Oh, patents! Stride Rite® Infant shoes

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Yes, even infant shoes are patented! Indeed, they should be, so as to ensure the best-designed stability and support during the very important evolutionary transition to upright!

US2009272010, titled “Infant shoes”, and filed by Stride Rite®, recites "a support portion and a sole, configured to form a void that securely receives and holds an infant’s foot". The patent further discloses several additional and characterizing aspects of the infant shoe invention.

First, the sole and upper are rounded on the sides in contrast to the angled edges of prior art infant shoes. This rounded shape is designed to better correlate with the rounded shape of an infant's foot, and to prevent falls when small toddlers teeter.

Secondly, in another aspect of the invention, the infant shoe includes a strap which serves both to secure the shoe on the infant’s foot, and to extend the opening of the shoe, thus securing easy-on access for even the chubbiest little feet.

Thirdly, in another aspect of the invention, the infant shoe has a heel tab designed to facilitate pulling the shoe on the infant’s foot.

Outsole groove structurre

 And finally, in yet another aspect of the invention the shoe consists of an outsole with a ground contacting surface and an inner surface. The ground contacting surface is further designed with a series of concentric and overlapping elliptical grooves, each groove serving to enhance the flexibility of the infant shoe. Thus, it is assumed that the flexibility of the shoe, afforded by the grooved sole structure, enables the child to obtain sensory feedback from the ground to assist with the development of a proper gait, somewhat like walking barfeoot.

As for the outsoles’ inner areas, they each contain recessed spaces, in the toe and heel areas, both designed to receive a memory foam inner sole which, together with the outer sole inner configuration, will cradle the infant’s foot, enhancing comfort and it is also assumed, the desire to keep shoes on.

It is further specified that the inner sole consist of a layer of foam measuring 1 to 8 mm, preferably 5 mm, to create a soft and cushioned footbed. And to enhance the softness, flexibility and comfort of the upper, the patent further includes specifications  for the various materials that can be used to manufacture the shoe uppers (i.e.; premium leathers, textiles or non-woven materials). 

The scope of this invention is then extended to include all sorts of different shoe models each comprising the various aspects of the invention (i.e; round edges, strap, tab, outer and inner soles structure).

The abstract for US2009272010, titled “Infant shoes”, is included below with Figures 1 and 7 of the patent drawings and an image of the patented product, currently marketed.

An infant shoe includes a shoe outsole defining a longitudinal axis and a transverse axis. The outsole defines a substantially arcuate shape along both the longitudinal and transverse axes. A shoe upper is secured to the shoe outsole. The shoe upper and the shoe outsole together define curved side surfaces. [Abstract US2009272010)

Stride Rite® founded in 1919, also markets shoes under the well-known brand names of KEDS®, Saucony®, and Robeez® baby shoes.  

For another Patent on the soles of happy little feet, see Stride Rite® Twinkle shoes here!

References
Stride Rite®

http://www.striderite.com/en/home 

Oh, patents! Stride Rite® lighted shoes

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

What’s cooler than a pair of lighted shoes? A pair of shoes that blink without batteries!

In a nutshell, this is what the Stride Rite® patent US2007020122 is all about: addressing the issue of battery depletion so that a small child's lighted shoes will blink without exhaustion. 

Prior art lighted shoes have attempted to address the issue of battery depletion by resorting to various strategies. Among these strategies, increases in battery life, pressure sensitive switches that turn the lights on only under the pressure of a jump, a skip or walking, the use of less blinking lights, or of light-blinking sequences so that not all the lights go on at the same time. But none of these lighted shoes were batteryless. Indeed, none had ever operated without switches or a controller!

Accordingly, US2007020122 offers to resolve the issue of battery life in children’s lighted shoes with a light and power-generating device “configured as a magnetic field induction element that operates in accordance with Faraday's law of electromagnetic induction:. .”

The shoe upper contains LED lights in a desirable configuration. The lights are connected with wires to a printed circuit board that is part of a lighting module, located in a cavity, inside the shoe heel or elsewhere inside the sole. 

The power-generating device, consisting of a permanent magnetic rod measuring less than ½ an inch in length, and less than 1/8 of an inch in diameter, inside a tube, configured as a magnetic field -operating according to Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction, then has the capacity to induce voltage on a coil, coiled around the tube, and thus to generate sufficient voltage to make a small LED light blink, every time the magnetic field is disturbed. 

Accordingly every time there is erratic movement (skipping, jumping, walking), the magnetic rod will move, creating a disturbance in a magnetic field that induces voltage on a coil, which in turn will make the lights blink!

Thus, not only does the shoe no longer need a battery to operate the LED lights of the little shoe, it also no longer needs a pressure-activated switch, since the movement of the magnetic field is enough to induce voltage. In turn, the reduction in the number of components of the invention also makes the little shoe more cost efficient. 

The patent further recites the specific design details of this dynamic magnetic motor or “dynamo” that generates energy inside the shoe, using the relative motion of a magnetic field and stationary coiled inductor or stator, the various circuit configurations to actuate the lights, and those that will bypass the use of a controller, thus further reducing the number of parts, components and cost associated with the invention. 

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Stride Rite® lighted shoes may thrill little kids with their blinking lights, and they may also fascinate parents with such an ingenious patent stored in their soles and uppers!

The Abstract for US2007020122 titled Lighted shoes is included below with one of the patent drawings and a marketed Stride Rite® StarWars lighted model. 

A lighted shoe including, but not limited to, a component including, but not limited to, at least one light source (e.g., a light emitting diode or "LED"), and a power generating element (e.g., a magnetic dynamic motor or "dynamo") used to generate power to illuminate the at least one light source. The lighted shoe need not incorporate a battery to operate the at least one light source. 

[Abstract US2007020122]