather design for men’s shoes. As Gronk puts it, wearing Wolf & Shepherd dress shoes feels like wearing sneakers: “Cushy, light, and super comfortable, who says you can’t have it all?” Indeed, the 2016 Atlanta, Georgia, Hotline Half-Marathon, was the first half-marathon won by a runner wearing dress shoes, specifically Wolf & Shepherd, honey cap-toe lace-up shoes (Tsuji, 2016).

The lightweight, flexibility and durability of Wolf & Shepherd shoes, aka Gronk’s shoes, are patented in an innovative shankboard technology. A shoe shank is a support structure, inserted between the insole and outsole of a shoe, that plays a structural part in the design of shoes, while lending anatomic support to the foot inside the shoe. The prior art of shoe shanks, for example, invokes metal shanks, and improvements, such as flexible metal shanks. 

The Wolf & Shepherd shankboard technology is recited in the Patent Cooperation Treaty Patent, WO2021061093A1, titled Strong lightweight shankboard system for footwear. Wolf & Shepherd applied for the patent, which was granted to Zach Frey, and Justin Schneider, one of the Wolf & Shepherd (1) founders. The patent was granted on April 1, 2021.

The abstract of the athletic-inspired, Wolf & Shepherd dress shoe invention, is included below, together with the patent drawing Figure 7, depicting an exploded view of a Wolf and Shepherd shoe, comprising the invention shoe shank technology. In particular, the patent Figure 7 depicts the footwear 400, comprising a footbed 412, a shoe upper 410, a midsole 414, an outsole 416, and the invention shankboard 100. The invention shankboard 100 comprises a board 110, made of a flexible or moldable material, enabling a contoured design. The shankboard 100 also comprises a thin, lightweight sheet of material 120, made of carbon fiber, carbon glass, thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), bamboo, or other similar materials that provide support and structure, without adding weight. The lightweight sheet of material 120 further comprises a corrugated structure 200 for increased strength and rigidity. The lightweight sheet of material 120 is attached to the board 110 with adhesive, or other securing methods. The board 110 comprises a cutout 140 (not shown), designed to accommodate the corrugated strengthening structure 200 of the sheet of material 120. 

The present disclosure relates to a strong lightweight footwear shankboard construction that uses thin, lightweight, and/or flexible sheets of material that may include one or more structures that strengthen the sheet of material so that when the sheet of material is attached to a composite board ( or the like) to form the shankboard, the shankboard provides the stability and/or durability that is necessary to support a foot and give shoes (or other footwear) structure.

[ Abstract WO2021061093A1]

The video below shows one of Gronk’s craziest dreams – with Wolf & Shepherd!

Note

The Company Wolf & Shepherd was founded by Justin and Hope Schneider (not Mr. Wolf and Mrs. Shepherd), a parent and entrepreneur team, both former Division 1 Track & Field athletes, and designers for Adidas athletic shoes.

References

Tsuji, A. (June 17, 2016). 23-year-old runs half marathon in world record time … in dress shoes.
https://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/06/run-half-marathon-guinness-world-record-dress-shoes

Wolf & Shepherd
https://wolfandshepherd.com/